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In 2022, Woody Brown became UCLA’s first minimally speaking graduate when he earned his bachelor’s degree in English with top departmental honors, but his journey to higher education was not an easy one.

“I grew up a mighty weird autistic kid who was presumed to be retarded because I couldn’t speak,” he shared in a 2021 interview with the UCLA College. “My intelligence was not fully acknowledged until I went to Pasadena City College, where they accepted me and my upward trajectory began.”

While Brown can say aloud a handful of scripted phrases — often repeated in a high-pitched pattern known as echolalia — he primarily communicates through a letter board, which his mother transcribes. Using this method, he wrote his first book, “Upward Bound,” a novel centered around an adult daycare program in Southern California and the rich inner lives of its participants, neurodivergent and otherwise.

The UCLA Department of English will welcome him back for a May 13 reading and Q&A moderated by professors Mona Simpson and Justin Torres, who won the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction. Simpson sees Brown’s mainstream success as an opportunity for readers to glimpse lives that remain widely misunderstood.

“People go to literature to find out what it feels like to be another person,” Simpson said. “That’s what Woody has done in his book: With his words, he’s given us the ability to see — and remember — that other people are real.”

In this Q&A conducted over email, Brown reflects on his path to publication, the perspective that shapes how he moves through the world and what lies ahead in his writing journey.

Read the full interview.

Photo by Matt Garrett | Collage by Katie Sipek/UCLA