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| My Familia. At our very first baseball game at Citi Field, Sept 2013. |
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Lisa Quinones-Fontanez is a secretary by day, writer by night and mom round the clock. When Lisa’s son, Norrin, was diagnosed with autism in May 2008, she found herself in a world she did not understand. In 2010 Lisa founded the blog AutismWonderland, that chronicled her family journey with autism and shared local resources for children/families with special needs.
AutismWonderland became an award winning blog and Lisa was recognized for her writing and her efforts to raise autism awareness within the Latino community.
While working full time, raising a child with autism and blogging, Lisa studied at The City College of New York and graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in May 2013.
Lisa’s story and her writing have been featured on several websites including Huffington Post Parents, Yahoo Shine and KatieCouric.com. Lisa is a contributing writer at Parents.com and Babble.com.
In 2014, Lisa launched Atypical Familia – a personal family blog – that focuses on autism, work/life balance, family entertainment and more.
Lisa is currently working on a memoir documenting her experience as an autism mom and navigating the special education system in The Bronx. She is also working on a historical fiction novel A Thousand Branches. A chapter excerpt – “The Last Time of Anything” – from A Thousand Branches received Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train’s Family Matters October 2010 competition. “The Last Time of Anything” has also been published in the Awards Issue/Fall 2012 in the Promethean (The Official Literary Journal of the City College of New York).
Atypical Familia is a personal blog and does not reflect the opinions of any employer.
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The Husband: Joseph is a Bronx born, blue collar guy who loves photography, comics, cars, video games and all things tech. We met by chance and were married on a whim. Joseph is just a really nice guy with an enormous amount of patience and I’m grateful to have him as my partner for the last 14 years.
The Boy: Norrin is my 8 year old son. He was diagnosed with Autistic Disorder and Global Developmental Delay in May 2008 when he was 2 years 5 months old. Through various therapies, love, hope and a lot of patience, we’ve watched him thrive. He continues to surprise us day after day.
I also have an autistic child