Heather Ann Chase

Heather Ann Chase was born in Minneapolis and grew up in Tacoma, Washington and Monterey County, California. Diagnosed with high functioning autism—Asperger Syndrome—in her late twenties, she endured a socially awkward childhood and early adulthood by developing her own coping mechanisms for a disability she didn’t even know that she had. Frustrated that much of the extant literature on autism focuses on children and was written by doctors, psychologists or parents who do not themselves suffer from this disorder, Heather began work on Why are the Lights So Loud? Random Rants, Perplexing People, and Absurd Anecdotes from Life on the Autism Spectrum, a collection of personal recollections that uses humor, wit and more than a little sarcasm (despite her claim that she does not grasp the concept and lives in a “sarchasm”) to show “neurotypical” people the world as she sees it. Heather holds a BA from Wheaton College and a Masters’ in Philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has also studied oceanography and education and currently works in Information Technology. She lives in rural Maine and is an avid fan of science fiction and any sport she can do outdoors.