Blog by Vince Vawter

After a lifetime of stuttering, I like to say that I have now found my voice. All that means is that there is no situation in which I am not comfortable speaking out even though I will always be a person who stutters.

However, there is one situation that tends to make the hairs on the back of my neck prickly. It’s those horrible words by any session leader: “Okay, let’s all go around the room and introduce ourselves.”

If you read my novel, Paperboy, you may recall a scene where the young protagonist passes out trying to tell the wonderful “Mr. Spiro” his name. I wish I could say that scene was pure fiction. It’s not. Do scars ever heal completely?

Recently, I took an inventory on the different ways I might approach the situation. I have named them.

FIRSTEST WITH THE MOSTEST — When the facilitator asks the people in the room to stand up and introduce themselves, I jump up and say something like: “Since I’m a person who stutters, I’d like to go first and so I can just get it out of the way and not have to die a thousand deaths.”

THE WANNABE TEACHER — “All you folks in the room think that what you have just done is easy-peasy. For a person who stutters, that’s not the case. Saying one’s name often makes up the hardest sounds that a person who stutters may ever have to utter.

STAND-UP COMEDIAN — “Since I’m a person who stutters, we could be here all-day...but I’ll give it a shot. I’m . . . That wasn’t too bad now, was it?” From the voice of experience, don’t give in to the temptation to pause just before you say your name.

That’s my three go-to work-arounds. You probably have your own, ones that work better for you. The one thing you don’t want to do is panic and think that you have to enter the world with a dull and monotoned: “Vince Vawter.” 

Be quick. Get on top of it. Have fun.

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Vince Vawter is the Newbery Honor — winning author of the autobiographical Paperboy trilogy — Paperboy, Copyboy, and Manboy—which follows a young person who stutters from childhood into adulthood. His recent nonfiction work, The Stuttering Stoic: How an Ancient Philosophy Helped Me Find My Voice, explores how Stoic philosophy shaped his journey toward acceptance, courage, and inner peace.

From the Fall 2026 Magazine