When I was a child, my brother lost his hearing. Surgery restored it, but the experience was one of many that led me into the world of the Deaf. Over the years, I’ve been blessed with Deaf friends, colleagues, and family. Part of learning about their world involved reading books by Deaf authors so I could understand their perspective.
With September being Deaf Awareness Month, I felt it was time to share a list of Deaf authors and their works with you.
Fiction: Stories from Diverse Perspectives
Children’s/Middle Grade
- Deaf Child Crossing by Marlee Matlin
- El Deafo by Cece Bell
- Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte
Young Adult
- The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrew
- The Words in My Hands by Asphyxia
- True Biz by Sara Nović
Adult
- Apparitions by Adam Pottle
- Islay by Douglas Bullard
- What Willow Says by Lynn Buckle
Nonfiction: Real-Life Experiences and Memoirs
- Apparitions by Adam Pottle
- The Dead Girl by Abigail Heringer
- Deaf Utopia: A Memoir—And a Love Letter to a Way of Life by Nyle DiMarco
- Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma
- I’ll Scream Later by Marlee Matlin
- Sing a Song of Silence by Jessica Rees
- Sounds Like Home: Growing Up Black and Deaf in the South by Mary Herring Wright
History
- Fighting in the Shadows: Untold Stories of Deaf People in the Civil War by Harry G. Lang
- Forbidden Signs: American Culture and the Campaign against Sign Language by Douglas C. Baynton
Deaf/Disability Studies
- Against Technoablism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement by Ashley Shew
- Bug: deaf identity and internal revolution by Christopher Jon Heuer
- Deaf Gain: Raising the Stakes for Human Diversity, edited by H-Dirksen L. Bauman and Joseph J. Murray
Poetry: The Art of Silence and Expression
- Country of Glass by Sarah Katz
- Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky
- Everything That Hurt Us Becomes a Ghost by Sage Ravenwood
Anthologies: Diverse Voices in One Collection
- Angels and Outcasts: An Anthology of Deaf Characters in Literature, edited by Eugene Bergman and Trent Batson.
- Deaf American Prose (1980–2010), edited by Kristen Harmon and Jennifer L. Nelson
- Tripping the Tale Fantastic: Weird Fiction by Deaf and Hard of Hearing Writers, edited by Christopher Jon Heuer
What are you reading for Deaf Awareness Month? Share your recommendations in the comments below!
Category: Readers Corner