Dear Friends:
Deaf American Poetry: An Anthology is here! The press release from
Gallaudet University Press is below, followed by the table of
contents.
While you can order it from them or through any major bookstore, you
can
order copies from me, and I will not only autograph your copies but
also
enclose with each order a f.r.e.e., autographed copy of my chapbook
of
poems, Suddenly Slow.
If you would like to take advantage of this special offer, make out
checks
to John Lee Clark, $35 per copy plus $2 for shipping (the anthology
is
hefty!). Mail checks to:
John Lee Clark
P.O. Box 1754433
St. Paul, MN 55175
Email: [email protected]
Please forward this message and spread the word about this landmark
collection of precious gems!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Dan Wallace
E-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: (202)651-5488
New Collection Mines 200 Years of Poetry by Deaf Americans
WASHINGTON, DC —“The Deaf poet is no oxymoron,” declares editor
John Lee
Clark in his introduction to Deaf American Poetry: An Anthology
(Gallaudet
University Press, $35.00 trade paperback). The 95 poems by 35 Deaf
American
poets in this volume more than confirm his point. Theirs is a
remarkable
record of development parallel to the verse of better known poets
during
that period. From James Nack’s early metered narrative poem “The
Minstrel
Boy” to the free association of Kristi Merriweather’s
contemporary “It Was
His Movin’ Hands” and “Be Tellin’ Me,” these Deaf poets display
mastery of
all forms prevalent during their lifetimes. Beyond that, E. Lynn
Jacobowitz’s “In Memoriam: Stephen Michael Ryan” exemplifies a
form unique
to Deaf American poets, the transliteration of verse originally
created in
American Sign Language.
This definitive anthology showcases for the first time the best work
of Deaf
poets throughout the nation’s history — John R. Burnet, Laura C.
Redden,
George M. Teegarden, Agatha Tiegel Hanson, Loy E. Golladay, Robert F.
Panara, Mervin D. Garretson, Clayton Valli, Willy Conley, Raymond
Luczak,
Christopher Jon Heuer, Pamela Wright-Meinhardt, and many others. Each
of
their poems reflects the sensibilities of their times, and the
progression
of their work marks the changes that deaf Americans have witnessed
through
the years. In “The Mute’s Lament,” John Carlin mourns the
wonderful things
that he cannot hear, and looks forward to heaven where “replete
with purest
joys / My ears shall be unsealed, and I shall hear.” In sharp
contrast, Mary
Toles Peet, who benefitted from being taught by Deaf teachers, wrote
“Thoughts on Music” with an entirely different attitude. She
concludes her
account of the purported beauty of music with the realization that
“the
music of my inward ear / Brings joy far more intense.”
Clark, a well-respected poet and contributor to the volume from St.
Paul,
MN, tracks these subtle shifts in awareness through telling, brief
biographies of each poet. By doing so, he reveals in Deaf American
Poetry
how “the work of Deaf poets serves as a prism through which Deaf
people can
know themselves better and through which the rest of the world can
see life
in a new light.”
Deaf American Poetry
An Anthology
John Lee Clark, Editor
ISBN 1-56368-413-6, 978-1-56368-413-5, 6 x 9 paperback, 280 pages,
footnotes, references, index, $35.00
To order books, call 1-888-630-9347, FAX 1-800-621-8476
Or visit gupress.gallaudet.edu
Contents
Editor’s Note
Introduction
John R. Burnet (1808–1874)
Emma
James Nack (1809–1879)
From The Minstrel Boy
The Music of Beauty
John Carlin (1813–1891)
The Mute’s Lament
Mary Toles Peet (1836–1901)
Thoughts on Music
To a Bride
The Silent Child of Art
Laura C. Redden (1840–1923)
My Story
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
Angeline Fuller Fischer (1841–1925)
Scenes in the History of the Deaf and Dumb
To a Deaf-Mute Lady
Alice Cornelia Jennings (b. 1851)
A Prayer in Signs
George M. Teegarden (1852–1936)
The “Nad”
Gallaudet College
J. Schuyler Long (1869–1933)
I Wish That I Could Tell
Agatha Tiegel Hanson (1873–1959)
Semi-Mute
James William Sowell (1875–1949)
The Oralist
Dear Eyes of Grey
Howard L. Terry (1877–1964)
From The Old Homestead
On My Deafness
Alice Jane McVan (1906–1970)
And No Applause
Response
Earl Sollenberger (c. 1912–1947)
The Legend of Simon Simplefuss
Birds Will Sing
Reply to “Beware Lest People Think—”
Thoughts in a Pennsylvania Cornfield
To a Neglected Poet
Felix Kowalewski (1913–1989)
I Will Take My Dreams . . .
Heart of Silence
Quasimodo May Not Dare
Loy E. Golladay (1914–1999)
On Seeing a Poem Recited in Sign Language
Silent Homage
Footnote to Anthropological Linguistics I
Footnote to Anthropological Linguistics II
Surely the Phoenix
Incident at the B.M.T.
Rex Lowman (1918–2001)
Bitterweed
Beethoven
Wingéd Words
Robert F. Panara (1920– )
On His Deafness
Lip Service
Idylls of the Green
Ars Poetica
Mervin D. Garretson (1923– )
for Bill Stokoe
to Doin Hicks
to an expert
deaf again
Dorothy Miles (1931–1993)
The Hang-Glider
Linwood Smith (1943–1982)
Percy
Mike
The Dream Song of the Deaf Man
Curtis Robbins (1943– )
The Rally That Stood the World Still
Solo Dining While Growing Up
The Promised World
Russian Roulette
Deaf Poet or What?
Clayton Valli (1951–2003)
A Dandelion
Pawns
E. Lynn Jacobowitz (1953– )
In Memoriam: Stephen Michael Ryan
Debbie Rennie (1957– )
As Sarah
Willy Conley (1958– )
A Deaf Baptism
The Miller of Moments
Salt in the Basement
Peter Cook (1962– )
Don Quoxitie Didnt Really Attack the Windmill
Ringoes
Flying Words Project: Peter Cook and Kenny Lerner (est. 1984)
Wise Old Corn #1
Ode to Words
Katrina R. Miller and Damara Goff Paris (1965-)
How the Audist Stole ASL
Raymond Luczak (1965– )
The Audiologist
Spelling Bee 1978
Learning to Speak, Part I
Hummingbirds
The Crucifixion
Instructions to Hearing Persons Desiring a
Deaf Man
Abiola Haroun (1970– )
Deaf Mind
The Deaf Negro
Ode to a Silent World
Christopher Jon Heuer (1970– )
Bone Bird
The Hands of My Father
Visible Scars
Diving Bell
Koko Want
We Can Save the Deaf!
Kristi Merriweather (1971– )
It Was His Movin’ Hands
Be Tellin’ Me
Pamela Wright-Meinhardt (1971– )
Silent Howl
When They Tell Me . . .
John Lee Clark (1978– )
Story Actual Happen
Long Goodbyes
The Only Way Signing Can Kill Us
My Understanding One Day of Foxgloves
Kristen Ringman (1979– )
the ear gods
Calling Van Gogh
Alison L. Aubrecht (1979– )
ape-child
Conditional Wings
What My Teacher Taught Me
The Ghost in Yellowed Photographs
Hearing-Headed
Notes on the Poems
Bibliography
Permissions