Research Guides: Deaf Studies &amp; American Sign Language: Deaf Memoirs &amp; Biographies

Deaf Memoirs and Biographies

The following memoirs and biographies have been written by people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The print books are located on the fourth and fifth floors of the Fulton Library. Click on the titles below to find their location.

This list is far from comprehensive. Use the directions below to search for more memoirs and biographies.

Art of Being Deaf (Ebook) by Donna McDonald
Publication Date: 2014

Concerned about aspects of her romantic relationships, Donna McDonald consulted with a psychologist who asked, "Your hearing loss must have had a big impact on you?" At age 45, with a successful career in social work policy, McDonald took umbrage at the question. Then, she realized that she never had addressed the personal barrier she had constructed between her deaf-self and her hearing persona. In The Art of Being Deaf, she describes her long, arduous pursuit of finding out exactly who she was.
Deaf Women's Lives: Three Self-portraits (Ebook) by Eileen Katz, Bainy Cyrus, Celeste Cheyney, and Frances M. Parsons
Publication Date: 2005

This book is also available in print.
Three deaf women with widely varying stories share their experiences in this unique collection, revealing the vast differences in the circumstances of their lives, but also striking similarities.
Mean Little Deaf Queer: A Memoir (Print Book) by Terry Galloway
Publication Date: 2010

In 1959, the year Terry Galloway turned nine, the voices of everyone she loved began to disappear. No one yet knew that an experimental antibiotic given to her mother had wreaked havoc on her fetal nervous system, eventually causing her to go deaf...With disarming candor, she writes about her mental breakdowns, her queer identity, and living in a silent, quirky world populated by unforgettable characters. What could have been a bitter litany of complaint is instead an unexpectedly hilarious and affecting take on life.
Teach Me to Love Myself (Print Book) by Holly Elliott
Publication Date: 2008

Holly Elliott was familiar with forging new paths. As she describes in her memoir, Teach Me to Love Myself, she was probably the first professionally trained deaf counselor-therapist in the United States....Holly Elliott was an unusual role model for women of her time, and still speaks to our twenty-first-century experience.
Unheard: A Memoir of Deafness and Africa (Print Book) by Josh Swiller
Publication Date: 2007

A young man's quest to reconcile his deafness in an unforgiving world leads to a remarkable sojourn in a remote African village that pulsates with beauty and violence.
What's That Pig Outdoors?: A Memoir of Deafness (Ebook) by Henry Kisor
Publication Date: 2010

This book is also available in print.
Henry Kisor lost his hearing at age three to meningitis and encephalitis but went on to excel in the most verbal of professions as a literary journalist. This new and expanded edition of Kisor's engrossing memoir recounts his life as a deaf person in a hearing world and addresses heartening changes over the last two decades due to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and advancements in cochlear implants and modes of communication.

Finding More Books

To find other books on this subject, use the search box on the library's homepage. The search box defaults to Articles. To look for books, toggle over to Books and more. This will limit your search to books and ebooks.

Finding Books: UVU Fulton Library Homepage
Use the search box on the library's homepage to search for more books. Enter a few search terms, a title, or an author into the box, then hit enter or click the magnifying glass. Once your search runs, you can filter your results by clicking the All Filters button, located just below the search box.

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