Jacqueline Woodson interview about her book, Feathers, and Deaf Culture

This video is not captioned, for click here for a transcript.

Read my interview with Jacqueline Woodson!

Sifting Dirt by Willy Conley

SIFTING DIRT by Willy Conley

Thanks to Adreanaline for posting a comment about this story.

Ashley Fiolek featured in Might Motoxers

Mighty Motoxers (X-Moves) by Michael Sandler

Library Binding: 24 pages

Publisher: Bearport Publishing (August 2009)

Includes artciles on the history of Motorcross and includes one article about Ashley Fiolek who races as a pro on the Women's Motorcross Association circuit.

Minor Deaf Charactes in Spring Break

Spring Break with Paddy O'Rourke by Patti B. Pruitt

• Paperback: 74 pages
• Publisher: Dorrance Publishing (July 16, 2009)

Deaf Characters: There is a brief scene where a few Deaf boys who use Sign Language nearly drown and are saved.

• Product Description
  Spring Break with Paddy O'Rourke is the second installment of the surprising adventures of young Jason and the leprechaun he has inherited from his grandfather.
  
  Now almost nine years old, Jason looks forward to his much-anticipated spring break in Destin with his family and friends but their plans are threatened by the appearance of the bratty cousins and a series of other near catastrophes. While Paddy continues to revel in impish pranks at the expense of Jason's pride, he and his unusual friends are also close at hand to smooth the way for his young friend when the need arises.
  
  Readers of all ages will enjoy the spirited comedy that develops in Spring Break with Paddy O'Rourke as we come to better know Ms. Pruitt's engaging characters in this rollicking sequel to Meeting Paddy O'Rourke.

Interview with Deaf Playwright Willy Conley

Playwright and Gallaudet University Professor Willy Conley feature deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing characters created

from the Deaf perspective in his latest work, "Vignettes of the Deaf Character": And Other Plays by Willy Conley Gallaudet University Press; 1st Edition edition (May 15, 2009). His work has also been recently featured in Deaf American Poetry: An Anthology, John Lee Clark, Editor (March 2009).

Because I often believe I am the luckiest girl in the world, I actually met Willy Conley one morning on the Gallaudet shuttle while heading to work. He recognized me from my blog (giggles... how dorky for THE Willy Conley to recognize ME!). I get overly excited when I receive emails from famous people so you can only imagine my excitement sitting next to him. As I always do, I asked for an interview.

************************ Check out my interview with Willy Conley below************************

SPW: Will you explain when you started writing poetry and plays? I read that you noticed how most of the NTID plays were written by hearing people and that was how you became inspired... I'd love for you to elaborate on that.

WC: I believe I wrote my first poem while in college – a sappy, Hallmark-type of poem that I wrote for my mother (who can hear) to send to her on Mother’s Day. It wasn’t until after I took a course in poetry that I began to learn about reading and writing “real” poetry. Real poetry for me involved poems that stimulated my eyes, imagination, and feelings more than my ears. Sure, if I wrote something that rhymed, followed a traditional poetic formula, and sounded cool to the ears, fine by me. But, if I wrote something that was visually or emotionally stunning or provocative, that was a real poem for me.

My first play was written in parts on a big Greyhound bus after I graduated college and was on tour as an actor for three years with the National Theatre of the Deaf. We performed in plays typically written by famous hearing playwrights who originally thought of hearing characters talking in English. If you think that’s an absurd situation for a group of mostly Deaf actors who communicate in American Sign Language – you are right!

As a Deaf actor, it felt artificial to act in a role originally written for a hearing actor from the hearing point of view, no matter how much adaptation was done to get me to fit the mold. After traveling around the U.S. performing in over 500 shows to mostly hearing audiences, I decided it was time to get formal training in playwriting. I then went to graduate school at Boston University to study playwriting. Lucky for me, my teacher, Derek Walcott, won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He is a poet and a playwright. I wanted to be able to write plays with deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing characters created from the Deaf perspective. I loved the opportunity to create art with my own characters born out of little sparks of imagination and found pieces of everyday life – this is every playwright’s dream, deaf or hearing. To have that live, moving, three-dimensional art put on stage before an audience would double the thrill. I imagined opportunities for more Deaf theatre companies and university theatres to produce works by Deaf playwrights, which in turn would create more jobs for deaf and hard of hearing people.

SPW: How did you first become published?

WC: In college, I took a course called, Deaf Characters in Literature and Film from the phenomenal, well-known Deaf professor, Dr. Robert F. Panara (you can read about his awesome life and teaching career in:“Teaching from the Heart and Soul”). He taught us how to look for the “Deaf Experience” in the books we read and the films we watched. We would closely examine each to see if a “Deaf Experience” was real or fake to us. Then, he asked us to write an essay about a specific Deaf Experience that we had in our lives. Since I was a Biomedical Photography major at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), I wrote a story about my experience as a medical photography intern called to photograph open-heart surgery, and trying to lipread doctors and nurses who were wearing face masks. Panara gave me an “A” for the paper and encouraged me to submit it to RIT’s literary magazine, Symposium. I followed his advice and notched my very first piece of published writing. It is a very special feeling to see a part of your imagination and/or real-life experience become concrete and real on the pages of a book. It is sort of what the famous diarist once wrote: “We write to taste life twice.”

SPW: I’ve admired Panara’s work for some time now. Tell me what type of research do you do for your plays and your poetry?

WC: Generally, my research involves studying my own feelings about life as well as people from all walks of life -- paying close attention to how they behave, dress, communicate; figuring out what they like or what bothers them. If there is something technical that I need to learn more about -- like the history of bomb shelters -- I go to libraries to read up on them, take notes, and make photocopies, if necessary.

SPW: What do you hope that readers will learn or take away from your work?

WC: That the experience, or imagined experience, that you write about is uniquely yours, whether you’re D/deaf, hard-of-hearing, hearing, male, female, straight, gay, black, white, green or purple – no one can take that away from you.

SPW: What advice would you give to young people who are reading your poems for the first time?

WC: Try to imagine that you are looking at photographs, or watching a movie clip.

********************************************************************************* For more information about Willy Conley or to buy his book, follow this link that describes the book and receive a promotional code to receive 20% off. http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/enewsletters/enewsletter118.html

Documentary about ASL Poetry, "The Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox"

I met Miriam in 2007 when she put together an evening of film to close the CAID Conference. As a movie buff, she shared her insights into the representations of deaf people in film. I introduced myself to her at the end of the presentation knowing that we had much in common and we have been Facebook friends ever since.
When I interviewed her, she said that she was working on a working on a special project making a documentary about ASL Poetry. Her documentary, The Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox, includes archival footage of performances and video interviews of deaf poets who experimented with poetic devices in American Sign Language in the 1980's. While some may be witness to great events in history, Miriam was an active participant as a voice interpreter/artist.
I had the privilege of seeing The Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox at the CAID Conference last Wednesday, June 24. While it wasn't a packed auditorium and the viewing was in direct competition with a Washington Nationals vs. Boston Red Sox Baseball game (as well as exhausted conference participants), the crowd included those who truly valued and appreciated this type of rich documentary.
Lerner explained, "the first part of the film deals with the older style of Deaf poets mostly translating written English works into sign, and then with growing pride in the deaf community and ASL, more experimentation with ASL generated pieces. The second half segues into a time in Rochester, NY, the mid-1980s when Deaf and Hearing poets in this community were privy to each others' works because of the local interpreters' attempts to translate and voice the ASL for the hearing audiences, and translate and sign the spoken poetry, the two communities crossed into each others' realms in a fusion that was unprecedented."
Some of the highlighted poets include Eric Malzkuhn (Malz), Robert Panara, Bernard Bragg, Ella Mae Lentz, Dorothy Miles, Patrick Graybill, Peter Cook, and Debbie Rennie.
When it goes on sale, I highly recommend that you purchase a copy! I laughed, cried, and on more than one occasion put my hand to my heart.


For a taste of ASL poetry, below is the poem, "NEED" created by Deaf poet Peter Cook and hearing poet, Kenny Lerner, Miriam's husband.

Secondary Hard of Hearing Character in Certain Girls

Certain Girls: A Novel by Jennifer Weiner
Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Washington Square Press; Reprint edition (April 7, 2009)

ISBN-10: 0743294262

Reading Level: Mature Teens & Adults

Thanks to Julie for recommending this one! "One of the two points of view is a 12-year-old girl who is hard of hearing. She wears hearing aids. Doesn’t sign." Julie also cautions that while this may be a potential cross-over, it is "definitely an adult book" It is a sequel to the book Good in Bed.

From Publishers Weekly
Following the story collection The Guy Not Taken, Weiner turns in a hilarious sequel to her 2001 bestselling first novel, Good in Bed, revisiting the memorable and feisty Candace Cannie Shapiro. Flashing forward 13 years, the novel follows Cannie as she navigates the adolescent rebellion of her about-to-be bat mitzvahed daughter, Joy, and juggles her writing career; her relationship with her physician husband, Peter Krushelevansky; her ongoing weight struggles; and the occasional impasse with Joy's biological father, Bruce Guberman. Joy, whose premature birth resulted in her wearing hearing aids, has her own amusing take on her mother's overinvolvement in her life as the novel, with some contrivance, alternates perspectives. As her bat mitzvah approaches, Joy tries to make contact with her long absent maternal grandfather and seeks more time with Bruce. In addition, unbeknownst to Joy, Peter has expressed a desire to have a baby with Cannie, which means looking for a surrogate mother. Throughout, Weiner offers her signature snappy observations: (good looks function as a get-out-of-everything-free card) and spot-on insights into human nature, with a few twists thrown in for good measure. She expends some energy getting readers up to speed on Good, but readers already involved with Cannie will enjoy this, despite Joy's equally strong voice.

Secondary Deaf Character in Children's Book, Julia's Words

Julia's Words by Judith L. Roth
Publisher: Herald Press (April 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0836194179

Main character, Christina meets Julia, a deaf girl, at a campground. As she spends time with Julia, Christina gets a glimpse of what it might be like to be deaf. She also finds out there’s more than one way to communicate, and that friendship is deeper than sound. For children ages 6-10 and their families. Teachers and others who work with deaf children will find this book educational.

Julia is the secondary character who is deaf and uses sign language to communicate.

To read an interview with Judith L. Roth about Julia’s Words, click here.

CODA Characters and other Resources for Deaf Parents with Hearing Children

Thanks to Tom Bull for providing this list of RESOURCES FOR DEAF PARENTS WITH HEARING CHILDREN fact sheet. Also, I have a few other books with CODA characters....

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel by David Wroblewski

Hardcover: 576 pages

Publisher: Ecco (September 19, 2008)

Edgar uses sign language to communicate. Louise Wilkes is a CODA and communicates using the Sign Language that her Deaf parents taught her. This character works with Deaf children and hearing children of Deaf parents. There is another secondary Deaf Character whom Edgar meets when he is four. The character communicates through Sign Language but also speaks. Edgar notes that he sounds funny (p. 49).

At Face Value (October 2008) by Emily Franklin

Paperback: 264 pages

Publisher: Flux

Linus', a staff writer at the Word, has a father who is deaf. Linus teaches main character Cyrie sign language and the two use it throughout the book.

I encourage you to check out my Interview with Jean Ferris, author of the award-winning Of Sound Mind.

This book is written by a CODA author......

The Silent Time by Paul Rowe (September 2007)

Publisher: Killick Press.

The deaf character, Dulcie attends the Halifax School for the Deaf in the early 1900s, similar to the author's late mother, Elizabeth Rowe. (This is one of my all-time favorite books!)

Resourcesfordeafparentswithhearingchildren62009

View more PDF documents from Sharon Pajka-west.

Deaf Teen Races on Women's Motorcross circuit

Ashley Fiolek, 18, races as a pro on the Women's Motorcross Association circuit. In the research issue of ESPN The Magazine, you'll find an article about this young Deaf women who is the only woman rider to be featured on the cover of a major U.S. motocross magazine and when Honda Red Bull Racing signed her to its team in January, she became the first American woman with a factory ride.