Joining the Diaspora of Deaf Memoirists: A Personal Account of Writing Deafness

In this essay , the author describes how, and why, she tackled a lifetime of questions about her deafness and experiences of being deaf by writing a memoir called The Art of Being Deaf. While researching her memoir, the author discovered that the questions about her deafness that she most needed to answer were her own. Having first read many memoirs by other deaf writers and novels with deaf characters, the author set about composing her own narrative of deafness in a fresh way. She not only came to an improved understanding of her deaf self, but grew into a more authentic understanding of her whole self, reconciling her memories of the deaf girl she once was with the adult deaf woman she is now. The author illustrates how the act of writing a memoir can be an important tool in resolving questions of identity.