Deaf American Poetry: An Anthology

Katrina R. Miller (1965– ) and Damara Goff Paris(1965–

216  Katrina R. Miller (1965– ) and Damara Goff Paris (1965– ) Two decades after the invention of the cochlear prosthesis in 1957, the artificial hearing device began to be implanted widely among deaf children. This sparked no small amount of controversy , as many Deaf people found it threatening. It became the target of outrage in a dizzying catalogue of works of art and literature , and Katrina R. Miller and Damara Goff Paris wrote one of the best pieces in response to not only the implant but also its perceived purpose: an audist denial of deafness. Miller, who is a hearing signer, and Paris, who is Deaf, each has a deaf sibling who underwent cochlear implantation, Miller’s unsuccessfully. Paris states, “I support the right of adults to receive the implant. I have more concerns about children being implanted.” The writers of “How the Audist Stole ASL” succeed spectacularly in commandeering Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel’s classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas !, which was first published in 1957, the same year the cochlear implant was invented. Miller says their adaptation demonstrates that, “like the spirit of Christmas, ASL cannot be suppressed.” Katrina R. Miller and Damara Goff Paris were both born in 1965. Miller was raised with a deaf sibling in Topeka, Kansas. She earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology and women’s studies from the University of Alaska in 1993 before studying rehabilitation counseling in deafness at Western Oregon University, where she got her master’s degree. In 2001, Miller received her doctorate in Deaf studies and Deaf education from Lamar University, and a book based on her dissertation was published two years later as Deaf Culture Behind Bars: Signs and Stories of a Texas Population. She is associate professor at Emporia State University. Katrina R. Miller and Damara Goff Paris 217 Paris was born and raised in the Bay Area of California. She became deaf and a right-leg amputee at the age of two after an accident . Paris also earned a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling in deafness from Western Oregon University. Of Cherokee and Blackfoot descent, she served for four years as president of the Intertribal Deaf Council. She has published six books, including Step into the Circle: The Heartbeat of American Indian, Alaska Native and First Nations Deaf Communities, and The Highpoint of Persistence. ...