200 Years of Poetry by Deaf Americans in New Collection
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 anthology contains 95 poems by 35 deaf American poets. According to Clark, the poems in this volume are 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. The anthology is a unique showcasing of the best work of deaf poets throughout the America’s history — John R. Burnet, Laura C. Redden, Geor...