Disability Memoirs
I am about to begin my 5th year teaching an on-line undergraduate class in Disability History during our university Winter Term— a really fast and intense 5 week course! I start off the class asking students to read and write a review of a memoir before winter break. Below is my memoir list, drawn from suggestions from this list serve some years ago.
It needs some freshening up.
Please send suggestions of newer memoirs/reflections on/about/in disability.
Many thanks,
Kate Rousmaniere
Miami University, Ohio
- My Body Politic, by Simi Linton
- Blind Rage: Letters to Helen Keller, by Georgina Kleege
- Don’t Call me Inspirational: A Disabled Feminist Talks Back by Harilyn Rousso
- Living Waist High in the World, by Nancy Mairs
- Too Late to Die Young: Nearly True Tales from a Life, by Harriet McBryde Johnson
- Planet of the Blind by Stephen Kuusisto
- Poster Child: A Memoir, Emily Rapp
- My Lobotomy, by Howard Dully
- Mapping Fate, by Alice Wexler
- Riding the Bus with my Sister, by Rachel Simons
- An Unquiet Mind, by Kay Redfield Jamison
- Out of Joint: A Private and Public Story of Arthritis, by Mary Felstiner
- The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal, by Jonathan Mooney
2 Replies
Post ReplyDear Kate,
I am not sure what is the geographic focus in this course, but if you are interested in expanding it beyond the US, I would recommend "White on Black" by Ruben Gallego. it deals with disability in the Soviet Union.
Best wishes,
Maria
Kate--here are two more recently published memoirs by deaf writers: And No Birds Sing by Pauline Leader, and The Art of Being Deaf by Donna McDonald.
Ivey Wallace
Gallaudet University