Kristen Harmon
Thank you for your interest!
WEBSITE coming soon with up-to-date links and information. When it is ready, I will link it here. For now, for a more comprehensive and updated profile and list of publications, please see this Google Doc list and also my LinkedIn profile:
1. https://docs.google.com/document/d/15ZxnH_Kb6pPkGX2yQYKRpTl9ZmV5Q8-iPEPJk1ADE6c/edit?usp=sharing
2. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenharmon/
Address: Gallaudet University
WEBSITE coming soon with up-to-date links and information. When it is ready, I will link it here. For now, for a more comprehensive and updated profile and list of publications, please see this Google Doc list and also my LinkedIn profile:
1. https://docs.google.com/document/d/15ZxnH_Kb6pPkGX2yQYKRpTl9ZmV5Q8-iPEPJk1ADE6c/edit?usp=sharing
2. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenharmon/
Address: Gallaudet University
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Books by Kristen Harmon
In Adventures of a Deaf-Mute, Deaf New Englander William B. Swett recounts his adventures in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in the late 1860s. Given to us in short, energetic episodes, Swett tells daring stories of narrow escapes from death and other perilous experiences during his time as a handyman and guide at the Profile House, a hotel named for the nearby Old Man of the Mountain rock formation. A popular destination, the hotel attracted myriad guests, and Swett’s tales of rugged endurance are accompanied by keen observations of the people he meets.
Confident in his identity as a Deaf “mute,” he notes with wry humor the varied perceptions of deafness that he encounters. As a signing Deaf person from a prominent multigenerational Deaf family, he counters negative stereotypes with generosity and a smart wit. He takes pride in his physical abilities, which he showcases through various stunts and arduous treks in the wilderness. However, Swett’s writing also reveals a deep awareness of the fragility and precariousness of life. This is a portrait of a man testing his physical and emotional limits, written from the vantage point of someone who is no longer a young man but is still very much in the prime of his life.
This collection also includes “Mr. Swett and His Diorama,” an article from 1859 in which Swett describes his miniature recreation of the Battle of Lexington, as well as Manual Alphabets, a pamphlet published in 1875 on the history of manual alphabets that includes short biographies of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc, two pioneers of Deaf education in the United States. The work is accompanied by a new introduction that offers a reflection on Swett’s life and the time in which he lived.
William B. Swett was born in 1824 in Henniker, New Hampshire. He was a carpenter and joiner and an active member of the Boston Deaf-Mutes’ Library Association, the Boston Deaf-Mutes’ Mission, and the New England Gallaudet Association of Deaf Mutes.
The works in Deaf American Prose frame the Deaf narrative in myriad forms: Tom Willard sends up hearing patronization in his wicked satire “How to Write Like a Hearing Reporter” Terry Galloway injects humor in “Words,” her take on the identity issues of being hard of hearing rather than deaf or hearing. Other contributors relate familiar stories about familiar trials, such as Tonya Stremlau’s account of raising twins, and Joseph Santini’s short story of the impact on Deaf and hearing in-laws of the death of a son. The conflicts are well-known and heartfelt, but with wrinkles directly derived from the Deaf perspective.
Several of the contributors expand the Deaf affect through ASL glosses and visual/spatial elements. Sara Stallard emulates ASL on paper through its syntax and glosses, and by eliminating English elements, a technique used in dialogue by Kristen Ringman and others. Deaf American Prose features the work of other well-known contemporary Deaf writers, including co-editor Kristen Harmon, Christopher Jon Heuer, Raymond Luczak, and Willy Conley. The rising Deaf writers presented here further distinguish the first volume in this new series by thinking in terms of what they can bring to English, not what English can bring to them.
Deaf poet and novelist Howard L. Terry wrote this novel between 1917 and 1922, which he donated to the Gallaudet University Archives in 1951. There it rested until a resurgence of interest in Deaf literature led to its recent rediscovery. Mickey’s Harvest: A Novel of a Deaf Boy’s Checkered Life recounts the rollicking tale of a young deaf man and how he learned to survive and thrive at the advent of the 20th century. Introduction and editing by Kristen C. Harmon.
I’m putting together a collection of deaf-centered, noir fiction writing for submission to a non-academic press. If you are yourself d/Deaf or hard of hearing or have significant personal experience with deafness (e.g. CODAs or parents of deaf children or partners of Deaf adults) and you have a short story or novella that could be considered “noir,” please submit for consideration to Kristen Harmon at [email protected].
Papers by Kristen Harmon