Mute by Raymond Luczak

Do not be afraid of your face.Move into a beam of lightin the bar.  Smile openly.Watch his hands movequicker than strobe lightsas he surveys the crowd with his friends.Do not think of how hardit might be to have a casualconversation. From “How to Fall for a Deaf Man”   Silence is always a powerful statement, but even more so in the hands of Raymond Luczak, who demonstrates in his third collection what it’s like to navigate between the warring languages of confusion and clarity. As a deaf gay man in the hearing world, he lends an unforgettable voice to his reality of ache and loss beyond the inadequate translation of sound. Raymond Luczak is the author or editor of more than ten books, including Assembly Required: Notes from a Deaf Gay Life (RID Press) and Eyes of Desire 2: A Deaf GLBT Reader (Handtype Press).  His novel Men with Their Hands won first place in the Project: QueerLit 2006 Contest.  A playwright and filmmaker, he lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. MUTEby Raymond LuczakBod