Award-winning poet Raymond Antrobus was first diagnosed as deaf at the age of six when he discovered he had missing sounds – bird calls, whistles, kettles, alarms. Teachers thought he was slow and disruptive, some didn’t believe he was deaf at all. Raymond discusses his memoir, The Quiet Ear, setting his story alongside those of other D/deaf cultural figures – from painters to silent film stars, poets to performers – the inspiring models of D/deaf creativity he did not have growing up.
‘A must-read’ – Rose Ayling-Ellis
‘A big-hearted, transformative memoir’ – New York Times
‘Wise, intimate and questing’ – Telegraph
Raymond Antrobus is an award-winning poet and author whose work explores sound, identity, and belonging. His work has won the Ted Hughes Award, the Somerset Maugham Award and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and his poems have been added to GCSE syllabi. In 2019 Raymond became the first ever poet to be awarded the Rathbone Folio Prize for best work of literature in any genre. He is also the author of a children's book, Can Bears Ski? (Walker Books), which became the first story to be broadcast on the BBC entirely in British Sign Language. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020 and appointed an MBE in 2021.
The Quiet Ear is his first work of prose.
Chaired by Ana Sampson, a Surrey-based poetry anthologist and publishing professional.
BSL interpreted
Suitable for ages 16+
Bookselling partner: The Cobham Bookshop