Photographic Memories: Selected Essays, Playlets, and Stories - Paperback

by Willy Conley (Author)

Photographic Memories is an anthology of essays, playlets, and short fiction by writer and photographer Willy Conley. The pieces in this collection are grounded in Deaf experiences, a hallmark of Conley's work. Written from the unique perspective of a Deaf artist who navigates between the Deaf and hearing worlds, Conley depicts a variety of topics, settings, and characters: a day in the life of a traveling Deaf theater company, a nail salon, a baseball player trying to go pro. Conley also addresses critical issues at the heart of his Deaf identity, such as creating professional opportunities for Deaf theater artists, the need for better standards in sign language interpreting, and ableism.

Original photographs taken by the author accompany his writings and invite the reader to contemplate the often-blurred lines between reality and memory.

Author Biography

Willy Conley is an award-winning photographer, writer, and theatre artist. He is the editor of Plays of Our Own: ­An Anthology of Scripts by Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Writers, and the author of The World of White Water: Poems, Visual-Gestural Communication: A Workbook in Nonverbal Expression and Reception, Listening through the Bone: Collected Poems, The Deaf Heart: A Novel, Vignettes of the Deaf Character and Other Plays, and Broken Spokes. Conley is a retired professor and former chairperson of theatre arts at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC