Fall 2010 - University of Illinois Press

Memoir / Speech and Hearing
available again
What’s That Pig Outdoors?
A Memoir of Deafness
Henry Kisor
with a new epilogue by the author
Foreword by Walker Percy
An updated version of the memoir that changed
perceptions of the deaf
“A liberating document—and a heck of a good read.”
—Booklist
“Genial and moving, sharp and witty.”
—Publishers Weekly
“I love this book. It is witty, profound, and unself-pitying. It is the best account
of growing up deaf since David Wright’s Deafness.”
—Oliver Sacks, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
Henry Kisor lost his hearing at age three to meningitis and encephalitis but
went on to excel in the most verbal of professions as a literary journalist.
This new and expanded edition of Kisor’s engrossing memoir recounts his
life as a deaf person in a hearing world and addresses heartening changes
over the last two decades due to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
and advancements in cochlear implants and modes of communication.
Kisor tells of his parents’ drive to raise him as a member of the hearing
and speaking world by teaching him effective lip-reading skills at a young
age and encouraging him to communicate with his hearing peers. He also
narrates his time as the only deaf student at Trinity College in Connecticut
and then as a graduate student at Northwestern University, as well as his
successful career as the book review editor at the Chicago Sun-Times and
the Chicago Daily News.
Widely praised in popular media and academic journals when it was first
published in 1990, What’s That Pig Outdoors? opened new conversations
about the deaf. Bringing those conversations into the twenty-first century,
Kisor updates the continuing disagreements between those who advocate
sign language and those who practice speech and lip-reading, discusses the
increased acceptance of deaf people’s abilities and idiosyncrasies, and considers
technological advancements such as blogging, instant messaging,
and hand-held mobile devices that have enabled deaf people to communicate
with the hearing world on its own terms.
Henry Kisor is a retired book review editor and literary columnist for the
Chicago Sun-Times. He is the author of Zephyr: Tracking a Dream Across
America and Flight of the Gin Fizz: Midlife at 4,500 Feet, as well as three mystery
novels, Season’s Revenge, A Venture into Murder, and Cache of Corpses.
Also of Interest
My Sense of Silence
Memoirs of a Childhood with Deafness
LENNARD J. DAVIS
Paper, 978-0-252-07577-3, $25.00 £16.99
Rachel in the World
A Memoir
JANE BERNSTEIN
Paper, 978-0-252-07682-4, $16.95 £11.99
AUGUST
232 PAGES. 5.5 x 8.25 INCHES
PAPER, 978-0-252-07739-5. $22.00s £14.99
(800) 621-2736 • www.press.uillinois.edu • University of Illinois Press 19