Touch the Future

A Manifesto in Essays

John Lee Clark

$29.95

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

WW Norton & Co
05 December 2024

Language: reference & general; Sign languages, Braille & other linguistic communication; Literary essays

Born Deaf into an ASL-speaking family and blind by adolescence, John Lee Clark learned to embrace the possibilities of his tactile world. He is on the frontlines of the Protactile movement, which gave birth to an unprecedented language and way of life based on physical connection.

In a series of paradigm-shifting essays, Clark reports on seismic developments within the DeafBlind community and challenges the limitations of sighted and hearing norms. In ""Against Access,"" he interrogates the prevailing advocacy for ""accessibility"" that re-creates a shadow of a hearing-sighted experience, and in ""Tactile Art,"" he describes his relationship to visual art and breathtaking encounters with tactile sculpture. He offers a brief history of the term ""DeafBlind,"" distills societal discrimination against DeafBlind people into ""Distantism,"" sheds light on the riches of online community, and advocates for ""Co-Navigation,"" a new way of exploring the world together without a traditional guide.

Touch the Future brims with passion, energy, humor, and imagination as Clark takes us by the hand and welcomes us into the exciting landscape of Protactile communication. A distinct language of taps, signs, and reciprocal contact, Protactile emerged from the inadequacies of ASL-a visual language even when pressed into someone's hand-with the power to upend centuries of DeafBlind isolation.

As warm and witty as he is radical and inspiring, Clark encourages us-disabled and non-disabled alike-to reject stigma and discover the ways we are connected. Touch the Future is a dynamic appeal to rethink the meanings of disability, access, language, and inclusivity, and to reach for a future we can create together.

By: John Lee Clark
Imprint: WW Norton & Co
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 211mm, Width: 142mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 195g
ISBN: 9781324086413
ISBN 10: 1324086416
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 05 December 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

John Lee Clark is an award-winning writer and Protactile educator. He has received the Krause Essay Prize and a National Magazine Award for his prose. His poetry collection, How to Communicate, received the Minnesota Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Kingsley Tufts Award. A 2021–2023 Bush Fellow, he lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with his partner, the ASL Deaf artist Adrean Clark, their three kids, and two cats.

Reviews for Touch the Future: A Manifesto in Essays

"""[A] lively, inviting collection.… [John Lee Clark is] able to draw sharp distinctions between different kinds of living, speaking fluently to those of us who experience the full use of our eyes and ears without thinking about it."" -- Anna Heyward - The New York Times Book Review ""John Lee Clark writes against the grain with intellectual ferocity and dry wit; with linguistic playfulness and unsparing precision; and above all, with an expansive, curious, tireless compassion. Society may ignore and isolate DeafBlind people, but as Clark shows us again and again, it is the sighted and hearing world that is marginalized by its failure to understand DeafBlind life, and never the other way around."" -- Andrew Leland, author of The Country of the Blind ""Touch the Future opens doors to the multiple worlds of disability…This is a book for anyone who is interested in the life of the imagination and the mind."" -- Stephen Suusisto, author of Eavesdropping ""John Lee Clark’s fervent manifesto for the Protactile language and movement will blow your mind, enliven your body, and connect you to other people in unexpected ways. Touch the Future is a book that enlarges the human world."" -- Edward Hirsch, author of Stranger by Night"