Educator Bridges Communication Barrier in Deaf Fiction
Approximately 466 million people worldwide struggle with hearing loss, and out of the 48 million Deaf people in the US, only four percent are profoundly deaf and twelve percent have hearing loss within faith-based communities.
Enter Peter M. Quint, Deaf author and advocate for the Christian Deaf community across the nation. Having lost this hearing after a childhood illness, Peter grew up Deaf and brings lifetime experiences into his writing and seeks to help the hearing understand the resilient silence that the Deaf experience daily.
In experiencing the song, “Master, Speak Thy Servant Heareth,” Peter says the last verse about knowing the Master “struck me, and pretty much defines my walk with Christ.” Although Deaf people do not necessarily “hear” spoken voices, through visual language, unique bonds, and resilience, they can find themselves under the shadow, or influence, of Jesus, who is their guiding Rock.
Set in futuristic Washington State after a terrorist nuclear attack in Seattle, Resilient Silence: A Deaf-Experience Suspense Novel is about two Deaf brothers who face many hard challenges understanding various perspectives while living in a non-Deaf world.
In a setting where the Deaf live silent in a hearing world, Quint tackles these common challenges by showing the Deaf perspective in both spoken and visual/signed languages. Quint says, “Dialogue produced by hearing speakers whom the Deaf characters cannot understand is written so that the readers’ own comprehension of spoken dialogue mirrors that experienced by the Deaf characters.”
Resilient Silence is one of the first novels to feature Deaf characters with a redemptive theme. The author seeks to convey truths from Isaiah 40:31 and Psalm 61:1–2 and show readers that everyone, including the Deaf, can turn to Jesus and be informed about the strength and resilience that comes from the Deaf experience.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
An advocate for the Deaf and Deaf himself, author and educator Peter M. Quint is one of the founders of New Life Deaf Fellowship, a home- and community-based church, and the founder of Deaf Heartlight, a step-based, life support program for the Deaf. Visit him at www.peterquint.com.
(SOURCE: Redemption Press via Christian Newswire)
