The Braille Encyclopedia: Brief Essays on Altered Sight by Naomi Cohn

Hi everyone, I'm a lover of essays and am excited to offer 5 paperback copies of The Braille Encyclopedia: Brief Essays on Altered Sight by Naomi Cohn to anyone in the US. From Naomi's website I learned she writes about nature, birds in particular which is so cool. Check out her 2006 essay Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Bird for example. Details below.

About the book

As befits this daring exploration of a life that defies clear categories and boundaries, Naomi Cohn’s revelatory memoir The Braille Encyclopedia: Brief Essays on Altered Sight shapeshifts between lyric essay and prose poetry and traverses the divides between lived experience, history, and scientific knowledge. Told in the form of imagined alphabetical encyclopedia entries, this meditation on progressive vision loss examines and illuminates Cohn’s at first halting then avid embrace of braille as part of relearning to read and write as an adult. Using etymology, historical and medical research, and personal vignettes, this abecedarian collection of linked micro-essays and prose poems is both Cohn’s singular story of grieving and refashioning a life built around words and an evocation of the larger discussion of how our society views disability. The Braille Encyclopedia is poignant, playful, and wry, providing a literary reckoning of the technical and emotional aspects of facing the loss of sight.

About the author

Naomi Cohn is a writer, artist, and teaching artist whose work explores reclamation. Her past includes a childhood among Chicago academics; involvement in a guerrilla feminist art collective; and work as an encyclopedia copy editor, community organizer, grant writer, fundraising consultant, and therapist.

Her book, The Braille Encyclopedia: Brief Essays on Altered Sight (Rose Metal Press, October 2024) examines vision loss and relearning to read and write as an adult. Her current work harnesses her obsession with birds, reclaiming relationships with art-making and the rest of the natural world.

Recent recognition includes a 2023 McKnight Artist Fellowship in Writing, and residencies at Monson Arts; Write On, Door County; and Bloedel Reserve. Naomi’s work has appeared in Baltimore Review, Fourth River, Hippocampus, Terrain, Nimrod, and Poetry, among other places. She’s also appeared on NPR and been honored as a Best of the Net finalist and two-time Pushcart nominee. Her teaching and community work with older adults and other people living with disabilities has been supported by numerous grants, including a Knight Arts Challenge grant.

Naomi holds a BA in history, art, and biology from Cornell University and an MA in marriage and family therapy from Saint Mary’s University. Raised in Chicago, she now lives on unceded Dakota territory in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Details

1) Any disabled person in the US is eligible to receive a paperback. You do not need to disclose any details about your disability.

If you already received a book from one of my previous giveaways, please consider letting other people have a chance.

2) If you do not receive a reply that means the books have been claimed or you did not include all the required information.

3) Send an email to DisabilityVisibilityProject@gmail.com with 'Naomi Cohn Giveaway’ in the title of the message. Do not reply to this post!!

4) Include the following information in your message:

• First and last name
• Mailing address

Please note: I will send this information along with your email address to the publisher. They are responsible for confirming your details and sending you the book. Please be patient!