In Voice , Adam Pottle explores the crucial role deafness has played in the growth of his imagination, and in doing so presents a unique perspective on a writer's development. Born deaf in both ears, Pottle recounts what it was like growing up in a world of muted sound, and how his deafness has influenced virtually everything about his writing, from his use of language to character and plot choices. Salty, bold, and relentlessly honest, Voice makes us think about writing in entirely new ways and expands our understanding of deafness and the gifts that it can offer. "Pottle's book is an important contribution to the growing roster of writing supplied by deaf academics, artists, writers, actors and theatre directors and professionals. I felt a 'coming home' experience in reading this book. As a deaf writer, I enthusiastically say 'yes' to his linkages between deafness and writing." -Joanne Weber, author of The Deaf House

This is a crackling, searing satire that ridicules both political correctness and the restrictive world of academia. But Adam Pottles first novel is also a poignant and difficult glance into the world of a man battling a rare and debilitating disease. A wheelchair user living voluntarily in a care home, Dexter Ripley lashes out at all those around himhis behaviour so outrageous yet insightful that Ripley is curiously both repelling and fascinating. With a boisterous, propulsive voice, Dexter Ripley shares his insights on life as a care home resident, his relationships with his sister and her son, his career as a professor, and, despite his bitter nature, his goal of creating a philosophy based on positivity and imagination. Through the voice of this embittered man, Pottle creates a treatise that views disability as a philosophical position rather than a physical or mental condition.

In this jarring collection, Adam Pottle cracks open the world of disability, illuminating it with an idiom that is both unsettling and exhilarating. His subjects are gritty and multifarious: amputee sex swingers; drug-related shootings; and, institutionalized adolescents coerced into sterilization. Difficult as their circumstances may seem, Pottle's denizens learn to navigate the world with creative resolve, even defiance, searching for an identity that includes their disabilities rather than spites them. His poems scrape our nerves; they test and undermine poetic forms, and challenging our own sensibilities in the process.