Fiona Murphy - The Shape of Sound (event will be Auslan interpreted)

Fiona Murphy’s memoir The Shape of Sound, about being deaf is a revelation!

RSVP now for this FREE event! Drinks and nibbles provided. Limited numbers, so get in quick!

This event will be Auslan interpreted.

We also have a Zoom option for those who cannot attend in-person:

Meeting ID: 811 3127 7070

Passcode: 990138

Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81131277070?pwd=VlFwVGQwZHZmMnVUZVBZMjNqc2M4dz09

About the Book

Secrets are heavy, burdensome things. Imagine carrying a secret that if exposed could jeopardise your chances of securing a job and make you a social outcast. Fiona Murphy kept her deafness a secret for over twenty-five years.

But then, desperate to hold onto a career she’d worked hard to pursue, she tried hearing aids. Shocked by how the world sounded, she vowed never to wear them again. After an accident to her hand, she discovered that sign language could change her life, and that Deaf culture could be part of her identity.

Just as Fiona thought she was beginning to truly accept her body, she was diagnosed with a rare condition that causes the bones of the ears to harden. She was steadily losing her residual hearing. The news left her reeling.

Blending memoir with observations on the healthcare industry, The Shape of Sound is a story about the corrosive power of secrets, stigma and shame, and how deaf experiences and disability are shaped by economics, social policy, medicine and societal expectations.

This is the story of how Fiona learns to listen to her body. If you enjoy the writing of Bri Lee and Fiona Wright, this is a book for you.

About the Author

Fiona Murphy is a Deaf poet and essayist. Her work has been published in Kill Your Darlings, Overland, Griffith Review and the Big Issue, among other publications. In 2019, she was awarded the Overland Fair Australia Essay Prize and the Monash Undergraduate Creative Writing Prize. In 2018, she was shortlisted for the Richell Prize and highly commended by the Wheeler Centre Next Chapter program.

About the Moderator

Fiona Wright is a writer, editor and critic from Sydney. Her most recent book of essays, The World Was Whole, was published in October 2018. Fiona worked as an editor at Giramondo Publishing for five years. She holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from Western Sydney University, and is the host of Six Degrees From the City, a podcast about writers and Western Sydney. She tutors casually in creative writing, as well as journalism and literature at Western Sydney University, and has taught creative non-fiction at UTS and Sydney University. She also runs writing workshops in high schools, libraries and for writers' centres, and performs her work frequently at literary events and festivals.