Award-winning poet Raymond Antrobus was first diagnosed as deaf at the age of six when he discovered he had missing sounds – bird calls, whistles, kettles, alarms. Teachers thought he was slow and disruptive, some didn’t believe he was deaf at all.
Raymond discusses his memoir, The Quiet Ear, setting his story alongside those of other D/deaf cultural figures – from painters to silent film stars, poets to performers – the inspiring models of D/deaf creativity he did not have growing up.
This event is chaired by Akila M Richards.
Raymond Antrobus
Raymond Antrobus is the author of four poetry titles: To Sweeten Bitter (Out-Spoken Press), The Perseverance (Penned in the Margins), All The Names Given and Signs, Music (Picador). Raymond's poems have been added to GCSE syllabi, and his work has won the Ted Hughes Award, the Somerset Maugham Award and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. In 2019 he became the first ever poet to be awarded the Rathbone Folio Prize for best work of literature in any genre. He is also the author of a children's book, Can Bears Ski? (Walkers Books), which became the first story to be broadcast on the BBC entirely in British Sign Language. Raymond was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020 and appointed an MBE in 2021.
Akila M Richards
Akila M Richards is a poet, fiction writer and spoken word artist whose work appears in a range of publications that include Covert Magazine, Mosaic Writers, Penguin, Waterloo Press, Peepal Tree Press, and Wasafiri as well as on digital platforms. Her poetry pamphlet Ritual for a Mango, published by Flipped Eye was launched in February 2024 at Goldsmiths University's International Black Speculative Writing Festival. This led to a regional live musical and recital tour in 2025. Akila performs and collaborates internationally and coaches and supports writers and poets. She currently seeks an agent for her first novel.
**Stage timings are subject to change
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