A Short History of ... WHO?

BIO

RAYMOND LUCZAK (pronounced with a silent "c") is perhaps best known for his books, films, and plays.

He was raised in Ironwood, a small mining town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Number seven in a family of nine children, he lost much of his hearing due to double pneumonia at the age of eight months.

After high school graduation, Luczak went on to Gallaudet University, in Washington, D.C., where he earned a B.A. in English, graduating magna cum laude. He learned American Sign Language (ASL) and became involved with the deaf community, and won numerous scholarships in recognition of his writing, including the Ritz-Paris Hemingway Scholarship. He took various writing courses at other schools in the area, which culminated in winning a place in the Jenny McKean Moore Fiction Workshop at the George Washington University.

In 1988, he moved to New York City. In short order, his play Snooty won first place in the New York Deaf Theater’s 1990 Samuel Edwards Deaf Playwrights Competition, and his essay "Notes of a Deaf Gay Writer" won acceptance as a cover story for Christopher Street magazine. Soon after Alyson Publications asked him to edit Eyes of Desire: A Deaf Gay & Lesbian Reader, which, after its appearance in June 1993, eventually nabbed two Lambda Literary Award finalist nominations (Best Lesbian and Gay Anthology, and Best Small Press Book). He hasn't stopped since!

In 2005, he relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he continues to write, edit, and publish.

Bibliography | Periodicals and Anthologies | Stage Plays and Films

Bibliography

Eyes of Desire: A Deaf Gay & Lesbian Reader (Alyson Publications, 1993).
St. Michael's Fall (Deaf Life Press, 1996).
Silence Is a Four-Letter Word: On Art & Deafness (The Tactile Mind Press, 2002; reprinted in a tenth-anniversary edition by Handtype Press, 2012).
This Way to the Acorns (The Tactile Mind Press, 2002; reprinted in a tenth-anniversary edition by Handtype Press, 2012).
Snooty: A Comedy (The Tactile Mind Press, 2004; reprinted in Whispers of a Savage Sort and Other Plays about the Deaf American Experience, 2009).
When I am Dead: The Writings of George M. Teegarden (Gallaudet University Press, 2007).
Eyes of Desire 2: A Deaf GLBT Reader (Handtype Press, 2007).
Assembly Required: Notes from a Deaf Gay Life (RID Press, 2009; reprinted in a tenth-anniversary edition by Handtype Press, 2019).
Whispers of a Savage Sort and Other Plays about the Deaf American Experience (Gallaudet University Press, 2009).
Men with Their Hands: A Deaf Gay Novel (Queer Mojo, 2009; co-winner of the Full-Length Fiction 2003 from the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation and first place winner of Project: QueerLit Contest 2006; reprinted in a new edition by Handtype Press, 2023).
Mute (A Midsummer Night's Press, 2010).
Notes of a Deaf Gay Writer: 20 Years Later (Hot Off The.Net, 2010; reprinted by Handtype Press, 2010).
Road Work Ahead: Poems (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2011).
Among the Leaves: Queer Male Poets on the Midwestern Experience (Squares & Rebels, 2012).
How to Kill Poetry (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2013).
From Heart into Art: Interviews with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Artists and Their Allies (Handtype Press, 2014).
QDA: A Queer Disability Anthology (Squares & Rebels, 2015).
The Kiss of Walt Whitman Still on My Lips (Squares & Rebels, 2016).
The Kinda Fella I Am: Stories (Reclamation Press, 2018).
The Last Deaf Club in America: A Novella (Handtype Press, 2018).
A Babble of Objects: Poems (Fomite Press, 2018).
Lovejets: Queer Male Poets on 200 Years of Walt Whitman (Squares & Rebels, 2019).

Flannelwood: A Novel (Red Hen Press, 2019).
Compassion, Michigan: The Ironwood Stories (Modern History Press, 2020).
Bokeh Focus: Poems (Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange, 2020).
once upon a twin: poems (Gallaudet University Press, 2021).
Lunafly: Poems (Gnashing Teeth Publishing, 2022).
Chlorophyll: Poems about Michigan's Upper Peninsula (Modern History Press, 2022).
A Quiet Foghorn: More Notes from a Deaf Gay Life (Gallaudet University Press, 2022).
Widower, 48, Seeks Husband: A Novel (Rattling Good Yarns Press, 2023).
Far from Atlantis: Poems (Gallaudet University Press, forthcoming in November 2023).
Animals Out-There W-i-l-d: Poems (Unbound Edition Press, forthcoming in March 2024).

Periodicals and Anthologies

His work has appeared in various anthologies and periodicals, including Beauty Is a Verb (eds. Bartlett, Black, and Northen; Cinco Puntos Press), Men on Men 4 (ed. Stambolian; NAL/Dutton), No Walls of Stone (ed. Jepson; Gallaudet University Press), Not the Only One (ed. Grima; Alyson), Staring Back (ed. Fries; Plume), The Deaf Way II Anthology (ed. Stremlau; Gallaudet University Press), and Quickies 3 (ed. Johnstone; Arsenal Pulp). His stories, interviews, essays, poems, and reviews have also appeared in diverse places such as Poetry, BLOOM, TheaterWeek, Art & Understanding, Silent News, The Ragged Edge, The Dramatists Guild Quarterly, Handwave, Deaf Arts UK, Out, The Tactile Mind, Clerc Scar, RFD Magazine, Typo Magazine, Van Gogh's Ear, and Wordgathering. He's had work appear in Poetry, Crab Orchard Review, The Upstart Crow, The Brooklyn Review, Pegasus, The Hazmat Review, Kulchur, Chiron Review, BlazeVOX, Poetry Motel, Origins Journal, Byline Magazine, and other places. His short story "Interpretations," which first appeared in BLOOM, has been included in Steve Berman's anthology Best Gay Short Stories 2008 (Lethe Press). In June 2014, his work in fiction enabled him to earn a spot among the first group of Deaf artists participating in the Deaf Artists Residency Program at the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Arts in Red Wing, Minnesota. He has edited the literary fiction journals Jonathan and Callisto. He is currently the editor of Mollyhouse.

Stage Plays and Films

Over twenty of Luczak’s stage plays have been workshopped or produced in three countries. Titles includeThe Rake, Six Women in Search of a Perfect Play, Daffodils, This, Interpretations, Among Fathers, Hippos & Giraffes, Doogle, Pumpkin & Peaches, Whispers of a Savage Sort, and Snooty. The latter two were workshopped respectively at the New American Deaf Play Creators Festival and at the Worldwide and National Deaf Theater Conference; Snooty was subsequently produced in Los Angeles and Chicago. His play Among Fathers was workshopped under the Other Voices Program at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. His next effort A Pair of Hands: Deaf Gay Monologues, opened at the HERE Theater in June 2002 in New York City; the play consisted of two one-acts: Hippos & Giraffes and Interpretations. Illuminations Arts produced his full-length play Love in My Veins in Houston in December 2003; Nicu's Spoon, based in New York, went on to mount a staged reading of the play in November 2005. He directed his stage adaptation of Beauty & The Beast, which was a sell-out hit at the California School for the Deaf - Fremont in March 2004. He also taught playwriting at the National Theater of the Deaf as part of their Actors' Academy in August 2004 and Shape as part of their National Deaf Theater Academy in August 2005. His 13th play In Love and Lust We Trust was performed at Jacksons Lane Theater in London later that same month. His next two one-acts, Unconditional Murder and Unhappily Ever After, were performed as Un: 2 Short Plays about Love in February 2009. Deaf Blender Theatre has produced his play, That Chair was My Wife, in the Minnesota Fringe Festival '09. Gallaudet University Press brought out a collection of his full-length plays Whispers of a Savage Sort and Other Plays about the Deaf American Experience in September 2009. Bridge Productions presented staged readings of his next two plays Jackhammer and The Darkest Room in the House in March 2010. His 19th play Pete Linden, Etc., was given a staged reading at the National Technical Institute of the Deaf (NTID) in September 2010. His play I Never Slept with Helen Keller was given staged readings by the New York Deaf Theatre in March 2016; it was given another staged reading at Playwrights Horizons in December 2016. He workshopped his 25th play Agency at NTID in March 2018.

Ghosted, his debut directorial feature, is in post production. His short films include Some Women and Hippos & Giraffes, which he wrote and produced (Tim Chamberlain directed). His first direct-to-DVD project was the hugely successful Manny ASL: Stories in American Sign Language, featuring the renowned ASL storyteller Manny Hernandez. The DVD of his first full-length documentary Guy Wonder: Stories & Artwork came out in December 2003. His second DVD documentary was called Nathie: No Hand-Me-Downs, focusing on Nathie Marbury, a fabulous storyteller and legend from Austin, TX, which came out in May 2005. He has appeared as an actor on the TV program Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Episode: "Silencer"). He posts videos occasionally on his YouTube page.

	RAYMOND LUCZAK (pronounced with a silent "c") is perhaps best known for his books, films, and plays. He was raised in Ironwood, a small mining town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Number seven in a family of nine children, he lost much of his hearing due to double pneumonia at the age of eight months. After high school graduation, Luczak went on to Gallaudet University, in Washington, D.C., where he earned a B.A. in English, graduating magna cum laude. He learned American Sign Language (ASL) and became involved with the deaf community, and won numerous scholarships in recognition of his writing, including the Ritz-Paris Hemingway Scholarship. He took various writing courses at other schools in the area, which culminated in winning a place in the Jenny McKean Moore Fiction Workshop at the George Washington University. In 1988, he moved to New York City. In short order, his play Snooty won first place in the New York Deaf Theater’s 1990 Samuel Edwards Deaf Playwrights Competition, and his essay "Notes of a Deaf Gay Writer" won acceptance as a cover story for Christopher Street magazine. Soon after Alyson Publications asked him to edit Eyes of Desire: A Deaf Gay & Lesbian Reader, which, after its appearance in June 1993, eventually nabbed two Lambda Literary Award finalist nominations (Best Lesbian and Gay Anthology, and Best Small Press Book). He hasn't stopped since! In 2005, he relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he continues to write, edit, and publish.
Bibliography \| Periodicals and Anthologies \| Stage Plays and Films
Bibliography Eyes of Desire: A Deaf Gay & Lesbian Reader (Alyson Publications, 1993). St. Michael's Fall (Deaf Life Press, 1996). Silence Is a Four-Letter Word: On Art & Deafness (The Tactile Mind Press, 2002; reprinted in a tenth-anniversary edition by Handtype Press, 2012). This Way to the Acorns (The Tactile Mind Press, 2002; reprinted in a tenth-anniversary edition by Handtype Press, 2012). Snooty: A Comedy (The Tactile Mind Press, 2004; reprinted in Whispers of a Savage Sort and Other Plays about the Deaf American Experience, 2009). When I am Dead: The Writings of George M. Teegarden (Gallaudet University Press, 2007). Eyes of Desire 2: A Deaf GLBT Reader (Handtype Press, 2007). Assembly Required: Notes from a Deaf Gay Life (RID Press, 2009; reprinted in a tenth-anniversary edition by Handtype Press, 2019). Whispers of a Savage Sort and Other Plays about the Deaf American Experience (Gallaudet University Press, 2009). Men with Their Hands: A Deaf Gay Novel (Queer Mojo, 2009; co-winner of the Full-Length Fiction 2003 from the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation and first place winner of Project: QueerLit Contest 2006; reprinted in a new edition by Handtype Press, 2023). Mute (A Midsummer Night's Press, 2010). Notes of a Deaf Gay Writer: 20 Years Later (Hot Off The.Net, 2010; reprinted by Handtype Press, 2010). Road Work Ahead: Poems (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2011). Among the Leaves: Queer Male Poets on the Midwestern Experience (Squares & Rebels, 2012). How to Kill Poetry (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2013). From Heart into Art: Interviews with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Artists and Their Allies (Handtype Press, 2014). QDA: A Queer Disability Anthology (Squares & Rebels, 2015). The Kiss of Walt Whitman Still on My Lips (Squares & Rebels, 2016). The Kinda Fella I Am: Stories (Reclamation Press, 2018). The Last Deaf Club in America: A Novella (Handtype Press, 2018). A Babble of Objects: Poems (Fomite Press, 2018). Lovejets: Queer Male Poets on 200 Years of Walt Whitman (Squares & Rebels, 2019). Flannelwood: A Novel (Red Hen Press, 2019). Compassion, Michigan: The Ironwood Stories (Modern History Press, 2020). Bokeh Focus: Poems (Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange, 2020). once upon a twin: poems (Gallaudet University Press, 2021). Lunafly: Poems (Gnashing Teeth Publishing, 2022). Chlorophyll: Poems about Michigan's Upper Peninsula (Modern History Press, 2022). A Quiet Foghorn: More Notes from a Deaf Gay Life (Gallaudet University Press, 2022). Widower, 48, Seeks Husband: A Novel (Rattling Good Yarns Press, 2023). Far from Atlantis: Poems (Gallaudet University Press, forthcoming in November 2023). Animals Out-There W-i-l-d: Poems (Unbound Edition Press, forthcoming in March 2024).
Periodicals and Anthologies His work has appeared in various anthologies and periodicals, including Beauty Is a Verb (eds. Bartlett, Black, and Northen; Cinco Puntos Press), Men on Men 4 (ed. Stambolian; NAL/Dutton), No Walls of Stone (ed. Jepson; Gallaudet University Press), Not the Only One (ed. Grima; Alyson), Staring Back (ed. Fries; Plume), The Deaf Way II Anthology (ed. Stremlau; Gallaudet University Press), and Quickies 3 (ed. Johnstone; Arsenal Pulp). His stories, interviews, essays, poems, and reviews have also appeared in diverse places such as Poetry, BLOOM, TheaterWeek, Art & Understanding, Silent News, The Ragged Edge, The Dramatists Guild Quarterly, Handwave, Deaf Arts UK, Out, The Tactile Mind, Clerc Scar, RFD Magazine, Typo Magazine, Van Gogh's Ear, and Wordgathering. He's had work appear in Poetry, Crab Orchard Review, The Upstart Crow, The Brooklyn Review, Pegasus, The Hazmat Review, Kulchur, Chiron Review, BlazeVOX, Poetry Motel, Origins Journal, Byline Magazine, and other places. His short story "Interpretations," which first appeared in BLOOM, has been included in Steve Berman's anthology Best Gay Short Stories 2008 (Lethe Press). In June 2014, his work in fiction enabled him to earn a spot among the first group of Deaf artists participating in the Deaf Artists Residency Program at the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Arts in Red Wing, Minnesota. He has edited the literary fiction journals Jonathan and Callisto. He is currently the editor of Mollyhouse.
Stage Plays and Films Over twenty of Luczak’s stage plays have been workshopped or produced in three countries. Titles includeThe Rake, Six Women in Search of a Perfect Play, Daffodils, This, Interpretations, Among Fathers, Hippos & Giraffes, Doogle, Pumpkin & Peaches, Whispers of a Savage Sort, and Snooty. The latter two were workshopped respectively at the New American Deaf Play Creators Festival and at the Worldwide and National Deaf Theater Conference; Snooty was subsequently produced in Los Angeles and Chicago. His play Among Fathers was workshopped under the Other Voices Program at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. His next effort A Pair of Hands: Deaf Gay Monologues, opened at the HERE Theater in June 2002 in New York City; the play consisted of two one-acts: Hippos & Giraffes and Interpretations. Illuminations Arts produced his full-length play Love in My Veins in Houston in December 2003; Nicu's Spoon, based in New York, went on to mount a staged reading of the play in November 2005. He directed his stage adaptation of Beauty & The Beast, which was a sell-out hit at the California School for the Deaf - Fremont in March 2004. He also taught playwriting at the National Theater of the Deaf as part of their Actors' Academy in August 2004 and Shape as part of their National Deaf Theater Academy in August 2005. His 13th play In Love and Lust We Trust was performed at Jacksons Lane Theater in London later that same month. His next two one-acts, Unconditional Murder and Unhappily Ever After, were performed as Un: 2 Short Plays about Love in February 2009. Deaf Blender Theatre has produced his play, That Chair was My Wife, in the Minnesota Fringe Festival '09. Gallaudet University Press brought out a collection of his full-length plays Whispers of a Savage Sort and Other Plays about the Deaf American Experience in September 2009. Bridge Productions presented staged readings of his next two plays Jackhammer and The Darkest Room in the House in March 2010. His 19th play Pete Linden, Etc., was given a staged reading at the National Technical Institute of the Deaf (NTID) in September 2010. His play I Never Slept with Helen Keller was given staged readings by the New York Deaf Theatre in March 2016; it was given another staged reading at Playwrights Horizons in December 2016. He workshopped his 25th play Agency at NTID in March 2018. Ghosted, his debut directorial feature, is in post production. His short films include Some Women and Hippos & Giraffes, which he wrote and produced (Tim Chamberlain directed). His first direct-to-DVD project was the hugely successful Manny ASL: Stories in American Sign Language, featuring the renowned ASL storyteller Manny Hernandez. The DVD of his first full-length documentary Guy Wonder: Stories & Artwork came out in December 2003. His second DVD documentary was called Nathie: No Hand-Me-Downs, focusing on Nathie Marbury, a fabulous storyteller and legend from Austin, TX, which came out in May 2005. He has appeared as an actor on the TV program Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Episode: "Silencer"). He posts videos occasionally on his YouTube page.