Louise Stern

Louise Stern
Born 1978
California
Occupation Writer, artist
Alma mater Sotheby's Institute of Art
Notable works Chattering
Relatives Shoshannah Stern (sister)

Louise Stern (born 1978) is an American writer and artist, and works around ideas of language, communication and isolation.[1]

Stern grew up in an exclusively deaf community and is fourth-generation deaf on her father's side, and third-generation deaf on her mother's side. She attended California School for the Deaf, Fremont.[2]

Literature

Her first collection of short stories, Chattering, was published by Granta in 2011. Alan Warner called it "an amazing debut: vibrantly perceptive, gentle, funny and profound".[2]

Her first novel, Ismael and His Sisters, was written and set in a deaf village in the Yucatán Peninsula, where Stern communicated in Mayan Sign Language.[3][4] There will be an accompanying book of photographs to it.[5]

She has also written plays, including The Ugly Birds and The Interpreter, which was performed at the Bush Theatre.[4][5][6] Stern was commissioned to write stories for BBC Radio 4 in 2012 and 2013.[7][8]

Visual art

Stern studied at Gallaudet University, where she was the only student studying art. She moved to the United Kingdom in 2002 where she gained an MA from Sotheby's Institute of Art and worked as an assistant to Sam Taylor-Wood.

Her own artwork has been exhibited in galleries in Geneva, Barcelona, Madrid, London and Port Eliot.[2] She is the founder and publisher of Maurice, a contemporary art magazine for children.[9]

Film

She directed a film, Celan, based on the poetry of Paul Celan. The first screening had live spoken accompaniment by Polly Frame.[10] The premiere screening of Celan and accompanying live performance took place at a PoetryFilm Equinox event curated by Zata Kitowski.

In 1999 she acted with her sister Shoshannah in the film The Auteur Theory.[11]

She is the subject of the film Louisa in Majahua.[12]

Books

References

  1. ↑ "Louise Stern". Kindle Project. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 O'Kelly, Lisa (May 30, 2010). "Louise Stern: 'I didn't think I would ever live in the hearing world, let alone write in it'". The Observer. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Ismael and His Sisters". Granta. Granta. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 England, Juliet. "A catch-up with author Louise Stern". Hearing Times. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Deaf writer shines at RADAR festival". Hearing Times. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  6. ↑ Gray, Freddy (May 14, 2011). "The chattering classes". The Spectator (May 14, 2011). Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  7. ↑ "The Electric Box". BBC. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Latido". BBC. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  9. ↑ "LOUISE STERN". Granta. Granta. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Programme: PoetryFilm Equinox: Translation, Transcreation, Punctuation". PoetryFilm. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  11. ↑ "The Auteur Theory". imdb. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Louisa in Majahua". Steven M Fisher. Retrieved September 26, 2014.