Hamilton – Stephen Kuusisto, a writer who for almost forty years tried to hide the fact that he was legally blind, will give a reading from his autobiographical account Planet of the Blind at 91Â鶹¾«Æ· on March 23, 1999. The Humanities Colloquium Lecture Series reading, which will take place at 4:00 p.m. in the Robert Ho Lecture Room, Lawrence Hall, is free and open to the public.
Only able to read by holding a book an inch from his face, and living in a world of blurred colors and shapes, Kuusisto nevertheless graduated from college with honors in English, attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, won a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Finland, and began graduate work at the University of North Carolina. All the while, he lived in denial as he tried to hide his blindness until age 39, when he came to terms with it and began a new life with a seeing-eye dog named Corky. Kuusisto tells his story in Planet of the Blind, published by The Dial Press in 1997.
For more information, contact the Division of the Humanities office at 315-228-7276.
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March 16, 1999