My Modest Blindness - Paperback

by Russell Brakefield (Author)

In his late twenties, poet Russell Brakefield is diagnosed with keratoconus, a degenerative eye condition that causes blurred vision, light sensitivity, and progressive loss of sight. In the years after, his condition worsens. In My Modest Blindness, he traverses this blurry landscape, drawing connections to art, literature, natural history, and pop culture. Part celebration and part lament, this book uses a sustained conversation with Jorge Luis Borges's famous lecture "On Blindness," as well as a "catalogue of delights of the visual world in the moments just before it leaves," to examine what it means to be a writer and a person slowly losing his ability to see.

Author Biography

Russell Brakefield is the author of Field Recordings (Wayne State University Press). His writing has appeared in the Indiana Review, New Orleans Review, The Common, Rattle, and elsewhere. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writers' Program, and he has been awarded fellowships from the University of Michigan Musical Society, the Vermont Studio Center, and the National Parks Service. He is assistant professor in the University Writing Program at the University of Denver.