Ask the Author: Katherine Bouton
Answered Questions (7)
Katherine Bouton
I've written about cochlear implants in both my books and in my blog, but I haven't written a book specifically on c.i. technology. I do have a cochlear implant myself, and vertigo (which I am told is unrelated, something I find hard to believe). If you go on my website, katherinebouton.com, you can find my email address. I'd be happy to correspond more in email. Prefer not to put the address here.
Katherine Bouton
Exercise. Go to the gym and run on the treadmill. Go out for a long fast walk (if you have a dog you'll be accomplishing two things at one). Don't listen to music or books. Just let your mind float.
For me, it almost feels as if I'm getting fresh blood to the brain -- oxygen that allows me to think more clearly.
For me, it almost feels as if I'm getting fresh blood to the brain -- oxygen that allows me to think more clearly.
Katherine Bouton
Seeing your name in print is pretty great. Producing a work that's all your own is gratifying. Sharing information that fascinates you is fun.
For me, sharing my own difficulties in a way that may help others is truly gratifying.
For me, sharing my own difficulties in a way that may help others is truly gratifying.
Katherine Bouton
Read a lot. Take notes as you go through every day, so you'll remember the details and thoughts that surprised or interested you. Try and try again -- it's really hard to get it right the first time.
Don't tell people what you're writing about until you're pretty sure it's what you want to be doing. A puzzled or skeptical response to your idea can result in a premature grave (for the idea, not for you).
Don't tell people what you're writing about until you're pretty sure it's what you want to be doing. A puzzled or skeptical response to your idea can result in a premature grave (for the idea, not for you).
Katherine Bouton
I'm working on a companion book to Shouting Won't Help. This one is a more practical guide to living with hearing loss. It too is a narrative, though. Every chapter relates information and advice through anecdotes and experiences, my own and others. The subtitle of the book is "A Practical Guide to Life, Love, and Hearing Aids," which I think accurately reflects the range of the material.
Katherine Bouton
I always wanted to be a writer and at college eagerly plunged into English courses. I had a terrible freshman year professor, though, and never took another English course again. I'm very well read -- I love to read -- but all my literary knowledge is self-taught. Instead I was a history major, and I learned to love the way history unfolds in stories. I have written some fiction, when I was younger, but narrative journalism - the reporting of factual material through the lens of a story - is far more interesting to me. More interesting to me both as a writer and a reader. Nothing can beat a great novel, but really good narrative journalism can draw you into a story and educate you at the same time.
Katherine Bouton
My most recent book, Shouting Won't Help, came out in February of 2013. I had worked at The New York Times for more than 20 years with increasingly severe hearing loss. Like many people who develop hearing loss in mid life, especially if they're young (I was 30 when mine started), I didn't acknowledge it publicly. I barely acknowledged it privately. It was only after I left the Times in 2010 that I realized how debilitating my hearing loss had been, and how difficult it had been to work with such a serious disability. I decided to write Shouting Won't Help to tell people what hearing loss is like, to encourage others with hearing loss to be open about their loss, and also to work through my own still mixed feelings about my disability. I also had a good story to tell, about my years on the staff of William Shawn's New Yorker, about traveling as a freelance writer in my 30's to places like Crete and the Yucatan and Antarctica, and about life at The New York Times. The book is a combination of memoir and reporting about hearing loss. Some people seem to prefer the memoir sections, others the reporting, but most people seem to like the combination,
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Nov 06, 2017 05:31AM · flag