Dr Jessica Kirkness is the author of The House With All The Lights On, a memoir about growing up with two Deaf grandparents.

She has a PhD in the fields of Life Writing and Disability Studies, and teaches nonfiction writing at Macquarie University. Her writing has been shortlisted for various prizes such as The Richell Prize for Emerging Writers, The Peter Blazey Fellowship, and the Writing NSW Varuna Fellowship.

Jessica's work has been published in Meanjin, The Guardian, Women's Agenda, and The Conversation as well as academic journals. 

“A moving, artful story about how we seek to understand our grandparents, and how they become the frame through which we see the world.”
— Andrew Pippos
“A family story, a meeting of worlds, told with rare insight and grace.”
— Kate Rossmanith

Dymocks

Published by Allen & Unwin
Available online and in bookstores

AU

Amazon

AU/UK

Waterstones

UK

“A sensory window into Deaf gain and other complexities of our community.”
— ASPHYXIA
“A sensitive and compelling memoir... filled with touching and funny recollections, deep feelings and useful information about Deafness.”
— Professor Lennard J. Davis

Jessica has traversed the boundary between deaf and hearing cultures all her life. Her memoir tells the story of her grandparents’ experience of growing up deaf in a hearing world—one where sign language was banned for much of the twentieth century—and her own experience as a hearing child raised in a family that often struggled to navigate their elders’ difference.

This journey takes her from the family home to the workplaces of research audiologists, and back to England where she visits her grandparents’ old schools and other family landmarks - discovering along the way how terribly their deafness has been misunderstood.

Her debut book, The House With All The Lights On, captures the universal experience of navigating complex family relationships and beautifully explores the nuances of identity in what is both a memoir and a love letter to those closest to her heart.