Louise Stern | |
Birth Place: | California, U.S. |
Occupation: | Writer, artist |
Education: | Gallaudet University Sotheby's Institute of Art (MA) |
Genres: | --> |
Subjects: | --> |
Notableworks: | 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]
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".
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.[6] Stern was commissioned to write stories for BBC Radio 4 in 2012 and 2013.[7] [8]
Stern studied at Gallaudet University, where she was the only student studying art history.[9] She moved to the United Kingdom in 2002 where she gained a Master of Arts 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. She is the founder and publisher of Maurice, a contemporary art magazine for children.[10]
She directed a film, Celan, based on the poetry of Paul Celan. The first screening had live spoken accompaniment by Polly Frame.[11] 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.[12]
She is the subject of the film Louisa in Majahua.[13]