d/Deaf and d/Dumb chronicles the author¿s dumb, ¿deaf kid¿ origins in Bayport, New York to his current life as a «young superhero» writer. Portraying the conflicting cultural worlds of hearing and Deaf, it describes his life in an in-between underworld and his identity as it alternates between being oppressed and empowered. These feelings are inescapably and forever the reality of those who live on the margins of our larger society.

«In both style and substance, form and content, Joseph Michael Valente paints and blends for us a between space. He begins in a scene of urgent action, setting us down in the life of a young boy on the run - literally and figuratively and for the rest of the story we will return, again and again, to this sense of perpetual animation [...] as if we are onboard the Star Trek Voyager and have just been whipped into warp speed. Valente means for us, I think, to be in this vertigo. It is deaf space.» (Brenda Jo Brueggemann, Professor and Vice-Chair, Rhetoric Composition and Literacy (RCC) Program, The Ohio State University)
«Compelling, smart and deeply moving-Joseph Michael Valente takes us on a personal and professional journey into the Deaf world. Using contemporary social theory, he shows us how to make sense of the contradictory messages sent by the legions of helping professionals who want to repair supposedly damaged bodies and minds. Powerful story telling combined with an insightful reading of challenging texts!» (Jonathan Silin, Author of 'My Father's Keeper: The Story of a Gay Son and His Aging Parents')
«Joeseph Michael Valente's story is powerfully written, combining the best of autoethnographic narrative research methods with compelling and dramatic content. Valente's text has the power to make teachers and parents aware of the critical role they play in shaping children's social and personal identities and in determining how differences are made to matter. More importantly, it empowers teachers and parents to question the tyranny of taken-for-granted, standardized, 'common sense' approaches to educating children whose gifts are not visible through a deficit lens.» (Kathleen M. Collins, Author of 'Ability Profiling and School Failure: One Child's Struggle to be Seen as Competent').

Joseph Michael Valente is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at Pennsylvania State University.