Read an excerpt
See all author's titles
See also www.ryanknighton.com
and rknighton.blogspot.com
70,000 words
Finished books available
Canada: Knopf, Spring 2010
Poland: Nasza Ksiegarnia
(Photo: Tracy Rawa)
On his eighteenth birthday, Ryan Knighton was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a congenital disease that leads eventually to total blindness. He completed a BA (Hons) and an MA in English at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, and taught in South Korea for a year. In 1998 he was hired by Capilano College’s English Department to teach contemporary literature, pop-culture, rhetoric, and creative writing. His acclaimed first book was Cockeyed, a memoir of growing up and going blind that has been optioned for a film that will be directed by Jodie Foster; the book has been released in the USA, Canada, the UK, China, Taiwan, and Germany. Ryan now has 1% vision in one eye.
Dispatches from a Dad in the Dark
by Ryan Knighton
AN INTIMATE, IRREVERENT, AND UNPREDICTABLE STORY OF NEW FATHERHOOD — FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A BLIND MAN
- 'Scribe adapts 'Wings' for 'Ice Age' helmer': Variety
- C'mon Papa extract featured in Reader's Digest
- At Simon Fraser University's 2011 Alumni Association AGM
- Ryan joins This American Life for Act 2
- Ryan learns to surf with a deaf instructor
- This American Life blog screens "Punkin"
- Watch Ryan's "Punkin" on YouTube
- Speaking at the CUSP Conference in praise of low-fi design
- See Ryan taking trapeze lessons on The Mercer Report
- A 2010 Globe 100 selection: the 100 top-reviewed books of the year
- Ryan joins This American Life to riff on C'mon Papa
- Hear Ryan on CBC Radio's The Next Chapter
- "The memoirist as therapist" - Ryan writes in The Globe and Mail
- Interview in The Vancouver Sun
- Read an excerpt in Canadian Living magazine
- Interview in The Globe and Mail
- Interview in the National Post
- The Edmonton Journal's profile
- "12 or 20 Questions"
“A testament to the power of partnership, humour, and optimism.” — QUILL & QUIRE
“Knighton is a talented, clever writer, who transitions easily from introspection to comedy. … Knighton has a way of nailing things many parents think, but could ne'er so well express. … I laughed. I cried. Seriously.” — THE VICTORIA TIMES COLONIST
“Ryan Knighton staggers into parenthood blindly (literally), and this warm and funny book, in which he copes with the attendant problems and struggles to “see” his new daughter, could make you think of parenting in a whole new way.” — THE GLOBE AND MAIL
“Ryan Knighton can’t see, true. But his capacity to look inward, to create a landscape of what it is to be a blind parent, is nothing short of profound. He’s also hilarious, and I'm warning you, you're going to cry, too. C’mon Papa is a memoir like no other, about a life like no other.” — ALICIA ERIAN, author of Towelhead
“Every new parent behaves like they're the first human to have given birth, and you don't always want to be seated beside them at a dinner party. What makes Knighton special is that, being blind, he's exquisitely attuned to every detail of the experience, every moment of joy and embarrassment, in a way that can make the merely sighted feel frankly unperceptive. His book made me want to have another kid, just to see what I missed the first time round.” — DANIEL RICHLER, author of Kicking Tomorrow
“Painfully funny. Whether he's writing about getting run over, role-playing a cervix, or losing his infant daughter in the snow, Knighton is wise, witty, moving, and assured.” — ANNABEL LYON, author of The Golden Mean
“A warm, insightful and very funny book. Knighton is a writer you enjoy in the moment and think about later.” — TIMOTHY TAYLOR, author of Stanley Park
The final pages of Cockeyed, Ryan Knighton's internationally acclaimed comic memoir about going blind and growing up, closed with a casual musing about the future, and what fatherhood could mean for a blind man whose off-beat ways tend to privilege misadventure over common sense. Within days of that book's publication, Ryan's wife, Tracy, was pregnant.
C’mon Papa chronicles the first two years of blind fatherhood. Through unorthodox tales and reflections — both moving and wicked — Ryan takes us inside a new family bound and illuminated by his particular darkness and light. Balancing the sad and bittersweet with laugh-out-loud humour, the story begins in the shadow of a miscarriage, amidst a risk of birth defects that leaves Ryan and Tracy in a state of constant worry. C’mon, Papa is Ryan’s hilarious take on the spectacle of modern fatherhood — from pretending to be a cervix in prenatal class to attempting to change diapers without being able to see. The book is as much the story of Ryan’s birth into a strange new world as it is about his child’s arrival, and what the experience taught him about family, fear, marriage, hope, and the capacity of will.
Praise for C'MON PAPA
“Funny and moving … Knighton may be exploring well-trodden territory but he makes it new … Well-written, thoughtful and engaging, this is a discussion of parenting with a difference, a book valuable not so much because it tells a remarkable story but because it tells its story remarkably well.” — WINNPEG FREE PRESS
“Knighton has an unusual story and tells it attractively. C’mon Papa is honest, funny in places, and touching.” — THE VANCOUVER SUN
“Knighton writes with rare insight and humour about a common experience from an uncommon perspective. This is excellent new work by one of Canada's unique voices.” — NOW MAGAZINE
Praise for Ryan Knighton's Cockeyed
“Cockeyed is unexpectedly and frequently funny: Knighton maintains a certain gallows humour about his condition, and his total lack of self pity makes this book an enlightening and enjoyable read.” — VOGUE, UK
“Engaging and insightful, literally shedding light on a dark and misunderstood condition.” — KIRKUS REVIEWS, starred review
“Ultimately, what makes this wonderfully readable memoir different from others of its ilk is that the author emerges as someone you'd really like to hang out with. He's funny, imaginative, and possessed of a lightly-worn learning.. But best of all, Cockeyed is an unparalleled user's guide to blindness that will benefit the sighted as much as the sightless.” — THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, UK