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Raymond Luczak (pronounce with silent “C”) A Deaf and Gay writer and editor, famous for book called Eyes of Desire: A Deaf & Lesbian Reader. He is Also well known for his prize winning at the QueerLit 2009 contest, with his novel called Men with Their Hands.

Early life
Raised in Ironwood, a small mining town in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. He is the seven out of nine siblings, yet the only Deaf in the family. He lost much of his hearing due to double pneumonia and fever at the age of seven months. However, he was not diagnosed until he was age of two. No one in his family suspected that he was a Deaf child growing up in a hearing family. They never suspected because Raymond did was he was told; Therefore, they never knew that he always depended on visual cues. For example, whenever an adult would say something he would look at his siblings turn around and quickly he would follow. Once he was diagnose by an audiologist that he was Deaf, his parents immediately ask for a hearing aid. Furthermore, He was also taken into speech therapy that lasted until his high school years. Everyone told Raymond that he was not supposed to sign because in would affect his progress in speech therapy. Raymond wanted to learn how to sign or learn a different mode of communication rather than Oralism. He would play with his other Deaf peers; In addition, he would see that they sign and were able to communicate with each other. Raymond felt left out because he had to depend more in gestures and pointing to get his message across. At the age of 15, Raymond started learning Sign Exact English (SEE) after spending nights learning the manual alphabet himself. However, when he inform his parents that he wanted to learn signs, they became angry, yet they agreed and supported his decision. Raymond started learning American Sign Language at Gallaudet University. 

Gallaudet University Life
Raymond knew he needed to be part of a Deaf Community, so after graduating from high school he decided to attend Gallaudet University where he got fluent in American Sign Language. He also became really involve in the Deaf community while attending the university. Here at Gallaudet, Raymond graduated with a B.A. in English and with magna cum laude. He also received and won numerous scholarships in honor of his writings. One of the Scholarships Raymond received while being at Gallaudet was the Ritz-Paris Hemingway Scholarship. Raymond also took many other classes at other schools, which lead him to win a winning place at the Jenny Mckean Fiction Workshop at the George Washigton University.

Career
Raymond never thought about becoming a writer. He started writing right after his grandmother suddenly passed away in October 1977. Around that time his grandmother past away, his speech therapist suggested him that writing would be a fun exercise. He had to write a few limericks, a five-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme. He found writing to be an act of self-preservation particularly when he entered his adolescence.

In 1988 Raymond Luczak decide to move to New York City, where his play called Snooty won first place in the New York Deaf Theater's 1990 in the competition called Samuel Edwards Deaf Playwrights, which, later was published as a book by the Tactile Mind Press in February 2004. Also, his essay called "Notes of a Deaf Gay Writer" won recognition and was use as a cover story for CHRISTOPHER STREET magazine. After, winning such recognition Alyson Publications requested him to edit Eyes of Desire: A Deaf Gay Eyes of Desire: A Deaf Gay & Lesbian Reader, which, later appear in June 1993. He ended up winning two Lambda Literary Award nominations (Best Lesbian and Gay Anthology, and Best Small Press Book).

By 1996 Deaf Life Press brought out his first book of poems called,St. Michael’s Falls. Later in July 2002, the Tactile Mind Press brought out two of his books: Silence is a Four-Letter Word: On Art & Deafness and This Way to the Acorns: poems. Men With Their Hands was publish December 2009. In February 2010 Midsummer Night's Press brought out his third collection of poems Mutes. In March 2011 Sibling Rivalry Press will bring out his fourth poetry collection Road work Ahead.

Raymond’s work has appeared in many anthologies and periodicals. His stories, interviews, essays, poems, and reviews have been publish in many diverse places such as BLOOM, TheaterWeek, Art & Understanding, Silent News, The Ragged Edge, The Dramatists Guild Quarterly, Handwave, Deaf Arts UK, Out, The Tactile Mind, Clerc Scar, and Van Gogh's Ear. Raymond’s poems were also accepted by Crab Orchard Review, The Upstart Crow, The Brooklyn Review, Ganymede, Pegasus, The Hazmat Review, Poetry Motel, Byline Magazine, and other places.

In September 2009, Gallaudet University Press brought out a collection of his full-length plays called Whispers of a Savage Sort and Other Plays about the Deaf American Experience. However, in September 2005, he relocated to Minneapolis, after living 21 years in Washington, DC and New York. There he works for a national newspaper called SIGNEWS for the Deaf.

Honors and Awards
Snooty won first place in the New York Deaf Theater’s 1990 Samuel Edwards Deaf Playwrights Competition.

"Notes of a Deaf Gay Writer" won acceptance as a cover story for Christopher Street magazine

Eyes of Desire: A Deaf Gay & Lesbian Reader won two Lambda Literary Award nominations

His first novel Men With their Hands won a first-prize award from the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation for Full-Length Fiction 2003 in the spring of 2004. Also, won first place in the Project: QueerLit 2006 Contest.

Bibliographies
Eyes of Desire: A Deaf & Lesbian Reader (1993)

St. Michael’s Fall: Poems (1996)

Silence is a Four-Letter word: On Art & Deafness (2002)

This Way to the Acorns: Poems (2002)

Snooty: A Comedy (2004)

When I am Dead:The Writing of George M.Teegarden (2006)

Eyes of Desire 2: A deaf GLBT Reader (2007)

Assembly requierd: Notes from a Deaf Gay Life (2009)

Whispers Of a Savage Sort and Other Plays about the Deaf American Expiriance (2009)

Men with Their Hands: A Novel (2009)

Mute: Poems (2010)

Note of a Deaf Gay Writier: 20 Years Later (2010)

Road Work Ahead: poems (2011)