"A frank, bitingly humorous memoir." “Galloway’s new memoir tells her story from the inside out, creating a bridge to hearing audiences. An actress, writer, and performance artist, she is dexterous in her use of words and devastating with a sense of black humor that brings numerous laugh-out-loud delights. There is no political correctness here, only a poignant life journey of unexpected challenges.” “Owing to an antibiotic given to her mother during pregnancy, performance artist Galloway started going deaf and experiencing bizarre out-of-body experiences at age nine. Going from "normal" to disabled is jarring, and her new oversized hearing aids and thick glasses make her feel like a freak. Despite her disability, Galloway’s strong personality, heightened sense of drama, and attraction to girls lead to an unconventional and barrier-busting story filled with sexual experimentation and a desire for a life lived at the extremes, all ably described in this compelling memoir. A good choice to strengthen disability, feminist, and gay studies collections, too.” "When Galloway was 10, she proclaimed herself a "child freak," and by the standards of the world around her she wasn't wrong. Deaf with bad eyes and queer with a hard sense of humor, Galloway's account of her survival induces the most uncomfortable laughter of the season." "Told with understandable rage, quirky humor, and extraordinary humanity, this remarkable woman’s engaging account deserves a large readership." “Although Galloway embodies the self-effacing title of her book, the poignancy of her life story resides in her humility and unflinching sense of humor, which counter the heartbreak of the tale.” “At times hilarious and others heartbreaking, Mean Little Deaf Queer manages to educate the reader about what it feels like to grow up always feeling like an outsider. In the tradition of writers like Sedaris, Galloway manages to find humor and absurdity in even the saddest moments. Whether faking her own drowning at a summer camp for disabled children,or taking an acting job in the role of an “alternative Santa Claus” at an “alternative mall,” Galloway’s stories are intriguing. If anything, I wish the book had been longer.” “Galloway was born a storyteller, and her narrative gifts are in full force throughout, spinning yarns about herself and her family that mesmerize…” "Like discovering a lost Sedaris, this is the kind of writing that encourages laughing and reading out loud."

Quotes
"You don't have to be mean, little, deaf, or queer to take heart from this miraculously unsentimental, deliriously funny, refreshingly spite-free, joyously weirdo-embracing memoir. All you have to be is human. Like Augusten Burroughs, Frank McCourt, and Mary Karr, Terry Galloway has written a memoir that transcends its hilarious particularities to achieve the universality of true art."
—Sarah Bird, author of How Perfect is That and The Mommy Club

"Terry Galloway has written a gripping memoir-at times harrowing, at times starkly moving-that chronicles a life beset by two enormous challenges: growing up gay in a very red state, and growing up deaf. Lesser mortals would fold, but Galloway navigates the highs and lows of her life with grace, insight, and unflinching candor."
—Doug Wright, playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and winner of both the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize for Drama

"Cast by society as an outsider for most of her life, both in her queerness and her deafness, I am reminded, reading Terry Galloway's brilliant memoir, that most good writers create from an outsider position, a place of inner isolation and silent engagement with the deep issues of life. Galloway has suffered in her life, but with great bravery, and is indeed a very good writer who uses her lifelong separateness to reveal truths about the human heart that apply to us all."
—Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

"This is not your mother's triumph-of-the-human-spirit memoir. Yes, Terry Galloway is resilient. But she's also caustic, depraved, utterly disinhibited, and somehow sweetly bubbly, a beguiling raconteuse who periodically leaps onto the dinner table and stabs you with her fork. Her story will fascinate, it will hurt, and you will like it."
—Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home

"This is a damn fine piece of work which is unbelievably powerful. This story is true and passionate and fearless and funny as hell when it is not heartbreaking. I expect this book to charm the hell out of great numbers of people, piss off a few, and give hope to many more."
—Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard out of Carolina and Cavedwellers

"Although Terry Galloway confesses a fondness for crappy memoirs, her own Mean Little deaf Queer is anything but. It is funny, poignant, raw, uplifting, and exuberant. It is my new favorite book, and after you read it, it will be yours, too."
—Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle