The Mountain Midwife by Laurie Alice Eakes

When I finally got a teaching gig, it was part-time at a private school and paid in peanut pieces, or so it felt. I had a college degree in English literature, but no one was hiring blind teachers, not even certified ones, as I was.

I just didn’t have that kind of money.Īnother setback from my blindness-under employment right down to unemployment. I could do what I did in college-pay someone to retype for me, but a dollar a page-the going rate at the time-was fine for a 20-page paper, but not a 400-page manuscript. Unfortunately, I couldn’t proofread my typing once I transcribed something from Braille to print. I was a Braille user, so could write with a Perkins Brailler or slate and stylus, and I did-copiously. Though, at the time, I had some usable sight, it wasn’t of a great deal of practical use as far as reading went. The major one had a great deal to do with my blindness. They covered the business aspects, as well as the how-to stuff about writing, and that discouraged me for a number of reasons. When I got a little older, I acquired books from the library about how to be a writer. The innocence and naivete of being a child. Not knowing anything of the business of writing, of course, I thought one could write a book and get it published. LG: How did you begin writing professionally? Was there a moment when you decided to try to make a living as an author? Did your blindness play any role-positive or negative in making you think you could have a career as a writer?ĪE: I think I was nine or ten when I decided I wanted to be a professional writer. We let each other know about opportunities, which is how our stories ended up in Artificial Divide, a first-of-its-kind own-voices anthology featuring fiction by blind and low-vision authors.Īlthough we had a lovely get-to-know you phone chat a few days beforehand, this interview was conducted over email in 2020. (I’ll paste our YouTube conversation at Women and Children First Book Store at the end of this interview.)Īlice founded Blind Authors Info and Support group on Facebook that’s small but mighty. Alice agreed to be part of the Monster Book Tour for There Plant Eyes.

Then my editor broke the news that Huff Post wanted like several hundred dollars for me to quote a few lines, and so I decided I would reach out to Alice for an interview. We Write Them, Too.” I immediately knew I wanted to meet her.

I first encountered Alice Eakes in her Huff Post opinion piece: “ Yes, Blind People Read Books.

The Mountain Midwife by Laurie Alice Eakes