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Ryan
Knighton was born on September 19, 1972, in Langley, British Columbia.
On his eighteenth birthday, Knighton was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa
(RP), a congenital disease marked by a progressive pathology of night-blindness,
tunnel vision and eventually total blindness. In 1995 he completed a BA Honours in English at Simon Fraser University. Abandoning graduate studies, he moved to South Korea and became one of the country’s many poverty jetset English teachers. (A bad one, too). When he returned to Canada, Knighton resumed his MA, again at SFU, and completed it in 1998. Despite his rapidly failing eyesight, Knighton was hired just days shy of his twenty-sixth birthday by Capilano College’s English Department. He continues to teach literature and creative writing at the school’s nicest campus. For two years he also served as editor of The Capilano Review, even curating the magazine’s visual art spread. Good descriptions helped. In 2001, Anvil Press published his first book, Swing in the Hollow. The following year he co-authored Cars with George Bowering, Canada’s first poet laureate (Coach House Books). Knighton’s comic memoir, Cockeyed – about growing up, going blind, and getting both wrong – was published in 2006 in Canada and the U.S. and has been subsequently published around the world, and in translation. Cockeyed was shortlisted for several literary awards, including The Stephen Leacock medal for Humour, Canada’s national honour for the funniest book of the year. Since then, Knighton has written numerous satirical and comic essays for The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, The Sunday Telegraph, The Vancouver Sun and The Montreal Gazette, and for such popular magazines as Salon.com, The Believer, The Walrus, The Utne Reader, Canadian Living, Saga (UK), Saturday Night, Geist, Waitrose (UK), and Vancouver Magazine, among many others. Ryan is also the subject of the forthcoming documentary film, As Slow As Possible, directed by Scott Smith (Falling Angels). The film follows Ryan’s quest to a German monastery to hear a single note change during the longest, slowest song ever performed. You know, fun blind guy stuff. He has also contributed to CBC radio’s celebrated pop-culture show, “Definitely Not the Opera”, writing and performing radio monologues and documentaries. Now in the final stage before total blindness, only 1% of Knighton’s visual field refuses to quit. As for interests, he has many, but none involve sports or sudden movements. Every year he adds another tattoo to his collection, and hopes it comes close to what he imagines. East Vancouver is home, and everybody agrees that Knighton’s wife is something else. You can often find him walking his seeing-eye pug, Cairo. To date, Ryan has given readings, talks and performances around the world, in such destination cities as Anchorage, Auckland, London, New York, L.A. and Brantford. Yes, even Wichita. |
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