This book will be released in March 2025.
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Genre-busting essay collection combining memoir, sound studies and bibliotherapy. Winner of the New Welsh Writing Awards 2018 Aberystwyth University Prize for an Essay Collection.
In his twenties, Ed Garland came close to suicide but later discovered reading to help him cope with hearing loss and tinnitus. In this unique blend of memoir and literary criticism, right at the cutting edge of research drawing on both the literary and the medical worlds, the author reveals his own journey – through music then fiction – towards an understanding of sonic loss and, ultimately, towards healing. A genre-busting mix of literary criticism, sound studies and memoir, the essays explore what fictional sonic experiences can tell us about sound in everyday life. Written with humorous honesty about the ups and downs – mostly downs – of a young man’s mental health, this is a thoughtful and original exploration of recovery, and of literature’s ability to challenge preconceptions.
The English-language fiction classics of Wales explored include the work of Margiad Evans, Bernice Rubens, and Deborah Kay Davies. The international titles are by Annie Proulx and Samuel Beckett. Earwitness amplifies the rich connections between literature, auditory perception and mental wellbeing.
"Earwitness is a funny and occasionally poignant exploration of the sonic dimensions of literature. Ed Garland deftly weaves reflections on his own, self-inflicted, hearing loss and tinnitus with an analysis of important but neglected textual representations of sound. This book will change the way you listen to the written word." – Dr Kirsti Bohata
Ed Garland was born in Manchester in 1984. After living in Leicester and Bristol, he moved to Aberystwyth in 2016. He received a PhD in English Literature from Aberystwyth University in 2022. His thesis analyses sonic experience in contemporary fiction. His book of essays, Earwitness: A Search for Sonic Understanding in Stories, won the New Welsh Writing award in 2018.