Beyond the Book: Background information when reading Cockeyed

Beyond the Book

This article relates to Cockeyed

Ryan Knighton teaches contemporary literature and creative writing at Capilano College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  He's the author of two books of poetry, Swing in The Hollow (2002)  and Two Bits (2007), and co-author of a collection of short fiction (Cars, 2002); he has also published widely as a journalist and essayist, and has produced, written and performed radio monologues and documentaries about blindness for the CBC.

He was born in 1972, in British Columbia, Canada and in 1995 completed a BA Honours in English at Simon Fraser University. After a period teaching in Korea (hilariously and poignantly described in Cockeyed) he returned to Canada where he completed his BA in 1998. Despite his rapidly failing eyesight, Knighton was hired just days shy of his twenty-sixth birthday by Capilano College's English Department where he continues to teach literature and creative writing at the school.  He is now in the final stage before total blindness, only 1% of his 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!

He has just signed a two-book deal with Knopf Canada.  All things being equal, in 2009, Knopf will publish Little Light of Mine, his misadventures in fatherhood, and in 2012 they will publish Ryan's first travel book, Nothing to See Here," in which he searches for experiences of what he can taste, smell, touch and hear.

He lives in East Vancouver with his wife, Tracy.

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This "beyond the book article" relates to Cockeyed. It originally ran in August 2006 and has been updated for the June 2007 paperback edition. Go to magazine.