The House with All the Lights on: Three Generations, One Roof, a Language of Light

The House With All The Lights On is a lyrical exploration of family, identity and history, and what it is to be a member of a family where the most beautiful of bonds are born in difference

’If I were to tell you our story in sign language-the story of my grandparents and me-I’d begin with a single finger touching my chest.’

Jessica Kirkness has traversed the boundary between deaf and hearing cultures all her life. Her memoir tells the story of her grandparents who grew up deaf in a hearing world--one where sign language was banned for much of the twentieth century--and weaves in her own experience as a hearing child in a family that often struggled to navigate their elders’ difference.

This journey takes her from the family home to the workplaces of research audiologists, and back to England where she visits her grandparents’ old schools and other family landmarks--discovering along the way how terribly their deafness has been misunderstood.

The House With All The Lights On captures the universal experience of navigating complex family relationships and beautifully explores the nuances of identity in what is both a memoir and a love letter to those closest to her heart.

’A sensory window into Deaf gain and other complexities of our community.’ - Asphyxia, author of The Words in My Hands

’An elegant and empathic love letter to family.’ Fiona Murphy, author of The Shape of Sound

Jessica Kirkness is a writer and researcher who lives in Sydney on Cammeraygal land. Her work has been published in Meanjin and The Conversation, among other outlets. In 2021, her manuscript was shortlisted for the Richell Prize for Emerging Writers. In the same year, she also received a commendation for the Peter Blazey Fellowship, awarded to writers in the field of Life Writing. Earning her PhD in 2019, her research investigates the value of life writing and creative nonfiction in animating the ’hearing line’ the invisible boundary between Deaf and hearing cultures. She currently teaches nonfiction writing at Macquarie University. The House With All The Lights On is her first book.