Release Date: January 19, 2027
Size: 6×9, 314 pages
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-57869-245-3
eBook ISBN: 978-1-57869-246-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2026927965
Booksellers and Libraries: Order Info Here or at Ingram.

Synopsis

Significantly deaf since early childhood, this survivor of the sixties grew up in a world in which everyone seemed to mumble.

While his deafness was diagnosed at age sixteen, John Howland Jr. got his first hearing aid at age twenty. His young adult life was rocky, marked by countless jobs and temporary living arrangements, from hitchhiking around the country, jumping trains across Canada, overnighting in a jail cell, and spending a couple of weeks in a psychiatric ward. After three failed attempts to complete his freshman year in college, he later skipped ahead to graduate school to obtain two advanced degrees. Still restless, he dabbled in Vermont politics, spent twenty years as a journalist, and seven seasons as a Key West carpenter. Howland Jr. also recounts his spiritual journey from Catholic boarding school to the eventual acceptance of his lack of faith, assisted by Buddhist teachings and the guided practice of holotropic breathwork. His exploration of nonverbal communication in later years led him to massage school and to Contact Improvisation, a silent form of moving meditation. In both cases, he approached these practices as conversations without words, ideal for a man who is hearing impaired.

Finding My Place in the Dance is a memoir of transcending disability and a lifetime of eclectic careers to find peace and meaning in the golden years.

Praise

“An eye-opening and candid self-appraisal, and a wonderful read.” 

—Elizabeth Inness-Brown, author of Burning Marguerite and Flower Girls

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“The rhythm of a life force seeking an enlightened crescendo. A story steeped in history, prose, politics, and personal discovery. What a beautifully written book.” 

—Melinda Moulton, writer, filmmaker, commentator, and TV host

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“Howland’s writing evokes the exquisite presence and nuanced nonverbal communication required by the dance of Contact Improvisation, allowing readers to step into his embodied experience and understand its transformative power in his life.”

—Kristin Horrigan, professor of dance at Emerson College

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“John Howland has given readers a true gift in Finding My Place in the Dance. From growing up in small-town Vermont with a rich cast of family characters to Haight-Ashbury in the Summer of Love, Key West in the 1970s and ’80s, and serving in Vermont government in the 1990s and early 2000s, this memoir captures the arc of a closely observed life. A compelling travelogue through a disparate collection of places and times, Finding My Place in the Dance chronicles Howland’s personal journey as he comes to terms with what was gained and what was left behind. A natural storyteller, he brings piercing insight, sharp prose, and engaging humor to this expansive story.”

—Katherine Towler, author of The Penny Poet of Portsmouth

Reviews & In the News

Coming Soon.

Meet the Author

Following two decades as a journalist in Vermont, Virginia, and Florida, John Howland Jr. served as Vermont’s deputy secretary of state, deputy state auditor, and director of the state’s medical practice board. He is now a massage therapist and has been part of the Contact Improvisation dance community for many years.