Eli Clare
Eli Clare is a white, disabled, genderqueer writer, speaker, activist, and poet currently residing in the Green Mountains of Vermont. He travels the United States and Canada writing and speaking about his life, the books he’s written, and queer and disability politics. Clare has a B.A. in Women’s Studies from Mills College, and a M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College. He has written two books, Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure and Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation along with a book of poetry, The Marrow’s Telling: Words in Motion. In addition to this, he has been published in numerous periodicals and anthologies.
Brilliant Imperfection
Winner of the 2018 Publishing Triangle’s Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction
In this book, Clare expertly intertwines theory with lived experience and poetic voice. He expertly dissects the politics of “cure” and its meaning for disabled people. He questions what society considers as normal and natural, along with delving into the intersections of disability with race, class, and gender.
Exile and Pride
First published in 1999 and now on its third edition, Exile and Pride has become a primer in disability politics and gender studies. In this book, Clare writes about his experiences as a white, disabled, genderqueer person. In addition to this, he writes about sexuality, environmentalism, and capitalism. With a mix of memoir and theory and told by the voice of a poet, Clare recounts the ways that power is constructed in our world.
The Marrow’s Telling
A Lambda Literary Award finalist in 2008.
The Marrow’s Telling is a collection of poetry and prose detailing how bodies carry histories and identities. Clare writes,
In the United States, too many of us have been taught to fear or avoid poetry, to feel bored or stupid in its presence. As an activist-poet, I want this book to be a door held wide open. Read it like a demonstration, a riot, a late night spray-painting action.
Through poetry, Clare opens a door to his experiences with race, gender, sexuality, environmentalism, childhood, and disability among others.
Website:
Books:
Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation
Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure
The Marrow’s Telling: Words in Motion
Interviews:
http://www.myhusbandbetty.com/wordPressNEW/2007/08/22/five-questions-with-eli-clare/
https://pitbull-poet.livejournal.com/21560.html
https://www.deafpoetssociety.com/eli-clare-ideas-issue-5
http://wesleyanargus.com/2017/02/13/the-act-of-telling-is-part-of-the-resistance-a-conversation-with-eli-clare/
https://uppingtheanti.org/journal/article/09-resisting-easy-answers/
https://www.lambdaliterary.org/interviews/04/29/eli-clare/
http://blog.pshares.org/index.php/the-complicated-and-contradictory-mosaic-of-cure-an-interview-with-eli-clare/
Podcasts:
https://kpfa.org/episode/pushing-limits-march-3-2017/
Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GOl_Yk3hms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpIsiYMQiRo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcv1U8kDNAI
