Eli Clare (born 1963) is an American writer, activist, educator, and speaker. His work focuses on

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

, and

disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be Cognitive disability, cognitive, Developmental disability, dev ...

issues. Clare was one of the first scholars to popularize the bodymind concept. He has written two books of creative non-fiction, ''Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation'' (1999, 2009, 2015), ''Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure'' (2017); a collection of poetry, ''The Marrow's Telling: Words in Motion'' (2007); and has been published in many periodicals and anthologies.

Early life and education

Clare was born in

Coos Bay Coos Bay is an estuary where the Coos River enters the Pacific Ocean, the estuary is approximately 12 miles long and up to two miles wide. It is the largest estuary completely within Oregon state lines. The Coos Bay watershed covers an area of abou ...

in 1963 and grew up in Port Orford,

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. He attended

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

before transferring to

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

where he received a degree in women's studies in 1985. Clare earned an M.F.A. degree in creative writing from

Goddard College Goddard College is a progressive education private liberal arts low-residency college with three locations in the United States: Plainfield, Vermont; Port Townsend, Washington; and Seattle, Washington. The college offers undergraduate and gra ...

in 1993.

Career

Eli Clare coordinated a rape prevention program, and helped organize the first Queerness and Disability Conference in 2002. His work is associated with the second wave of the disability rights movement. Clare has received a number of awards for his work, including the Creating Change Award from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and LGBT Artist of the Year from Michigan Pride. In 2018, Clare received the Richard L. Schlegel Award for visionary LGBTQ leadership from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

. That year, his book ''Brilliant Imperfection'' won the

Randy Shilts Award The Randy Shilts Award is an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle to honour works of non-fiction of relevance to the gay community. First presented in 1997, the award was named in memory of American journalist Randy Shilts. Winn ...

for Gay Nonfiction from

Publishing Triangle The Publishing Triangle, founded in 1988 by Robin Hardy, is an American association of gay men and lesbians in the publishing industry. They sponsor an annual National Lesbian and Gay Book Month, and have sponsored the annual Triangle Awards pro ...

. In 2019, he was awarded a Disability Futures Fellowship by the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

and the

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitts ...

. Clare was a visiting scholar at the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

's Center for Diversity Innovation for the 2020–2021 academic year. He is also on the advisory board for the Disability Project, housed under the

Transgender Law Center The Transgender Law Center (TLC) is the largest American transgender-led civil rights organization in the United States. They were originally California's first "fully staffed, state-wide transgender legal organization" and were initially a fisca ...

, the largest national trans-led organization.

Bodymind

Eli Clare is one of the first scholars to popularize the concept of bodymind. Along with

Margaret Price Dame Margaret Berenice Price (13 April 194128 January 2011) was a Welsh soprano. Early years Price was born in Blackwood, near Caerphilly in South Wales. Born with deformed legs, she underwent surgery at age four and suffered pain in he ...

, Clare proposed that the bodymind expresses the interrelatedness of mental and physical processes. Clare uses bodymind in his work ''Brilliant Imperfection'' as a way to resist common Western assumptions that the body and mind are separate entities, or that the mind is “superior” to the body. Other prominent scholars to theorize on bodymind include Price,

Sami Schalk Sami Schalk is an Associate Professor in the Department of Gender & Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She was previously an Assistant Professor in the English Department at the University at Albany, SUNY. In 2019 she starte ...

Gloria Anzaldua Gloria may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Christian liturgy and music * Gloria in excelsis Deo, the Greater Doxology, a hymn of praise * Gloria Patri, the Lesser Doxology, a short hymn of praise ** Gloria (Handel) ** Gloria (Jenkin ...

, and Alyson Patsavas.

Publications

Eli Clare has published three books: ''Brilliant Imperfection'', ''The Marrow’s Telling'', and ''Exile and Pride.'' Clare's scholarly work has been published in ''

Public Culture ''Public Culture'' is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary academic journal of cultural studies, published three times a year—in January, May, and September—by Duke University Press. It is sponsored by the Department of Media, Culture, and Commu ...

'', '' GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies'', ''

Seattle Journal for Social Justice The ''Seattle Journal for Social Justice'' is a peer-reviewed student-edited law journal of the Seattle University School of Law Seattle University School of Law, or Seattle Law School, or SU Law (formerly University of Puget Sound School of L ...

'', '' Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies'', '' Tikkun'', and ''Disability Studies Quarterly''. Clare has also submitted chapters to the following anthologies: ''Gender and Women's Studies in Canada: Critical Terrain'', the fourth edition of ''The Disability Studies Reader'', ''Disability Studies and the Environmental Humanities: Toward an Eco-Crip Theory'', ''Material Ecocriticism'', ''The Blackwell Guide to Feminist Philosophy'', ''Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out'', ''Queerly Classed'', ''Unruly Bodies: Life Writing by Women with Disabilities'', and '' Queer Crips: Disabled Gay Men and Their Stories''. ''Queerly Classed'' is a collection of essays discussing the intersections of class background, social status, and "queerness," to which Clare contributed the essay "Losing Home." The anthology won the

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...

for Lesbian Studies and was a finalist for the

Stonewall Book Award The Stonewall Book Award is a set of three literary awards that annually recognize "exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience" in English-language books published in the U.S. They are sponsored by the Rainbow ...

s' Israel Fishman Nonfiction Award. '' Queer Crips: Disabled Gay Men and Their Stories'' is a collection of personal stories from gay men with disabilities edited by Bob Guter and John R. Killacky. To this anthology, Eli Clare submitted "Gawking, Gaping, Staring." The book won the 2004

for the Anthologies/Non-fiction category. Clare's poems and essays have been published in '' Sojourner: The Women’s Forum'', ''

Sinister Wisdom ''Sinister Wisdom'' is an American lesbian literary, theory, and art journal published quarterly in Berkeley, California. Started in 1976 by Catherine Nicholson and Harriet Ellenberger (Desmoines) in Charlotte, North Carolina, it is the longest ...

'', ''Cultural Activisms: Political Voices, Poetic Voices'', ''Points of Contact: Disability, Art, and Culture,'' and ''The Arc of Love: An Anthology of Lesbian Love Poems''.

''Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation''

''Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation'' is an autobiographical collection of essays first published by South End Press in 1999 and 2009 and republished by

Duke University Press Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 Du ...

in 2015. ''Exile and Pride'''s expanded edition, published in 2009, was a finalist for Foreword's 2009 INDIES Book of the Year Award. The 2015 edition includes a foreword by

Aurora Levins Morales Aurora Levins Morales (born February 24, 1954) is a Puerto Rican Jewish writer and poet. She is significant within Latina feminism and Third World feminism as well as other social justice movements. Biography Early life and education Levi ...

and an afterword by

Dean Spade Dean Spade (born 1977) is an American lawyer, writer, trans activist, and associate professor of law at Seattle University School of Law. In 2002, he founded the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a non-profit law collective in New York City that provide ...

. ''Exile and Pride'' discusses Clare's experiences as a "white disabled genderqueer activist/writer" and explores the meaning of "home" through autobiographical narratives while covering the topics of oppression, power, resistance, environmental destruction, capitalism, sexuality, institutional violence, gender, and social justice more generally.

''The Marrow's Telling: Words in Motion''

''The Marrow's Telling: Words in Motion'' is a collection of poetry published by Homofactus Press in 2007, though many of the poems had been previously published. The collection was a

finalist in 2007. In this work, Eli Clare "explores how bodies carry history and identity over time". The poems include contradiction and repetition as they discuss the themes of disability, race, gender, violence, and sexuality.

''Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure''

''Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure'' was published by Duke University Press in 2017''.'' In 2018, ''Brilliant Imperfection'' won the

for Gay Nonfiction. In ''Brilliant Imperfection'', Eli Clare explores the concept of cure, "the deeply held belief that body-minds considered broken need to be fixed," while using memoir, history, and critical analysis to discuss the intersectionality of race, disability, sexuality, class, and gender, as well as environmental politics. Clare is one of the first scholars to popularize the concept of bodymind, which he uses in ''Brilliant Imperfection'' as a way to resist common Western assumptions that the body and mind are separate entities or that the mind is “superior” to the body.

Personal life

Eli Clare has

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may be problems with sensa ...

and identifies as genderqueer and as a trans man. He currently lives near

Lake Champlain , native_name_lang = , image = Champlainmap.svg , caption = Lake Champlain-River Richelieu watershed , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = New York/Vermont in the United States; and Quebec in Canada , coords = , type = , ...

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clare, Eli Reed College alumni People from Curry County, Oregon Living people Writers from Oregon Activists from Oregon Mills College alumni Writers from Vermont Port Orford, Oregon American LGBT writers 1963 births People with cerebral palsy Genderqueer people