Claire Elisabeth Donato (born September 12, 1986, in

Wilmington, DE Wilmington is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near w ...

) is an American writer and multidisciplinary artist based in

Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

Early life and education

Donato grew up in and around

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. In 2010, she received her MFA in Literary Arts from

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

, where she studied with C.D. Wright and

Keith Waldrop Bernard Keith Waldrop (December 11, 1932 – July 27, 2023) was an American poet, translator, publisher, and academic. He won the National Book Award for Poetry for his 2009 collection ''Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy''. Early life and educ ...

. Prior to attending Brown, she received a BA in English Writing from the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

, where she studied with

Ross Gay Ross Gay (born August 1, 1974) is an American poet, essayist, and professor of English at Indiana University who won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his 2014 book ''Catalog of Unabashed ...

. Her first language was French.

Career

In addition to her writing, Donato is the creator of various feminist digital artworks and performance interventions, and is also an illustrator, photographer, singer-songwriter, and practitioner of Zen meditation. She has collaborated with artists including

Anna Moschovakis Anna Elizabeth Moschovakis is a Greek American poet, author, and translator. Early life Moschovakis was born to an American mother and a Greek father. She split her time growing up between the U.S. and Greece, where her father owned what she d ...

, Told Slant,

David Jhave Johnston David Jhave Johnston is a Canadian poet, videographer, and motion graphics artist working chiefly in digital and computational media,. and a researcher at the Center for Digital Narrative at the University of Bergen. This artist's work is often ...

, Anastasios Karnazes, and

Mark Baumer Mark Baumer (December 19, 1983 – January 21, 2017) was an American writer, adventurer, and environmental activist. In 2010, Baumer walked across the United States in 81 days. In 2016, he attempted to walk barefoot across America, in order to r ...

. She is currently the Assistant Chairperson of Writing at

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

, where she virtually addressed the Class of 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Works

Donato's works include publications in ''Forever,'' ''Parapraxis,'' ''GoldFlakePaint'', ''The Chicago Review,'' ''The Brooklyn Rail,'' ''Oversound,'' ''VICE,'' ''DIAGRAM'', ''The Believer,'' ''BOMB'', and ''Harp & Altar''. Her books are: *''Someone Else's Body'' (chapbook) (Cannibal Books, 2009) *''Burial'' (novella) ( Tarpaulin Sky Books, 2013) *''The Second Body'' (poetry collection) (Poor Claudia, 2016) *''The One on Earth: Selected Works on Mark Baumer'' (introduction to prose anthology) (Fence Books, 2021) *''Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts'' (short story collection) (Archway Editions, 2023) Her collaboration with Jeff T. Johnson on SPECIAL AMERICA was an ongoing performance that ended in 2016. This work started within the electronic literature community as a performance and was translated as a movie. She collaborated on netprovs such as ''All Time High''. Her video-based work, ''Material Studies'' has been shown at the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) PS1,

Knockdown Center Knockdown Center is a cultural space, performance venue, and art center, located in the Maspeth, Queens, Maspeth neighborhood of Queens, New York City. The Center includes many architecturally notable features: 20,000 square-foot main hall, a back ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, and

University Fernando Pessoa Fernando Pessoa University (UFP; Portuguese: ''Universidade Fernando Pessoa'') is a private university located in Porto and Ponte de Lima, Portugal. It was founded in 1996 and named after Fernando Pessoa, a Portuguese writer and poet. Courses ...

Awards

John Hawkes Prize in Fiction for ''Burial'' judged by Robert Coover. 2020 Distinguished Teacher Award at Pratt Institute

References

External links

* * * * American electronic literature writers American women writers American women artists 1986 births Living people {{US-publisher-stub University of Pittsburgh alumni Brown University alumni