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 non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

, 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, d ...

issues. Clare was one of the first scholars to popularize the

bodymind Bodymind is an approach to understand the relationship between the human Human body, body and mind where they are seen as a single integrated unit. It attempts to address the mind–body problem and resists the Western traditions of mind–body du ...

concept.

Early life and education

Clare was born in

Coos Bay Coos Bay (Hanis language, Coos language: Atsixiis or Hanisich) 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 sta ...

in 1963 and grew up in Port Orford,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. He attended

Reed College Reed College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland, Portland, Oregon, E ...

before transferring to

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

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 was a Private college, private college with three locations in the United States: Plainfield, Vermont; Port Townsend, Washington; and Seattle. The college offered undergraduate and graduate degree programs. With predecessor ins ...

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 The disability rights movement is a global social movement that seeks to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for all disabled people. It is made up of organizations of disability activists, also known as disability advocates, around ...

and disability justice. 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 university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...

. That year, his book ''Brilliant Imperfection'' won the Randy Shilts Award 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 prog ...

. 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 $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...

and the

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, commonly known as the Mellon Foundation, is a New York City-based private foundation with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969 merger ...

. Clare was a visiting scholar at the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public university, public research university in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. ...

'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, 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, Gloria Anzaldua, and Alyson Patsavas.

Publications

Eli Clare has published two books of creative non-fiction, ''Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation'' (1999, 2009, 2015) and ''Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure'' (2017); a collection of poetry, ''The Marrow's Telling: Words in Motion'' (2007); and contributed to a number of periodicals and anthologies. Clare's scholarly work has been published in ''

Public Culture ''Public Culture'' is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary academic journal of cultural studies published by Duke University Press. It is sponsored by the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. ''Public Culture'' h ...

'', '' GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies'', '' Seattle Journal for Social Justice'', '' 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 Foundation, Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literatur ...

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 Rainbo ...

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'', ''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 ...

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 and an afterword by Dean Spade. ''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

's Randy Shilts Award 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, spasticity, stiff muscles, Paresis, weak muscles, and tremors. There may b ...

. He identifies as genderqueer and as a trans man. As of 2018, he lived near

Lake Champlain Lake Champlain ( ; , ) is a natural freshwater lake in North America. It mostly lies between the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and Vermont, but also extends north into the Canadian province of Quebec. The cities of Burlington, Ve ...

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clare, Eli 1963 births Living people Activists from Oregon American transgender writers American non-binary writers Mills College alumni People from Curry County, Oregon People with cerebral palsy Port Orford, Oregon Reed College alumni Transgender male writers Transgender non-binary people Writers from Oregon Writers from Vermont American writers with disabilities LGBTQ writers with disabilities