Eli Clare

Writer, speaker, activist, teacher, poet.

Eli Clare weaves hope, critical analysis, and compassionate storytelling together in his work on disability and queerness/transness, insisting on the twine of race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, and environmental justice.

New Book Coming! Unfurl: Poems, Essays, and In-Betweens

Eli is hard at work on a new book, tentatively titled Unfurl: Poems, Essays, and In-Betweens. It examines the making and unmaking of categories and asks the question: who might we become if we unfurl ourselves between and through categories, across divides of human and more-than-human, animate and inanimate?

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Head shot of a man with pale skin, short reddish hair and glasses, and an earring in one ear. Behind him is some driftwood.

Whether keynoting a conference, helping build queer disability community, or facilitating an anti-ableism training, Eli brings a poet’s passion for language and an activist’s passion for social justice to his work.

Book cover: Brilliant Imperfection - Grappling with cure, by Eli Clare. ( in the background is a pile of brown, gray and black stones with one green stone in the middle.)

Eli’s groundbreaking books–Brilliant Imperfection, Exile and Pride, and The Marrow’s Telling–are read by academics and activists alike. They are used frequently in classrooms and passed among friends.

Eli stands in front of a microphone speaking with one arm raised.

Thought-provoking, compassionate, and challenging, Eli will enliven your classroom, fire up your conference, and educate your organization. Bring him to your community or campus to teach, speak, or train.

Banner image: Eli Clare – Painting by Riva Leher. Photo of Eli at beach by Samuel Lurie. Photo of Eli at the mic by Mengwen Cao.