More About the Author
Before becoming a teacher and writer--the vocations that have identified her for most of her adult life--Elizabeth Claman pursued a number of different interests and vocations. In 1969 She earned a BFA in painting from Cal Arts (then called Chouinard). She worked in New York as a researcher for NBC (1966-67), and in Hollywood as a script reader, film production assistant, stylist for TV commercials, actress and model (1970-'76). Those Hollywood years are the basis for her novel, "The Prodigal Wife."
In 1986 she earned an M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, in 1997, a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Oregon. During those years, she published a poetry chapbook, "Peripheral Visions" (Five Fingers Press, 1989), won the Grand Prize in the Eve of St. Agnes Poetry Competition judged by Diane Wakoski (also 1989), and she received two grants from Oregon Literary Arts (1991 and 1994). In 1992 she co-translated with Steven Rendall "History and Memory" by Jacques LeGoff (Columbia University Press). Her poems and short stories appeared in numerous "litmags," such as River Styx, Hubbub, The Galley Sail Review, Bastard Review, The Napa Review, Fireweed, Alaska Quarterly Review and Many Mountains Moving, in two Milkweed Editions anthologies, "Outsiders" and "Night Out," and in "Intimate Kisses" (New World Library, 2001), among others. She edited the anthologies, "Each in Her Own Way," "Writing Our Way Out of the Dark," "Hard Love," and "Passionate Lives," all from Queen of Swords Press, and served on the editorial board for both fiction and poetry for The Northwest Review (1992-1996).
As an educator for almost 30 years, Claman taught English, creative writing, art, comparative literature and French at many different levels. She now lives in Richmond, California, not far from her daughter and granddaughter, and works full time as a writer. She has published two novels so far, "The Prodigal Wife" (2009), and "Identity Blues" (2010), and is currently at work on a third novel. In addition to writing and family, her passions include progressive Christianity; advocacy for peace, justice and the environment; organic gardening, and learning more about the world and its diverse cultures.
