Elise Matthesen

{{Infobox artist

| name = Elise Matthesen

| image = File:Elise Matthesen 2008 (cropped).jpg

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| caption = Elise Matthesen, 2008

| birth_name = Elise Krueger

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1960}}

| birth_place = Wisconsin United States

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| field = Journalism, science-fiction, bisexual rights

| training =

| movement = Interstitial Arts Movement, Bisexual Rights

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Elise Matthesen (née Krueger; born 1960){{cite book |title=Queer Twin Cities |url=https://archive.org/details/queertwincities00twin |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-8166-5320-1 |author1=Twin Cities GLBT Oral History Project |author2=Kevin P. Murphy |author3=Jennifer L. Pierce | author4=Larry Knopp |publisher=Univ Of Minnesota Press |year=2010}} is an American essayist, journalist, poet, and fiction writer (primarily of science fiction and fantasy; she is an active supporter of the interstitial arts movement), an award-winning maker of art jewelry, and a longtime bisexual rights activist. For 13 years, she was the companion of the late John M. Ford, until his death in September 2006.[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/john-m-ford-418123.html Clute, John. "Obituary: John M. Ford: Science-fiction writer and poet"], The Independent 30 September 2006 She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is a member of the First Universalist Church there.

Early life

Matthesen was born in Wisconsin.

Career

She is an anorexia nervosa survivorMatthesen, Elise "Anorexia" in Women en Large: Images of Fat Nudes (Laurie Toby Edison & Debbie Notkin); Books in Focus, 1994 as well as a speaker, facilitator, and activist on issues of body acceptance, bisexuality,Matthesen, Elise [https://groups.google.com/group/alt.polyamory/msg/37032e158dbefc85?output=gplain "Female-to-Elf?"] Keynote speech BECAUSE Conference April 2000 St Paul MinnesotaMatthesen, Elise [http://mango.lioness.net/elise/speech.html "What's So Funny About Bisexual Separatism?"] Keynote speech, International Conference on Bisexuality, June 1994, New York CityMatthesen, Elise [http://www.becauseconference.org/keynote-speakers.html "Keynote Speakers"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403193648/http://www.becauseconference.org/keynote-speakers.html |date=2016-04-03 }} 2016 BECAUSE Conference April 2016 Minneapolis, Minnesota polyamory,{{cite web |url=http://uupa.org/Sermons/FaithfuPolyamory.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728152039/http://uupa.org/Sermons/FaithfuPolyamory.htm |last=Matthesen |first=Elis |title=Faithful Polyamory |date=June 18, 2000 |archive-date=July 28, 2011 |url-status=dead |quote=Unitarian Universalist sermon presented at First Universalist Church of Minneapolis, as part of the Gay Pride Sunday Service.}} and issues of self-esteem. She was one of the original contributors to the groundbreaking 1991 bisexual anthology Bi Any Other Name,{{cite web|author=Lani Ka'ahumanu|author-link=Lani Ka'ahumanu|title=25th Anniversary Edition of Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out|url=http://lanikaahumanu.com/new/bisexuality/bi-any-other-name/|access-date=April 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422003712/http://lanikaahumanu.com/new/bisexuality/bi-any-other-name/|archive-date=April 22, 2016|url-status=dead}} has written for local LGBTQ magazine Lavender, and is an active member of science fiction fandom.

In 1993, Jane Yolen published Matthesen's short story "The Stone Girl" in the Xanadu anthology, together with works by Tanith Lee and Ursula K. Le Guin. In 2008, Catherine Lundoff published Matthesen's short story "Focus of Desire" in an anthology of lesbian ghost stories.{{cite book |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310740481 |chapter=Ghosts and Haunted Houses |doi=10.1057/978-1-137-30355-4_2 |author=Paulina Palmer |title=Queering Contemporary Gothic Narrative 1970-2012 |date=January 2016 |pages=23–63 |isbn=978-1-137-30354-7 |access-date=April 23, 2019}}

Awards

In 2009, Matthesen was a World Fantasy Award nominee for the Special Award - Non-Professional "for setting out to inspire and for serving as inspiration for works of poetry, fantasy, and SF over the last decade through her jewelry-making and her 'artist's challenges'."[http://www.worldfantasy.org/awards/nominees/ World Fantasy Awards: Nominees]

In 2020, she won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist, the first artist in a 3-D medium to do so.{{cite web |url=http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2020-hugo-awards/ |title=2020 Hugo Awards |date=7 April 2020 |publisher=World Science Fiction Society |access-date=2020-04-08}}