Maxine Clair
{{Short description|American writer}}
Maxine Clair (born 1939) is an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. Her debut novel Rattlebone won the Heartland Prize in 1994.{{Cite web |last=Story |first=Rosalyn |date=2014-11-10 |title=Rosalyn Story on Maxine Clair and Imagine This |url=https://www.agatepublishing.com/blog/2014/11/10/2014-11-10-rosalyn-story-on-maxine-clair-and-imagine-this-html/ |access-date=2023-11-28 |website=Agate Publishing |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=1995-04-06 |title=FRIENDS OF LITERATURE DROPS ANNUAL AWARDS PROGRAM |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1995-04-06-9504080097-story.html |access-date=2023-11-28 |website=Chicago Tribune}} She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction in 1995.{{Cite web |date=2013-07-04 |title=Search Results - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/results?query=&lower_bound=1995&upper_bound=1995&competition=ALL&fellowship_category=ALL&x=16&y=11 |access-date=2023-11-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130704074213/http://www.gf.org/fellows/results?query=&lower_bound=1995&upper_bound=1995&competition=ALL&fellowship_category=ALL&x=16&y=11 |archive-date=2013-07-04 }}
Biography
Clair attended the University of Kansas and went onto a career in medical technology, becoming the chief technologist at a children's hospital in the Washington, D.C. area. While working in the hospital she became interested in writing and completed an M.F.A at American University.{{Cite web |last= |date=1994-08-06 |title=FOR MAXINE CLAIR, WRITING WAS WORTH THE RISK |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1994/08/06/for-maxine-clair-writing-was-worth-the-risk/ |access-date=2023-11-28 |website=Orlando Sentinel |language=en-US}} Clair went on to become a professor at George Washington University until 2008 when she retired as professor emerita.{{Cite news |last=Hopkinson |first=Natalie |date=7 October 2002 |title=At the Hurston/Wright Awards, an Anthology of Talent |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/10/07/at-the-hurstonwright-awards-an-anthology-of-talent/a7a34404-cb70-442a-90a7-7e0d1e5ce83b/ |access-date=28 November 2023}} Her first book, the poetry collection Coping with Gravity, was published in 1988.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Clair, Maxine |encyclopedia=Contemporary Authors |year=2000 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780787632397/page/148/mode/2up |access-date=December 30, 2023 |editor-last=Peacock |editor-first=Scot |volume=179 |page=149 |isbn=0787632392}}
Clair's best known work is the 1994 novel Rattlebone, the title of which comes from the neighborhood Rattlebone Hollow in the north of Kansas City. The novel was reissued by McNally Editions in 2022.{{Cite news |last=Duerden |first=Nick |date=2023-06-11 |title=Rattlebone by Maxine Clair review – overlooked coming-of-age classic |language=en-GB |work=The Observer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jun/11/rattlebone-by-maxine-clair-review-overlooked-coming-of-age-classic |access-date=2023-11-28 |issn=0029-7712}} Her book received a Heartland Prize during 1994.{{cite news |editor-last1=Tyner |editor-first1=Howard A. |title=The 1994 Chicago Tribune Literary Awards |work=The Chicago Tribune |date=October 9, 1994 |page=sec. 14 p. 10}} A character from Rattlebone, the teacher October Brown, reappears in a later novel October Suite, which was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in 2002.
References
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Category:People from Kansas City, Kansas
Category:University of Kansas alumni
Category:George Washington University alumni
Category:American women novelists
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