The Disability Book Archive

[ID: A book cover. The background is the photograph of a shadow of a chain link fence. Shadows of birds can also be seen flying on the fence. There is text in the lower half of the image. It reads:
The title “Exile & Pride” in curly, black, lowercase writing,
The subtitle “Disability, Queerness and Liberation” immediately below this, in smaller, lowercase bold font.
The author’s name “Eli Clare” at the bottom of the page,
The phrase “afterword by Dean Spade” immediately below this in smaller font.
There is a red strip across the length of the bottom of the book. It has text in it which reads:
“South End Press Classics” in white capitals. /end]

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Content Warning:

• Ableism
• Child Abuse
• Child Sexual Abuse
• Rape
• Homophobia
• Incest
• Classism
• Racism and Racial Slurs
• Alcohol Abuse
• Animal Death

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Summary:

“Eli Clare works a vital alchemy. . . . Using the language of the elemental world, he delineates a complex human intersection and transmutes cruelty into its opposite—a potent, lifegiving remedy.”—Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home

First published in 1999, Exile & Pride established Eli Clare as one of the leading writers on the intersections of queerness and disability. With this critical tenth-anniversary edition, the groundbreaking publication secures its position as essential to the history of queer and disability politics, and, through significant new material that boldly interrogates and advances the original text, to its future as well. Clare’s writing on his experiences as a genderqueer activist/writer with cerebral palsy permanently changed the landscape of disability politics and queer liberation, and yet Exile & Pride is much too great in scope to be defined by even these two issues. Instead it offers an intersectional framework for understanding how our bodies actually experience the politics of oppression, power, and resistance. At the heart of Clare’s exploration of environmental destruction, white working-class identity, queer community, disabled sexuality, childhood sexual abuse, coalition politics, and his own gender transition is a call for social justice movements that are truly accessible for everyone.

Blending prose and theory, personal experience and political debate, anger and compassion, Exile & Pride provides a window into a world where our whole selves in all their complexity can be loved and accepted.

An award-winning poet and essayist, Eli Clare is also the author of The Marrow’s Telling.

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Notes:

This book was originally published in 1999, however the tenth-anniversary edition (on which this entry was initially based) was released in 2009.

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Archivist Comments:

At the time of writing this entry, this book is a little over 24 years old, but recent reviewers are still arguing that is just as relevant today as it was in 1999. It’s still very highly rated and receives a lot of praise from reviewers. People have praised the vulnerability and openness of the author, but there are mentions of some of the references and discussions being a little dated.

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