Ryan Claycomb's Book Is Now Out

Professor Claycomb and the scholarly artifact

There was a lot of excitement around Colson Hall today when (new) Chair Jim Harms announced that Ryan Claycomb's Lives in Play: Autobiography and Biography on the Feminist Stage is now out from University of Michigan Press.

If you want more details, the book's webpage is here, but we'll give you a peek at the description:

"Lives in Play explores the centrality of life narratives to women's drama and performance from the 1970s to the present moment. In the early days of second-wave feminism, the slogan was 'The personal is the political.' These autobiographical and biographical 'true stories' have the political impact of the real and have also helped a range of feminists tease out the more complicated aspects of gender, sex, and sexuality in a Western culture that now imagines itself to be 'postfeminist.'

The book covers a broad range of texts and performances, from performance artists like Karen Finley, Holly Hughes, and Bobby Baker to playwrights like Suzan-Lori Parks, Maria Irene Fornes, and Sarah Kane. The book examines biography and autobiography together to link their narrative tactics and theatrical approaches and show the persistent and important uses of life writing strategies for theater artists committed to advancing women's rights and remaking women's representations."

If you want even more information, Professor Claycomb will inaugurate the English Graduate Organization's new Current Thoughts lecture series with a talk on the book on Monday, Sept, 17th at 7:30 in Colson Hall. The Tenants haven't specifically asked him, but we suspect he wouldn't mind if you just happen to show up with your copy of the book for him to autograph.