Claire Lacey

Claire Lacey is a multidisciplinary writer, performer, educator and critic. Their work is a way of thinking out loud about a whole lot of stuff, from politics and identity to ethics and birds and roller skates. 

Claire’s first book of poetry, Twin Tongues, won the 2013 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. A collaboration with artist Sachie Ogawa resulted in Selkie, a graphic novel which was successfully crowdfunded and published in 2019. Claire has an essay about their experience with brain injury included in the anthology Impact: Women Writing After Concussion. 

At some point or other Claire has been a strength and conditioning coach, a roller derby athlete, the writer for a neurosurgeon, an art gallery and museum minion, a teacher of English and creative writing, a freelance writer/editor, a radio host, a concussion recoverer, a dogsitter, and a volunteer for several literary orgs. 

Claire currently lives in Ōtepoti Dunedin, a writerly city in the south of Aotearoa New Zealand. Claire completed their undergraduate degree at York University in Toronto, holds a master’s degree from the University of Calgary, and has a doctorate from the University of Otago.

Pronouns: they/them/theirs