Joshua Clover (b. 30 December 1962 in
BerkeleyBerkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
) is a poet, critic, journalist and author. He has appeared in three editions of
Best American Poetry, is a two-time winner of the
Pushcart PrizeThe Pushcart Prize is a prestigious American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured...
, and recipient of an individual grant from the
NEAThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
; his first book of poetry,
Madonna anno domini, received the Walt Whitman Award from the
Academy of American PoetsThe Academy of American Poets is a non-profit organization dedicated to the art of poetry that was incorporated as a "membership corporation" in New York State in 1934...
.
A graduate of
Boston UniversityBoston University is a private nonsectarian university located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Although chartered by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1869, Boston University traces its roots to the establishment of the Newbury Biblical Institute in Newbury, Vermont in 1839...
and the Iowa Writer's Workshop, Clover is an Associate Professor of
English LiteratureEnglish literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was born in Poland, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, V.S....
and
Critical TheoryCritical theory is the examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two quite different meanings with different origins and histories, one originating in social theory and the other in literary criticism...
at the
University of California, DavisThe University of California, Davis is a public research university located in Davis, California, and one of ten campuses in the University of California system. Commonly referred to as UC Davis, the school was originally established in 1905 as the University Farm, an extension of UC Berkeley. UC...
, and was the distinguished Holloway poet-in-residence at the University of California, Berkeley in 1999-2000.
Joshua Clover (b. 30 December 1962 in
BerkeleyBerkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
) is a poet, critic, journalist and author. He has appeared in three editions of
Best American Poetry, is a two-time winner of the
Pushcart PrizeThe Pushcart Prize is a prestigious American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured...
, and recipient of an individual grant from the
NEAThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
; his first book of poetry,
Madonna anno domini, received the Walt Whitman Award from the
Academy of American PoetsThe Academy of American Poets is a non-profit organization dedicated to the art of poetry that was incorporated as a "membership corporation" in New York State in 1934...
.
A graduate of
Boston UniversityBoston University is a private nonsectarian university located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Although chartered by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1869, Boston University traces its roots to the establishment of the Newbury Biblical Institute in Newbury, Vermont in 1839...
and the Iowa Writer's Workshop, Clover is an Associate Professor of
English LiteratureEnglish literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was born in Poland, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, V.S....
and
Critical TheoryCritical theory is the examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two quite different meanings with different origins and histories, one originating in social theory and the other in literary criticism...
at the
University of California, DavisThe University of California, Davis is a public research university located in Davis, California, and one of ten campuses in the University of California system. Commonly referred to as UC Davis, the school was originally established in 1905 as the University Farm, an extension of UC Berkeley. UC...
, and was the distinguished Holloway poet-in-residence at the University of California, Berkeley in 1999-2000.
http://holloway.english.berkeley.edu/history/page19/page19.html He writes a column of film criticism for Film Quarterly under the title "Marx and Coca-Cola", is a frequent contributor to the
Village Voice, writes for
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
, and is a former senior writer for
SpinSpin is a music magazine. Founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr., it competes with industry stalwart Rolling Stone. Madonna was the artist on the cover of the first issue.-History:...
. His film criticism includes a book on
The MatrixThe Matrix is a science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski and starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
for the
British Film InstituteThe British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
, and the Criterion Collection essays for
Band of Outsiders and
Straw Dogs. His birth name was Joshua Miller Kaplan; via legal change, he took his mother's maiden name [See Clover's statement in Brooke Kroeger,
Passing (2004), p. 207] His mother,
Carol J. CloverCarol J. Clover is an American professor of film studies, rhetoric language and Scandinavian mythology. . She has been widely published in her areas of expertise...
, Ph.D., is the originator of the
final girlThe final girl is a horror film trope that specifically refers to the last woman or girl alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. The final girl has been observed in dozens of films, including The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Alien, Halloween, Scream, Friday the 13th,...
theory and a professor emerita at the University of California at Berkeley.
Under the
pseudonymA pseudonym is a fictitious name used by a person, or sometimes, a group.Pseudonyms are often used to hide an individual's real identity, as with writers' pen names, graffiti artists, resistance fighters' or terrorists' noms de guerre and computer hackers' handles. Actors, musicians, and other...
"Jane Dark", Clover has written a number of film and music reviews for
The Village VoiceThe Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper in New York City, United States featuring investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts reviews and events listings for New York City...
, and maintains a blog entitled "jane dark's sugarhigh!"
Works
- Madonna anno domini (Louisiana State University Press, 1997) 68 pp.
- The Matrix (British Film Institute, 2005), 128 pp.
- The Totality for Kids (University of California Press, 2006), 76 pp.
Articles
- Clover on The New Yorker, in the Village Voice, 2001 http://www.villagevoice.com/books/0115,clover,23757,10.html
- Clover on Michel Houellebecq, in the Village Voice, 2003 http://www.villagevoice.com/books/0329,clover,45507,10.html
- Clover on Semiotext(e), in Village Voice, 2002 http://www.villagevoice.com/books/0206,clover,32055,10.html
- Clover on Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician and actress. Love is known as lead singer and lyricist for the alternative rock band Hole and for her marriage to the late Nirvana singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain...
in the Village Voice, 2004 http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0408,clover,51258,22.html
- Clover on Slavoj Zizek
Slavoj Žižek is a Hegelian philosopher, Lacanian theoretical psychoanalyst, Marxist political thinker, film theorist, and cultural critic....
, in the Village Voice, 2005 http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0546,clover,70012,20.html
- Clover on Guy Debord
Guy Ernest Debord was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker, hypergraphist and founding member of the groups Lettrist International and Situationist International . He was also briefly a member of Socialisme ou Barbarie.-Life:Guy Debord was born in Paris...
and John Ashbery in the Village Voice, 2005 http://www.villagevoice.com/books/0514,clover,62725,10.html
- Clover on Gus Van Sant
Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American film director, screenwriter, photographer, musician, and author. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Achievement in Directing for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, and won the Palme d'Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival for his...
in the Village Voice, 2005 http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0528,fclover,65777,20.html
- Clover on Charles Reznikoff, in The New York Times Book Review, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/books/review/22clover.html?ex=1162443600&en=67bcecea6ab1977d&ei=5070
- Clover on Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire was a nineteenth century French poet, critic, and translator. A controversial figure in his lifetime, Baudelaire's name has become a byword for literary and artistic decadence...
in The New York Times, December 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/books/review/Clover2.t.html?ex=1169614800&en=ffb49c2df3532a36&ei=5070
- Clover on "France:Still Revolting" http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0546,clover,69886,2.html
- Clover on Velvet Goldmine
Velvet Goldmine is a 1998 film directed and co-written by Todd Haynes. The film tells the story of a pop star based mainly on David Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust' character and is set in Britain during the days of glam rock in the early 1970s.-About the film:...
, Spin magazine http://www.toddhaynes.net/text/reviews/haynspin.shtml
- Clover on Poetry Magazine http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0248,clover,40199,1.html
Reviews of Clover's Poetry
- The Totality for Kids, Village Voice, 2006. http://www.villagevoice.com/books/0619,gilbert,73122,10.html
- Zoned", The Boston Review, September/October, 2006. http://bostonreview.net/BR31.5/palattella.html
- The Totality for Kids,CutBank, January 21, 2007
http://cutbankpoetry.blogspot.com/2007/01/totality-for-kids-by-joshua-clover.html
Essays
External links
Trivia
- Clover wrote a regular reviews column for Spin magazine between 1999-2001 called "Show Us Your Hits."
- Clover's article on Poetry Magazine was noted by Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism....
in his SalonSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online magazine, with content updated each weekday. American liberal politics is its major focus, but it covers a range of issues. Reviews and articles about music, books and films are also a prominent feature of the site....
column "Real Life Rock Top Ten"http://archive.salon.com/ent/col/marc/2003/01/02/83/print.html