Claire Donato

Claire Elisabeth Donato (born September 12, 1986, in Wilmington, DE) is an American writer and multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY.

Donato grew up in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In 2010, she received her MFA in Literary Arts from Brown University, where she studied with C.D. Wright and Keith Waldrop.

Prior to attending Brown, she received a BA in English Writing from the University of Pittsburgh, where she studied with Ross Gay.

Her first language was French.

In addition to her writing, Donato is the creator of various feminist digital artworks and performance interventions, and is also an illustrator, photographer, singer-songwriter, and practitioner of Zen meditation.

She has collaborated with artists including Anna Moschovakis, Told Slant, David Jhave Johnston, Anastasios Karnazes, and Mark Baumer.

Her collaboration with Jeff T. Johnson on SPECIAL AMERICA was an ongoing digital performance that ended in 2016.

This work started within the electronic literature community as a performance and was translated as a movie.

She collaborated on netprovs such as All Time High.

Her video-based work, Material Studies has been shown at the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) PS1, Knockdown Center, Harvard University, and University Fernando Pessoa.

John Hawkes Prize in Fiction for Burial judged by Robert Coover.

She is currently the Acting Chairperson of Writing at Pratt Institute, where she virtually addressed the Class of 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic alongside Neil Gaiman.

Donato's works include publications in Forever, Parapraxis, GoldFlakePaint, The Chicago Review, The Brooklyn Rail, Oversound, VICE, DIAGRAM, The Believer, BOMB, and Harp & Altar.

Her books are:

2020 Distinguished Teacher Award at Pratt Institute