Eileen Myles

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Eileen Myles is a well-known lesbian poet and writer. Myles ran for president of the USA in 1991-92. Zoe Leonard's 1992 poem, "I want a president", which begins with the line: "I want a dyke for president", was written to celebrate Myles's presidential run.[4]

Eileen Myles
Eileen Myles at the 2008 Brooklyn Book Festival
Date of birth December 9, 1949
Place of birth Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Nationality American
Pronouns they/them[1]
Gender identity
Occupation poet/writer

Myles uses the labels "genderqueer" and "trans"[3] but is not comfortable with the label "nonbinary".[5]

They have been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Andy Warhol/Creative Capital Arts Writers grant, four Lambda Book Awards, the Shelley Prize from the Poetry Society of America, and a poetry award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.[6]

Quotes

« I mean, I feel like I am very trans-identified. To some extent I felt I did, in fact, identify as a man in a woman's body. I’m starting to think that trans feelings are really at the root of homosexuality.[7] »


« I started to think about they, how it contains multitudes, and my sense of myself. I feel like a gender knot or something. I feel male, and I feel female. I feel queer. I feel trans. I feel I'm a dyke, I'm a lesbian. I feel like a fag sometimes. It's very mobile, and they really seems to hold that. And I also really love that I'm in my sixties, and of course certain people transition at all points in their life, but I don’t know anybody my age who's changed their pronouns. I feel really happy that I can claim that, that I can do that. It feels like a mark I'm delighted to hold, and say Fuck you, if you don’t like it.[5] »

Links

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Wichtel, By Diana (30 May 2018). "How Eileen Myles won a battle for personal pronoun plurality". Noted. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  2. Benjamin, Tova (30 November 2015). "Hold a Feeling: An Interview With Eileen Myles". Rookie. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  3. 3.0 3.1 @EileenMyles (February 24, 2016). "@DeJesusSaves @rugamarspr plus as a gender queer dyke I am trans" – via Twitter.
  4. Traps, Yevgeniya (March 16, 2018). "Zoe Leonard: Archivist of Feeling". The Paris Review. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Meinen, Abigail (22 June 2018). "I am Legion: An Interview with Eileen Myles". Sampsonia Way. Retrieved 15 May 2020. You know, I wouldn't say I'm non-binary. Somehow it has a technical air, so somehow I don't feel comfortable with that or claim that.
  6. "Eileen Myles". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  7. Russell, Stephen A. (2 May 2018). "Presidential thoughts: Eileen Myles on gender, sexuality and the bathroom wars". Topics. Retrieved 15 May 2020.