Chase, Clifford

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Chase, Clifford

PERSONAL:

Male.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Brooklyn, NY. Agent—Maria Massie, Lippincott, Massie, McQuilken, 80 5th Ave., Ste. 1101, New York, NY 10011. E-mail—chasecliff@ aol.com.

CAREER:

Writer.

WRITINGS:

The Hurry-Up Song: A Memoir of Losing My Brother, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1995.

(Editor and contributor) Queer 13: Lesbian and Gay Writers Recall Seventh Grade, Rob Weisbach Books (New York, NY), 1998.

Winkie (novel), Grove Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to anthologies, including Men On Men 5, A Member of the Family, and Sister and Brother. Contributor of stories to periodicals, including the Yale Review, Threepenny Review, Boulevard, Bananafish, and Nerve, and to the JoniMitchell.com Web site; contributor of nonfiction to periodicals, including Newsweek, Poz, Village Voice, Out, and Book Forum.

SIDELIGHTS:

In his first book, The Hurry-Up Song: A Memoir of Losing My Brother, Clifford Chase tells the story of losing his older gay brother to AIDS as he reflects on their past family life together. He chronicles their drifting apart and the inner strength of his aging parents who end up caring for their dying son. Writing in the Lambda Book Report, John Andriote commented: "The strengths of The Hurry-Up Song are its intermittent passages of thoughtful reflection, lessons and conclusions that Chase has drawn from the pain of his loss." Whitney Scott wrote in Booklist: "Chase vividly presents the intricately woven lives of two gay brothers."

Chase turns to the novel with Winkie, a satirical tale about an old abandoned teddy bear that wills itself to life, runs off to the forest, and ends up arrested as a terrorist organizer when he encounters the FBI, who keep watch on the woods as a known hideout for terrorists. Winkie is interrogated, charged with terrorism, and taken to trial, during which he "faces a gauntlet of bizarre witnesses from the trials of Socrates, Galileo, and Oscar Wilde," as noted by Carl Hays in Booklist. Hays went on to call the book "a masterfully measured social critique." A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote: "The emotional and moral torments of a teddy bear drive this surprisingly effective allegory of our terrorstricken times." Whitney Pastorek, writing in Entertainment Weekly, referred to Winkie as a "bizarre, exhilarating, captivatingly creative, and extremely ridiculous first novel." A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote: "The sections devoted to Winkie's trial … [are] a minor masterpiece of ridiculousness." In a review on the Baltimore City Paper Online, Stephen Peterson commented: "Gimmicky? Sure, it starts that way, a seemingly dumb device, but the writing is deeply felt and deeply moving. After a while, you don't care that this is a book about a toy. Winkie reads like a satire, but then it doesn't."

Chase is also editor of Queer 13: Lesbian and Gay Writers Recall Seventh Grade, which presents twenty- five essays, ten by women. Nancy Garden, writing in Lambda Book Report, noted that the book includes "a variety of personalities, experiences, and backgrounds, but their [the authors'] memories dearly bring home the fact that at thirteen or thereabouts … most of us go through similar agonies and ecstasies, moments of loneliness and communion, terror and joy," In his contributing essay, "Outtakes," Chase tells the story of a young friend named Roger and Chase's emergence as a "femme and a fag," as noted by Garden. Garden also wrote: "Do dip into this collection on your own to renew your acquaintance with yourself at 13 and to find the pieces that speak most dearly and poignantly to you."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Chase, Clifford, The Hurry-Up Song: A Memoir of Losing My Brother, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1995.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 1995, Whitney Scott, review of The Hurry-Up Song, p. 1039; May 15, 2006, Carl Hays, review of Winkie, p. 33.

Entertainment Weekly, July 14, 2006, Whitney Pastorek, review of Winkie, p. 84.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2006, review of Winkie, p. 309.

Lambda Book Report, March-April, 1995, John Andriote, review of The Hurry-Up Song, p. 33; October, 1998, Nancy Garden, review of Queer 13: Lesbian and Gay Writers Recall Seventh Grade, p. 14; February, 2000, Philip Clark, review of Queer 13, p. 30.

Newsweek, July 3, 2006, review of Winkie, p. 91.

Publishers Weekly, March 6, 2006, review of Winkie, p. 42.