Clarence Orsi

Clarence Harlan Orsi (he/him/his) is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Creative Writing Program, teaching multigenre creative writing as well as intro and advanced creative nonfiction courses. Clarence is a nonfiction and fiction writer whose work often investigates dynamics of power and transgender narratives. His novel explores the relationship between a queer couple pursuing an adoption and the child’s birth mother. His current creative nonfiction project is a hybrid cultural analysis/journalism/memoir book about trans jokes. He is interested in comedy, whiteness in fiction, creative writing pedagogy, and musical theater, among other topics. Before coming to Bucknell, he spent nine years teaching English at a rural community college in northern Maryland. He has received grants from the Deutsch Foundation and a tuition scholarship from the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, among other awards.

Education

• Ph.D., University of Nebraska-Lincoln (English / Creative Writing)
• B.A., Brown University

Recent and Representative Publications

Essays

“Clocked.” Gulf Coast, Spring 2022.

“Herbal Hormone Supplements Can Change the Meaning of Trans Embodiment.”

Catapult, Fall 2020.

“If I Say I’m a Chimp.” Indiana Review, Winter 2019.

“Here to Say Something: Trans YA Lit Comes of Age.” Los Angeles Review of Books,

July 2019.

“Concerned Citizens.” Boston Review, Summer 2018.

“Take Stock.” New England Review, Summer 2017.

“The Self at the Bottom of the Toilet Bowl: On the Literature of Shit.” Electric

Literature, February 2017.

“Justifying Our Existence: The Antioch Review and the Transgender ‘Debate.’”

The Millions, May 2016.

“In His Own Image.” The New Inquiry, February 2015.

“The Seventh Day.” n+1, April 2014.

“A Sponge-Bag Containing a Small, Furious Devil: Nabokov, the Marx Brothers, and the

Art of Literary Slapstick.” The Believer, March 2012.

Short Stories

“Buffer Zone.” Cosmonauts Avenue, Summer 2020.

“Not Here to Make Friends.” Kenyon Review Online, Winter 2018.

“The Incorruptibles.” American Literary Review, Fall 2015.

“My Own Devices.” Chicago Review, Fall/Winter 2014-15.

“Current Events.” Joyland, December 2014.

“A Fine Illusion.” Cincinnati Review, Winter 2011.

Humor

“Less Soothing Sleep Sounds.” New Yorker’s Daily Shouts, May 2023.

Reviews

“‘The Sweet Fuck-All’: Sondheim’s Maddening End.” The Hopkins Review, December

2023.