Jennifer Clement

• Born — 1960 • Birthplace — Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S. • Occupation — Author • Education — New York University (BA) University of Southern Maine (MFA) • Notable Works — Widow Basquiat, A True Story Based on Lies, Prayers for the Stolen, Gun Love • Awards — National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literature, The Canongate Prize, Sara Curry Humanitarian Award, Guggenheim Fellowship

Born in 1960 in Greenwich, Connecticut, Clement moved in 1961 with her family to Mexico City, where she later attended Edron Academy. She moved to the United States to finish high school at Cranbrook Kingswood School, before studying English Literature and Anthropology at New York University. She received her MFA from the University of Southern Maine. She is the co-director and founder, with her sister Barbara Sibley, of the San Miguel Poetry Week. Clement lives in Mexico City, Mexico.

Clement's first book, Widow Basquiat, is a memoir about artist Jean-Michel Basquiat's relationship with his muse Suzanne Mallouk—told from Mallouk's perspective. It was originally published in 2000 and re-released in 2014 as Widow Basquiat: A Love Story. Glenn O'Brien in Artforum wrote: "Magical…Widow Basquiat conjures real characters, a real time and real place. It's not theory – it's representation. … The life of Basquiat … is a joyous lightning bolt when it is described in true detail, as it is in Clement's extraordinary as-told-to poem." Her first novel, A True Story Based on Lies, was a finalist in the Orange Prize for Fiction. Prayers for the Stolen came out in 2014 and became a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice Book, First Selection for National Reading Group Month's Great Group Reads, and appeared internationally on many "Best Books of the Year" lists, including The Irish Times. Auf der Zunge ("On the Tip of the Tongue"), was published by Suhrkamp in Germany in April 2022. Clement is also the author of several books of poetry: The Next Stranger with an introduction by W. S. Merwin (1993), Newton's Sailor, Lady of the Broom (2002) and Jennifer Clement: New and Selected Poems (2008). Her prize-winning story A Salamander-Child is published as an art book, with work by the Mexican painter Gustavo Monroy.

She is a member of Mexico's prestigious Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte. Jennifer Clement, along with her sister Barbara Sibley, is the founder and director The San Miguel Poetry Week. She served as President of PEN Mexico from 2009 to 2012. In 2015, she was elected as the first woman president of PEN International, an organization founded in 1921. Under her leadership, the groundbreaking PEN International Women's Manifesto and The Democracy of the Imagination Manifesto were created. As president of PEN Mexico she spoke extensively about the safety of journalists in Mexico and was instrumental in raising the issue and changing the law so that the killing of a journalist became a federal crime. In 2021 she was one of the authors who produced Pen International: An Illustrated History: Literature Knows No Frontiers.

• Prayers for the Stolen, directed by Tatiana Huezo (titled Noche de fuego) and produced by Nicolas Celis and Jim Stark at Pimienta Films was Mexico's entry for the 2022 Oscars. Among many prizes, the film was awarded the Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard Award. • Gun Love, directed by Julie Taymor and produced by Nick Wechsler and Chockstone Pictures partners Steve Schwartz and Paula Mae Schwartz as well as Lynn Hendee and Julie Taymor.