Myle's Identity In Eileen Myles Chelsea Girl

Eileen Myles, a sixty-seven year old poet and activist, has over the course of their life written poetry, essays, novels, libretto and plays. They were born in 1949 and later graduated from UMass, Boston. In the mid-70s they moved to New York City to work as an assistant to Pulitzer-Prize winning poet, James Schuyler, in pursuit of living and growing as a poet. Myles’ identity is made up of many dovetailing parts; they are gender-neutral, a poet, a “dyke,” child of the working class and later a renowned and celebrated icon. Myles’ bold, unapologetic, and unconventional nature has contributed to them obtaining multiple awards such as the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry, Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, U.S. and Canada. While …show more content…
It reads like a memoir but Myles has created their own genre to write about themselves in order to tell their story their own way. They have a distinct, exceptional, singular voice that makes you feel as though they are speaking directly to you-as if you are their friend following their life experiences with them. This modern, cult novel is made up of fragmented stories coupled with reflections about them. Through these cobbled together memories, Chelsea Girls reflects on their sexuality, gender, working-class life and identity as a whole in a way that is straight-forward and …show more content…
Their desire to love and have sex with women is articulated so conversationally that it seems their queerness isn’t kept hidden anymore- that writing serves as a safe outlet where they can truly write and express themself. While coming out as a lesbian has improved Myles’ life in ways such as feeling truly themself, it has also proved to make their career as a writer more difficult. “I keep getting called a punk poet in the press, because they can’t say dyke.” This being an example of the labels they reject as well as their observation of the avoidance and bead-around-the-bush type of discussion there is about gay people in the publishing industry as well as in virtually every part of the public sphere. Them noting them self as a ‘dyke’ and confidently so, made it difficult to get some of their selected poems published. The publishers feared they wouldn’t have mass appeal as an out lesbian. When they try to sell a narrative, publishers (specifically white, cis men) ask “where’s the arc” but they really mean is, “where is the male orgasm?” (Myles, p. 55). Expectedly, people tend to stray from speaking publically about how publishing really works, but of course social obedience isn’t something Myles would ever do. They instead waited and searched for years to find a fitting publisher and to not allow themselves to settle for