The Vanishing of Camille Claudel: A Biography in Voices
Bertram’s second full-length manuscript, The Vanishing of Camille Claudel: A Biography in Voices, is in process. This cross-genre biography explores the life and work of the controversial 19th-c. French sculptor, drawing on archival material, including Claudel’s own letters, to compile a living collage, an extended meditation on gender and the body—physical, imagined, manifest in polished stone.
Excerpts from this manuscript have appeared in Phoebe, The Fanzine, Locuspoint, and as a published finalist in the 2013 Diagram Hybrid Essay Contest, and in the chapbooks from The Vanishing of Camille Claudel (Seven Kitchens Press, 2016) and from The Vanishing of Camille Claudel (II) (2021), winner of The A3 Press Chapbook Prize.
The following organizations have supported the research and writing of this work: Prague Summer Program for Writers provided a 2013 John Woods Scholarship, Augustana College provided a 2013 Summer Faculty Research Grant, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln provided a 2014-2016 Chancellor’s Fellowship and a 2017-2018 Maude Hammond Fling Fellowship.
Erin M. Bertram 