![Image description: A white man with dark short hair wearing a T-shirt with a logo on his chest, which is the written ASL name for Superman. Tactile impressions: Short hair of feline softness, warm and smooth hands, a scent of patchouli.](https://www.fordfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dff-2020-johnleeclark.jpg?w=710&h=710&crop=1)
John Lee Clark is a DeafBlind poet, essayist, translator, and a leader in the Protactile movement. Clark is the 2020 National Magazine Award recipient for Essays and Criticism and is the author or editor of Where I Stand, Deaf American Poetry, and Deaf Lit Extravaganza. His poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Nation, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and Poetry magazine. He is the recipient of Poetry magazine’s 2019 Frederick Bock Prize and finalist for the 2015 Split This Rock Freedom Plow Award for Poetry and Activism. Among his many roles in the Protactile movement, which includes supporting the emergence of a fully tactile language, Clark is a core team member for the DeafBlind Interpreting National Training and Resource Center. Clark is also a research assistant for three National Science Foundation grants studying Protactile phonology, technology, and language acquisition.