Clayton Valli

Who was Clayton Valli?

Clayton Valli was a prominent deaf linguist and American Sign Language poet whose work helped further to legitimize ASL and introduce people to the richness of American Sign Language literature.

Born in Massachusetts, Valli attended the Austine School for the Deaf in Vermont. He earned an A.A.S. in Photography from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and a B.A. from the University of Nevada, Reno in Social Psychology. In 1985, he received his M.A. in Linguistics from Gallaudet University. His Ph.D. in Linguistics and ASL Poetics from the Union Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio, which he received in 1993 made him the first person ever to achieve a doctorate in ASL poetry. He was also the first individual to identify the features of ASL poetry as a literary genre in its own right.

As a poet, Valli created original works in ASL that he performed to appreciative audiences around the country. His poems make sophisticated use of handshape, movement, use of space, repetition, and facial expression. Influenced by canonical American poets like Robert Frost, as well as Deaf poets such as Bernard Bragg, Valli often chose nature imagery to convey subtle insights into Deaf experience.