Suzan-Lori Parks Biography

Suzan-Lori Parks is a novelist, playwright, songwriter, and screenwriter. She was the recipient of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Topdog/Underdog, as well as a 2001 MacArthur "genius grant." Her other plays include In the Blood, The America Play, Venus, and The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World.

Her first feature film, Girl 6, was directed by Spike Lee. She later worked in conjunction with Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions on screenplays for Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005) and the 2007 film, The Great Debaters (with Robert Eisele). In October 2014, The Public Theater presented the world premiere of Father Comes Home From The Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3), written by Parks and directed by Jo Bonney. The play was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize, Drama. Parks won the 2015 Obie Award for Playwriting.

A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, where she studied with James Baldwin, she has taught creative writing in universities across the country, including at the Yale School of Drama, and she headed the Dramatic Writing Program at CalArts.

Parks is married to blues musician Paul Oscher. She teaches playwriting at Tisch School of the Arts in the Rita & Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing.

Suzan-Lori Parks's website

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