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Playwright Naomi Wallace to Visit Hendrix College Campus

CONWAY, Ark. (February 25, 2020) — “Naomi Wallace is a powerful and essential voice who brings to the theater great lyricism and moral courage.” —American Academy of Arts and Letters

Naomi Wallace will visit Hendrix College as a Murphy Visiting Playwright on March 5, 2020. She will read from and discuss her work at 7:30 p.m. in Reves Recital Hall. This event is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception and book signing in Trieschmann Gallery. 

For over 20 years, Naomi Wallace has pioneered a daring mix of political and mystical imagery in plays that confront the present through a wholly unique magical realism, winning her numerous awards nationally and internationally. Wallace’s numerous plays—which have been produced in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, and the Middle East—include In the Heart of America, Slaughter City, One Flea Spare, and The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek. She is also the author of a book of poetry, To Dance a Stony Field, and several essays, as well as an anthology entitled Inside/Outside: Six Plays from Palestine and the Diaspora. 

In 2009, One Flea Spare was incorporated into the permanent repertoire of the French National Theater, the Comédie- Francaise, making Wallace the only living American playwright to enter the repertoire. In addition to this monumental honor, Wallace is the recipient of several prestigious awards including the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Fellowship of Southern Writers Drama Award, and an Obie award. She is also a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts development grant and an Arts and Letters Award in Literature.

Wallace holds degrees from Hampshire College and the University of Iowa. She has taught English literature, poetry, and playwriting at Yale University, UCLA, Vrije University of Amsterdam, and other institutions. She has also worked with women in the criminal justice system and is a member of SURJ, Showing Up for Racial Justice. Currently, she divides her time between Kentucky and the Yorkshire Dales in Northern England.

In addition to her public reading and book signing, Wallace will be visiting theatre classes at Hendrix College to discuss with students the process of transforming an idea into a fully realized stage production. She will be speaking to students about careers in theatre and paths to success as well as offering advice for young creatives in a professional world. 

This event is sponsored by the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language, which are designed to enhance and enrich the study and teaching of literature and language at Hendrix College. For more information about this and future events, please contact Henryetta Vanaman, 501-450-4597 or vanaman@hendrix.edu.