Women Writing Plays

Three Decades of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize

 

 

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is proud to announce the publication by the University of Texas Press of Women Writing Plays, an essential collection of writings edited by Alexis Greene which gives a state-of-the-art, comprehensive overview of women's playwriting and celebrates the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

In the three decades of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize's existence, more than three hundred English-speaking women playwrights have been finalists for the award, including such prominent writers as Marsha Norman, Cheryl L. West, Wendy Wasserstein, Caryl Churchill, Paula Vogel, and Suzan-Lori Parks. The book combines critical essays, playwrights' memoirs, and conversations and interviews with playwrights to explore how women's playwriting has evolved in relation to the women's movement and how it continues to map new territory and find fresh modes of expression. The majority of contributors to this volume--playwrights, arts journalists, and theater critics--have had some connection to the Blackburn Prize, either as award recipients, play readers, or judges. The memoirs, conversations, and interviews come from some of the finest women playwrights of the last three decades. These dramatists offer fascinating insight into the playwriting art, theatrical careers, and women's goals in writing for the theater.