Naomi Wallace

Naomi Wallace (born 1960) is an American

playwright, screenwriter and poet from Kentucky. She Naomi Wallace
is widely known for her plays, and has received several
distinguished awards for her work.

Biography
Naomi Wallace was born in Prospect, Kentucky, to
Henry F. Wallace, a photojournalist and correspondent
for Time and Life magazines, and Sonja de Vries, a
Dutch justice and human rights worker.[1][2]

Wallace obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from

Hampshire College. She then received two master's
degrees from the University of Iowa. Currently, she
divides her time between Kentucky and the Yorkshire
Dales in Northern England (UK), where she lives with
her partner, Bruce McLeod.[3]
Wallace at the University of Athens
Wallace has taught English literature, poetry and play
writing at Yale University, UCLA, Illinois State Born 1960 (age 63–64)
University, Merrimack College, American University Prospect, Kentucky, U.S.
of Cairo, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and other Occupation Playwright and screenwriter
institutions. In 2024 Wallace lectured at the National Education Hampshire College (BA)
and Kapodistrian University of Athens[4] and the University of Iowa (MFA)
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Notable One Flea Spare
works
She has also worked with women in the criminal Notable Notable awards include the
justice system, and is a member of Showing up for awards MacArthur Fellowship & Obie
Racial Justice.[5] She has been called "a dedicated Award
advocate for justice and human rights in the U.S. and Partner Bruce McLeod
abroad, and Palestinian rights in the Middle East,"[6] Children 3
and her writing described as "muscular, devastating,
Website
and unwavering."[7]
naomiwallace.com (http://naomiwallace.com)

Activism
In the mid-2000s, Wallace was briefly detained by the United States Department of Homeland Security
after defying the ban on travel to Cuba.[8]
In August 2016, Wallace was one of the Freedom Riders with the Women's Boat to Gaza.[9]

Publications
Wallace's plays are published in the U.S. by Broadway Play Publishing Inc., Theatre Communications
Group, Faber and Faber in the UK, and éditions Théâtrales in France. Wallace's work has been produced
in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and the Middle East.[10][11]

Awards
Wallace's work has received the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize twice, the Joseph Kesselring 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.[12]

In 2009, One Flea Spare was incorporated into the permanent répertoire of the French National Theatre,
the Comédie-Française, and produced there in 2012. Only two American playwrights have ever been
added to La Comédie's repertoire in 300 years: the other being Tennessee Williams. The play was
translated into French by Dominique Hollier.[13]

In 2012, Wallace was a recipient of the Horton Foote Prize for most promising new American play.[14]

In 2013, she was awarded the inaugural Windham–Campbell Literature Prize established at Yale
University.[7][15]

In 2015, Wallace received an Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts
and Letters.[16]

Work

Plays
In The Heart of America
One Flea Spare
The Inland Sea
Slaughter City
The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek
The Girl Who Fell Through a Hole in Her Jumper (with
Bruce E. J. McLeod; licensed under the title The Girl
Who Fell Through a Hole in Her Sweater in the United
States)
The War Boys Jeremy Scahill and Naomi Wallace
giving a writing workshop in New
Things of Dry Hours
Haven, Connecticut.
Birdy (an adaptation of William Wharton's novel)
The Fever Chart: Three Visions of the Middle East
 Twenty One Positions: A Cartographic Dream of the Middle East (with Lisa Schlesinger and
Abdelfattah Abusrour)
The Hard Weather Boating Party
One Short Sleepe
And I and Silence
The Liquid Plain
Night is a Room
Barrel Wave[17]
The Return of Benjamin Lay (produced at the Finborough Theatre (https://finboroughtheatre.
co.uk/production/the-return-of-benjamin-lay/)[18] with Marcus Rediker)
The Breach
Returning to Haifa (with Ismail Khalidi (writer))[19][20]
Guernica, Gaza (with Ismail Khalidi (writer))[21][22]

Anthologies
Inside/Outside: Six Plays from Palestine and the Diaspora[23]
Double Exposure: Plays of the Jewish and Palestinian Diasporas[24]

Essays
"Trump-ocalypse Now? Theater in the Age of Trump"[25]
"Radical Vision and Form"[26] (interview)
"Let the Right One In: On resistance, hospitality and new writing for the American stage"[27]

Poetry
To Dance A Stony Field (Peterloo Poets Press).

Films
Lawn Dogs[28]
The War Boys, co-written with Bruce E. J. McLeod
Flying Blind, co-written with Bruce E. J. McLeod[29]

References
1. Cummings, Scott T.; Abbitt, Erica Stevens (December 18, 2013). The Theatre of Naomi
Wallace: Embodied Dialogues (https://books.google.com/books?id=FDmvAgAAQBAJ).
Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137017925. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
2. "A.R.T. - American Repertory Theater - Naomi Wallace" (http://americanrepertorytheater.org/
person/naomi-wallace). americanrepertorytheater.org. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
3. "Wallace & McLeod Family spend holiday dodging rubber bullets" (https://www.cravenheral
d.co.uk/news/758163.family-spend-holidays-dodging-rubber-bullets/).
 4. "Wallace lecturing at the National University of Athens" (https://www.deanphil.uoa.gr/anakoin
oseis_kai_ekdiloseis/proboli_ekdilosis/i_polybrabeymeni_amerikanida_theatriki_syggrafeas
_naomi_wallace_sto_amfitheatro_tis_bibliothikis_tis_fi/).
5. "Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)" (http://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/).
Retrieved August 12, 2016.
6. "CHASS: IN THE HEART OF AMERICA by Naomi Wallace" (https://web.archive.org/web/20
180518211841/https://chass.ucr.edu/news/2009/january/01-15-09.html). Archived from the
original (http://chass.ucr.edu/news/2009/january/01-15-09.html) on May 18, 2018. Retrieved
August 12, 2016.
7. "Windham Campbell Prizes – Naomi Wallace" (https://web.archive.org/web/2016100804471
1/http://windhamcampbell.org/2013/winner/naomi-wallace). The Donald Windham-Sandy
Campbell Literature Prizes. Yale University. Archived from the original (http://windhamcampb
ell.org/2013/winner/naomi-wallace) on October 8, 2016. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
8. Lyn Gardner (February 6, 2007). "Enemy within" (https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2007/
feb/06/lyngardner.features11). The Guardian. London.
9. Catron, Joe. "Women's Boat to Gaza Prepares a New Challenge to Israel's Blockade" (htt
p://www.truth-out.org/news/item/37278-women-s-boat-to-gaza-prepares-a-new-challenge-to
-israel-s-blockadeGaza). Truthout. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
10. "Naomi Wallace" (http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/naomi-wallace/). The New York
Times. April 8, 2009.
11. "The Fever Chart" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180111052612/http://schools.aucegypt.ed
u/huss/arts/theatre/archive/Pages/TheFeverChart.aspx). The American University in Cairo.
Archived from the original (http://schools.aucegypt.edu/huss/arts/theatre/archive/Pages/The
FeverChart.aspx) on January 11, 2018. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
12. "Naomi Wallace's Development Process for "The Hard Weather Boating Party" " (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20101005084607/http://npdp.arenastage.org/2009/03/naomi-wallaces-de
velopment-process-for-the-hard-weather-boating-party-.html). New Play Blog. New Play
Development Program, Arena Stage. March 13, 2009. Archived from the original (http://npd
p.arenastage.org/2009/03/naomi-wallaces-development-process-for-the-hard-weather-boati
ng-party-.html) on October 5, 2010.
13. "One Flea Spare (Une puce, épargnez-la) at La Comédie-Française" (https://www.comedie-f
rancaise.fr/fr/evenements/une-puce-epargnez-la11-12#).
14. "Alumna Naomi Wallace wins Horton Foote Prize | Iowa Now - The University of Iowa" (http
s://now.uiowa.edu/news/2012/09/alumna-naomi-wallace-wins-horton-foote-prize).
now.uiowa.edu. Retrieved December 4, 2023.
15. Dorie Baker (March 4, 2013). "Yale awards $1.35 million to nine writers" (http://news.yale.ed
u/2013/03/04/yale-awards-135-million-nine-writers). YaleNews. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
16. "American Academy of Arts & Letters Awards to Naomi Wallace and Zachary Lazar | Iowa
Writers' Workshop | College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | The University of Iowa" (https://write
rsworkshop.uiowa.edu/resources/news/american-academy-arts-letters-awards-naomi-wallac
e-and-zachary-lazar). writersworkshop.uiowa.edu. April 7, 2015. Retrieved December 4,
2023.
17. "Barrel Wave" (http://www.breakthewallproject.org/barrel-wave-1). Break The Wall.
18. "The Return of Benjamin Lay at the Finborough Theatre" (https://finboroughtheatre.co.uk/pro
duction/the-return-of-benjamin-lay/).
19. "Returning To Haifa – Finborough Theatre" (https://finboroughtheatre.co.uk/production/return
ing-to-haifa/).
20. "The Guardian review - Returning to Haifa" (https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/mar/0
5/returning-haifa-review-finborough-london-palestine-palestinian-israeli#:~:text=Finboroug
h%2C%20London&text=Adapted%20by%20Ismail%20Khalidi%20and,without%20some%2
0form%20of%20reconciliation).
21. https://www.thesegalcenter.org/arab-stages/review%3A-guernica%2C-gaza%3A-visions-
from-the-center-of-the-earth.-by-naomi-wallace-and-ismail-khalidi
22. https://oldfirestation.org.uk/whats-on/guernica/
23. Wallace, Naomi; Khalidi, Ismail (eds.). "Browse Titles - Inside/Outside: Six Plays from
Palestine and the Diaspora" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160725220023/http://www.tcg.o
rg/ecommerce/showbookdetails.cfm?ID=TCG7818). Theatre Communications Group.
Archived from the original (https://www.tcg.org/ecommerce/showbookdetails.cfm?ID=TCG78
18) on July 25, 2016. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
24. "Double Exposure" (https://www.playwrightscanada.com/Books/D/Double-Exposure) – via
www.playwrightscanada.com.
25. Khalidi, Ismail; Wallace, Naomi (October 24, 2017). "Trump-ocalypse Now?" (https://www.a
mericantheatre.org/2017/10/24/trump-ocalypse-now/). AMERICAN THEATRE.
26. Murray, Joel (November 10, 2015). "Radical Vision and Form: A Conversation With Naomi
Wallace" (https://www.americantheatre.org/2015/11/10/radical-vision-and-form-a-conversati
on-with-naomi-wallace/). AMERICAN THEATRE.
27. Wallace, Naomi (January 1, 2013). "Let the Right One In" (https://www.americantheatre.org/
2013/01/01/let-the-right-one-in/). AMERICAN THEATRE.
28. "Lawn Dogs" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119506/). May 15, 1998. Retrieved August 12,
2016 – via IMDb.
29. "Flying Blind - BBC" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b039scyr) – via BBC.

External links
Official website (https://www.naomiwallace.com/)
Naomi Wallace, Broadway Play Publishing Inc Playwright of the Year 1997 (https://web.archi
ve.org/web/20080704110130/http://www.broadwayplaypubl.com/WALLACE.HTM)
Connie Julian (March 14, 2004). "Naomi Wallace: Looking for Fire" (http://revcom.us/a/1232/
naomirwinterview.htm). Revolutionary Worker (1232).
Betty Shamieh (May 2008). "The Art of Countering Despair: Naomi Wallace" (http://www.bro
oklynrail.org/2008/05/theater/the-art-of-countering-despair-naomi-wallace). The Brooklyn
Rail.

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