Background

Naomi Wallace was born on August 17, 1960, in Prospect, Kentucky, United States. She is the daughter of Henry F. and Sonja (de Vries) Wallace.

Education

Wallace graduated from Hampshire College with a bachelor's degree in 1982 and received her master's degree from the University of Iowa in 1986 and then again in 1993.

Career

Since the 1990s, Wallace works as a playwright, freelance writer and poet. During her career, however, Wallace has also taught English literature, poetry and playwrighting at Yale University, UCLA, University of Iowa, Illinois State University, Merrimack College, Hampshire College, American University of Cairo, Vrije University of Amsterdam and other institutions. She has also worked with women in the criminal justice system.

Currently, Wallace divides her time between Kentucky and the Yorkshire Dales in Northern England (UK).

Her plays include In the Heart of America, Slaughter City, One Flea Spare, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Things of Dry Hours, The Fever Chart: Three Vision of the Middle East, And I and Silence, The Hard Weather Boating Party, The Liquid Plain. Her stage adaptation of William Wharton’s novel Birdy was produced on the West End in London.

Achievements

• Wallace's plays have been produced in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States and the Middle East
  
  In 2009, One Flea Spare was incorporated in the permanent repertoire of the French National Theater, the Comédie- Francaise. Only two American playwrights have been added to La Comédie’s repertoire in 300 years.
  
  Signature Theater, the Off-Broadway company that has historically mounted a season of plays, produced three of Wallace’s plays in 2014-2015, including the world premiere of Night is a Room.

Works

More photos

• book

  • And I and Silence

    (Exploring the fierce dreams of youth and the brutal reali...)

    2011
  • In the Heart of America and Other Plays

    (Author's work challenges the audience and reader to reexa...)

    2000
  • Trestle At Pope Lick Creek 2000
  • One Flea Spare 1997
  • Things Of Dry Hours 2010
  • The Fever Chart: Three Short Visions of the Middle East 2009
  • The Liquid Plain 2016
  • Slaughter City 1997
  • Birdy 1997
  • The Inland Sea 2002

Membership

Wallace is a member of SURJ, Showing up for Racial Justice. She has been called "a dedicated advocate for justice and human rights in the U.S. and abroad, and Palestinian rights in the Middle East," and her writing described as "muscular, devastating, and unwavering."

Connections

Wallace lives with her partner, Bruce McLeod, with whom she has three children, Nadira, Caitlin and Tegan.

husband:

Bruce McLeod

Daughter:

Nadira McLeod

Daughter:

Caitlin McLeod

Son:

Tegan McLeod