Photo: DerSchwabel / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Suzan-Lori Parks is, to me, one of the most fearless voices in American theatre. Becoming the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with Topdog/Underdog, was no fluke; her Guggenheim and MacArthur honors confirm a writer operating on a different frequency. What I admire most is her refusal to stay in one lane: playwright, novelist, screenwriter, film director. She bends language and form to dig at race, history, and American myth in ways that feel both playful and devastating. From Fort Knox, Kentucky to off-Broadway and the West End, she is exactly the kind of artist I want more people to read.
Overview
Suzan-Lori Parks (born May 10, 1963) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. Among her most popular plays are The America Play (1994), Venus (1996), In The Blood (1999), Fuckin A (2000), Topdog/Underdog (2001), and White Noise (2019). These works and others have been performed on and off Broadway and the West End.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Suzan-Lori Parks
- Name (Japanese)
- スーザン＝ロリ・パークス
- Reading
- すーざん＝ろり・ぱーくす
- Born
- May 10, 1963 (age 63)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Taurus / Rabbit
- Origin
- Fort Knox, Kentucky, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- screenwriter / novelist / playwright / writer / film director
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Mount Holyoke College
Awards & achievements
- 2000 Guggenheim Fellowship
- 2001 MacArthur Fellows Program
- 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
- 1993 Mount Holyoke College Mary Lyon Award
- 2018 Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes
- 2006 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT
- 2003 honorary degree from Spelman College
- star on Playwrights' Sidewalk
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | The Red Letter Plays | — |
6. Links
Screenwriter — see all → · Novelist — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.