Suzan lori parks author biography for book

American playwright (born )

Suzan-Lori Parks (born May 10, ) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. Her play Topdog/Underdog won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in ; Parks was the first African-American woman to receive the award for drama. She was named one of the most influential people in the world by Time magazine in

Early life and education

Parks was born in Fort Knox, Kentucky. She grew up with two siblings in a military family. Parks enjoyed writing poems and songs and created a newspaper with her brother, called the "Daily Daily." Parks was raised Catholic and attended high school in West Germany, where her father, a career officer in the United States Army, was stationed. The experience showed her "what it feels like to be neither white nor black, but simply foreign". After returning to the U.S., her family relocated frequently and Parks went to school in Kentucky, Texas, California, North Carolina, Maryland, and Vermont. She graduated high school from The John Carroll School in , while her father was stationed in Aberdeen Proving Ground.

In high school, Parks was discouraged from studying literature by at least one teacher, but upon reading Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, Parks found herself veering away from her interest in chemistry, gravitating towards writing. Parks attended Mount Holyoke College and became a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She graduated in with a B.A. degree in English and German literature. She studied under James Baldwin, who encouraged her to become a playwright; Parks was initially resistant to writing for theater, believing it was elitist and cliquey. Parks, at his behest, began to write plays. Baldwin considered her talent as amazing. Parks then studied acting for a year at Drama Studio London.^[10

Born

May 10,

Website

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Theater

Influences

James Baldwin, Leah Blatt Glasser, Mary McHenry, Wendy Wasserstein

Though a high school teacher discouraged her from writing because of her poor spelling, Suzan-Lori Parks went on to become one of the most successful playwrights in the United States. The first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama () and a pioneer of historically conscious and linguistically complex theater, her work is now taught at drama schools across the country. 

Parks was born on May 10, at Fort Knox in Kentucky to Donald and Francis McMillian Parks. Her father was a colonel in the United States Army, and Parks spent her early childhood in Odessa, Texas while her father served in Vietnam. The distinctive dialect she soaked in during her years in West Texas would influence her dialogue when she began writing for the stage. In , Parks moved with her family to Germany where her father was stationed. She and her siblings attended local schools and became fluent in German. An early love for stories from mythology and folklore made Parks dream of becoming a writer, but after her high school teacher dissuaded her, she turned her focus to science. 

After returning to the U.S., Parks graduated from The John Carroll School in Bel-Air, Maryland in She entered Mount Holyoke College where she rediscovered her love for poetry and prose, and switched her major from chemistry to English and German literature. In college, Parks studied fiction-writing under acclaimed writer James Baldwin. He encouraged her talent, calling Parks, “an utterly astounding and beautiful creature who may become one of the most valuable artists of our time.” He steered her toward writing plays, due to her tendency to act out all the voices when she read her short stories aloud. Parks graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Mount Holyoke in  

Following Baldwin’s advice, Parks sought further theater education in order to improve as a playwright. She studied acting at the Drama Studio London and cleaned the school at night in order to support herself. Parks then moved to New York City,