Dan O Brien is an internationally-recognized playwright and poet who has received such honors the Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama, the Horton Foote Prize, the Edward M. Kennedy Prize and two PEN America Awards. O Brien has published three poetry collections (War Reporter, New Life, and Scarsdale) and is set to release his new book next month.
Entitled A Story that Happens: On Playwriting, Childhood, & Other Traumas
, the book is collection of essays originally written as a series of craft lectures for the annual Sewanee Writers Conference. Drawing on O Brien s experience with cancer, childhood abuse, his friendship and collaboration with a war reporter, and his years of playwriting, this book delivers meaningful reflections on storytelling in the theatre, and insights into writing through the lens of trauma and triumph.