Suzan-Lori Parks
| Suzan-Lori Parks | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Susan-Lori Parks May 10, 1963 Fort Knox, Kentucky, United States |
| Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter |
| Nationality | United States |
| Spouse | Paul Oscher (2001-present) |
| Information | |
| Magnum opus | Topdog/Underdog |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2002) |
Suzan-Lori Parks (born May 10, 1963) is an American playwright, screenwriter and novelist. Her 2001 play Topdog/Underdog won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002; Parks is the first African American woman to achieve this honor.
Parks was born in Fort Knox, Kentucky on May 10, 1963; she grew up with two siblings in a military family. Parks enjoyed writing poems and songs and even created a newspaper with her brother, called the "Daily Daily". In 1974 her father, a career officer in the United States Army, was stationed in West Germany where she attended middle school and attended German high school. The experience showed her "what it feels like to be neither white nor black, but simply foreign". After returning to the United States Parks lived and attended school in several states such as Kentucky, Texas, California, North Carolina, Maryland, and Vermont. Parks says her constant relocation could have influenced her writing. She graduated high school at The John Carroll School in 1981 while her father was stationed in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.
In high school, Parks was discouraged from studying literature due to a teacher criticising her spelling. However, upon reading Virginia Woolf's To the Light House, Parks found herself veering away from her initial interest in chemistry, gravitating towards writing. Parks attended and graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1985 with a B.A. in English and German literature while a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She studied under James Baldwin, who encouraged her to become a playwright. James Baldwin describes Parks during this time as, "an utterly astounding and beautiful creature who may become one of the most valuable artists of our time." Suzan-Lori Parks continued studying a year in acting at Drama Studio London in order to better understand the stage.
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