Naomi Wallace is an internationally acclaimed American playwright, screenwriter, and poet. Born in Kentucky into a family with a radical political tradition—her mother was from a Jewish working-class family and was an advocate for justice and equality—she developed a keen sensitivity to the mechanics of power from a young age. Wallace began her artistic career in poetry, which lends her plays a unique, razor-sharp literary quality. As a creator with Jewish heritage, she views her identity as a form of “solidarity” with the oppressed worldwide, with works that cross boundaries of class, race, and geography to focus on marginal voices forgotten by mainstream history.
Wallace holds a distinguished position in contemporary theater, having received the MacArthur Fellowship (the “Genius Grant”) and the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. Her masterpiece, “One Flea Spare,” was selected for the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s contemporary American drama archives and made her the second American author, after Tennessee Williams, to be performed at the Comédie-Française. Her achievement lies not just in her artistic experimentation but in successfully elevating “literature of resistance” to the mainstream, earning numerous top honors including the Obie Award.
This profound concern for injustice naturally extends to her long-standing support for the Palestinian liberation cause. Wallace is one of the art world’s most steadfast advocates for the BDS movement, having published numerous open letters calling on cultural workers to refuse endorsement of Israel’s occupation policies. Artistically, she penned works like “The Fever Chart: Three Short Visions of the Middle East,” using poetic strokes to depict the dignity and suffering of Palestinians under occupation, challenging common stereotypes in Western media. She firmly maintains that artists have a responsibility to dismantle narratives supporting colonialism, stating that her support for Palestine is a universal commitment to justice and human rights, consistent with her family’s progressive values.