Maria Dahvana Headley
Encyclopedia
She graduated from Vallivue High School in Caldwell, Idaho
Caldwell, Idaho
Caldwell is a city in and the county seat of Canyon County, Idaho, United States. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the population to be 43,281, as of July 2009.Caldwell is the home of the College of Idaho. It is considered part of the Boise metropolitan area....
, in 1995, and attended New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
's Tisch School of the Arts Dramatic Writing Program from 1996-2000.
Headley is married to Robert Schenkkan
Robert Schenkkan
Robert Frederic Schenkkan, Jr. is an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor, perhaps most recognizable as the character of Lieutenant Commander Dexter Remmick in Star Trek: The Next Generation...
, a playwright and screenwriter, who won the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
in Drama in 1992 for his play, The Kentucky Cycle
The Kentucky Cycle
The Kentucky Cycle is a series of nine one-act plays by Robert Schenkkan that explores American mythology, particularly the mythology of the West, through the intertwined histories of three fictional families struggling over a portion of land in the Cumberland Plateau...
.
A playwright herself, Headley's play Drive Me and Last of the Breed have been produced at Boise Contemporary Theater
Boise Contemporary Theater
Boise Contemporary Theater is a small professional theater company located in Boise, Idaho. Since 1997, BCT has been the only professional theater company in Boise committed to performing a complete season of contemporary work, thereby filling a long vacant niche in the artistic landscape of Idaho...
in Boise, Idaho
Boise, Idaho
Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...
.
Headley is a 2006 MacDowell Colony
MacDowell Colony
The MacDowell Colony is an art colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, U.S.A., founded in 1907 by Marian MacDowell, pianist and wife of composer Edward MacDowell. She established the institution and its endowment chiefly with donated funds...
Fellow, and has attended The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference
Bread Loaf Writers' Conference
The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is a writers' conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont...
, The Sundance
Sundance
Sundance Resort is a ski resort located northeast of Provo, Utah, spanning over on the slopes of Mount Timpanogos in Utah's Wasatch Range. Snow skiing began on the site in 1944...
Playwright's Lab, The Kennedy Center's New Visions/New Voices workshop, Brave New Works, and the WordBridge Playwright's Lab. She has received awards from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (N.F.A.A), and WordSmitten Media, Inc. (WordSmitten.com), among others, and her fiction has been anthologized in Susie Bright
Susie Bright
Susannah "Susie" Bright is an American writer, speaker, teacher, audio-show host, and performer, all on the subject of sexuality....
's Best American Erotica 2005 and The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica Volume 4. She has been a featured author at Bumbershoot
Bumbershoot
Bumbershoot is an annual international music and arts festival held in Seattle, Washington. One of North America's largest such festivals, it takes place every Labor Day weekend at the 74-acre Seattle Center, which was built for the 1962 World's Fair. Seattle Center includes indoor theaters,...
, Wordstock
Wordstock
Wordstock is an annual two-day literary festival held in Portland, Oregon, United States, started in 2005. It is the largest festival of its kind in the Pacific Northwest, and one of the largest in the nation. Events include author readings, writing contests and workshops, exhibits and a book fair....
, and the Texas Book Festival
Texas Book Festival
The Texas Book Festival was established in 1995 by Laura Bush, then the First Lady of Texas, and Mary Margaret Farabee, wife of former State Senator Ray Farabee. The festival was created to benefit the state's public library system, to promote the joy of reading, as well as to honor Texas authors. ...
.
Headley is a founding member of the Memoirists Collective, a writer's group consisting of the authors Danielle Trussoni
Danielle Trussoni
Danielle Anne Trussoni is an American writer. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications including The New York Times Magazine, Telegraph Magazine, and The New York Times Book Review...
, Josh Kilmer-Purcell
Josh Kilmer-Purcell
Josh Kilmer-Purcell is an American writer. In 2006 Harper Perennial published I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir, a tragicomic account of Kilmer-Purcell's early days in New York City, living as an advertising art director by day and a drag queen named "Aquadisiac" by night...
, and Hillary Carlip
Hillary Carlip
Hillary Carlip is an American author, screenwriter, performance artist, and singer.-Career:Carlip's first book Girl Power: Young Women Speak Out was published in 1995. Her second book, Zine Scene, which she designed herself and co-wrote with Francesca Lia Block, won an American Library Association...
. The Collective's stated goal is to "identify and nurture new talent in nonfiction, as well as to encourage collaborative and creative promotion".
Queen of Kings
In early 2010, DuttonDutton
- Places :*Dutton, Alabama, town in the United States*Dutton, Cheshire, village in England*Dutton, Lancashire, village in England*Dutton, Montana, town in the United States*Dutton/Dunwich, Ontario, town and municipality in Canada*Dutton, South Australia...
purchased Headley's debut novel Queen of Kings, which is said to explore "the transcendent powers of love even beyond death, entwining the true story of Antony and Cleopatra and Rome's invasion of Alexandria with a narrative in which the Queen of Egypt sacrifices her soul to save her fallen husband and in return is transformed into an immortal goddess bent on the destruction of the Roman Empire". It was purchased as part of a trilogy deal. The hardcover is slated for release in 2011.
The Year of Yes
In 2006, Hyperion published her memoir, The Year of Yes, an account of the year Headley spent saying yes to dates with anyone who asked her out. The Year of Yes has been optioned for the screen by Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
and the Jinks/Cohen Company (producers of American Beauty
American Beauty (film)
American Beauty is a 1999 American drama film directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, a middle-aged magazine writer who has a midlife crisis when he becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend, Angela...
, and Big Fish
Big Fish
Big Fish is a 2003 American fantasy adventure film based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Daniel Wallace. The film was directed by Tim Burton and stars Albert Finney, Ewan McGregor, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange and Marion Cotillard. Finney plays Edward Bloom, a former traveling salesman from...
, among other films), and has been or will be translated into Korean, German, Dutch, Italian, Hebrew, and Chinese, as well as appearing in an additional English-language edition in the UK and world marketplace through HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
Thorsons Element imprint. The Year of Yes is a 2006 Finalist in The Books for a Better Life Award.
The Year of Yes was released in hardcover in January 2006, and in paperback in January 2007.
Further reading
- Cheney, Matthew. "A Conversation with Maria Dahvana Headley", The Mumpsimus, December 27, 2005.
- Headley, Maria Dahvana. Author Archive: "Maria Dahvana Headley". PowellsBooks.Blog.
- Henderson, Susan. "Maria Dahvana Headley". LitPark, January 10, 2007.
- Miller, Brian. "Affirmative Action: How a local author dramatically improved her odds of finding a man", Seattle WeeklySeattle WeeklySeattle Weekly is a freely distributed newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded by Darrell Oldham and David Brewster as The Weekly...
, February 16, 2006. - Robinson, Tasha. "The Year of Yes", A.V. Club, February 8, 2006.
- Sachs, Andrea. "A Year in the Underbelly of Sex in the City", TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, February 10, 2006.
External links
- Greetings, New World - The Year of Yes - official book website