Suzan-Lori Parks

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."{{cite web|title= Suzan-Lori Parks Biography and Interview |website=www.achievement.org |publisher=American Academy of Achievement |url=https://achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/#interview}} Parks was raised Catholic and attended high school in West Germany, where her father, a career officer in the United States Army, was stationed.{{cite journal |last1=Morris |first1=Steven |title=Profile 9: 'Tickling the Balls of God': Suzan-Lori Parks and her Many Creative Acts |journal=Democratic Vistas Profiles |date=2002 |url=https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cap_vistas/9/ }} The experience showed her "what it feels like to be neither white nor black, but simply foreign".[https://web.archive.org/web/20100115040630/http://spinner.cofc.edu/temples/parks.html?referrer=webcluster& Suzan-Lori Parks (Archived from January 2010)] 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 1981, while her father was stationed in Aberdeen Proving Ground.{{cite news| title=Connections| pages=4| publisher=John Carroll School| date=Spring 2007| url=http://johncarroll.org/data/files/gallery/ParentFiles/April_2007_Connections.pdf| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808153956/http://johncarroll.org/data/files/gallery/ParentFiles/April_2007_Connections.pdf| archive-date=2007-08-08}}

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.{{cite journal |last1=Parks |first1=Suzan-Lori |last2=Jiggetts |first2=Shelby |title=An Interview with Suzan-Lori Parks |journal=Callaloo |date=1996 |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=309–317 |doi=10.1353/cal.1996.0053 |s2cid=161387051 }} Parks attended Mount Holyoke College and became a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She graduated in 1985 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.{{cite web| title =Suzan-Lori Parks Interview| publisher =Academy of Achievement| date =June 22, 2007| url =http://www.achievement.com/autodoc/page/par1int-5| url-status =dead| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20090108080211/http://www.achievement.com/autodoc/page/par1int-5| archive-date =January 8, 2009}} Baldwin considered her talent as amazing.{{cite web|url = http://www.idvl.org/thehistorymakers/Bio321.html|title = Biography Page for Suzan-Lori Parks|date = November 21, 2006|access-date = August 5, 2015|website = The History Makers|url-status = usurped|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150924032832/http://www.idvl.org/thehistorymakers/Bio321.html|archive-date = September 24, 2015}} Parks then studied acting for a year at Drama Studio London.{{cite magazine |last=Als |first=Hilton |author-link=Hilton Als|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/10/30/the-show-woman |title=The Show-Woman |magazine=The New Yorker |date=October 30, 2006 |access-date=January 28, 2016}}{{cite web|title=Suzan-Lori Parks Biography|url=http://www.biography.com/people/suzan-lori-parks-37703|website=biography.com|access-date=14 August 2015}}{{cite web| title=Suzan-Lori Parks '85 Took Her Cue from Five College Professor James Baldwin| publisher=Mount Holyoke College| url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/cic/about/reasons.shtml?num=5 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100713222641/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/cic/about/reasons.shtml?num=5 |archive-date=July 13, 2010 |access-date=August 13, 2015}}

Parks was inspired by Wendy Wasserstein, who won the Pulitzer in 1989 for her play The Heidi Chronicles,{{cite web| title =Suzan-Lori Parks '85 Wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama| publisher =College Street Journal| date =April 12, 2002| url =http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/041202/parks.shtml| url-status =dead| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20051129163321/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/041202/parks.shtml| archive-date =November 29, 2005}} and by her Mount Holyoke professor, Leah Blatt Glasser.{{cite web| title=In the News: Traditions and communications| work=College Street Journal| date=May 24, 1996| url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/960524/news.html| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050323015424/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/960524/news.html| archive-date=March 23, 2005}}

Parks has written three screenplays and numerous stage plays. Her first screenplay was for Spike Lee's 1996 film Girl 6.{{cite news |last=Williams |first=Monte |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/17/garden/at-lunch-with-suzan-lori-parks-from-a-planet-closer-to-the-sun.html |title=At Lunch With: Suzan-Lori Parks; From A Planet Closer To the Sun |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 17, 1996 |access-date=October 10, 2023 |url-access=limited |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709033407/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/17/garden/at-lunch-with-suzan-lori-parks-from-a-planet-closer-to-the-sun.html |archive-date=July 9, 2022 |url-status=live}} She later worked with Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions on screenplays for Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005) and The Great Debaters (2007).{{cite news |last=Lindsey |first=Craig D. |url=http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/847213.html |title='Debaters' makes its case |newspaper=The News & Observer |date=December 25, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090413173159/http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/847213.html |archive-date=April 13, 2009}}{{cite magazine |last1=Brodesser |first1=Claude |last2=Harris |first2=Dana |url=https://variety.com/2004/film/markets-festivals/back-to-back-helming-1117911169/ |title=Back-to-back helming: Washington to take 2 gigs |magazine=Variety |date=September 29, 2004 |access-date=December 16, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221231947/https://www.variety.com/article/VR1117911169.html?categoryid=1236&cs=1 |archive-date=December 21, 2008}}

Parks became the first female African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, which was awarded in 2002 for her play Topdog/Underdog.{{efn|Gwendolyn Brooks was the first female African American to win any Pulitzer Prize, in 1950, for Poetry.{{Cite web |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/article/frost-williams-no-gwendolyn-brooks |title=Frost? Williams? No, Gwendolyn Brooks |website=www.pulitzer.org |language=en |access-date=January 24, 2020 |archive-date=December 20, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220200021/https://www.pulitzer.org/article/frost-williams-no-gwendolyn-brooks |url-status=live }}}} She has also received a number of grants including the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant in 2001. She is a winner of the 2017 Poets, Essayists and Novelists (PEN) America Literary Awards in the category Master American Dramatist.Hetrick, Adam. [http://www.playbill.com/article/suzan-lori-parks-tarell-alvin-mccrane-y-and-thomas-bradshaw-win-pen-awards# "Suzan-Lori Parks, Tarell Alvin McCraney, and Thomas Bradshaw Win PEN America Literary Awards"], Playbill, February 23, 2017. She received the 2018 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. This biennial award is given to "established playwrights whose body of work has made significant contributions to the American theatre."Hetrick, Adam. [http://www.playbill.com/article/suzan-lori-parks-named-2018-steinberg-distinguished-playwright-award-winner# "Suzan-Lori Parks Named 2018 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award Winner"], Playbill, October 3, 2018.

Although Betting on the Dust Commander was not the first play Parks wrote, it was the first of her plays to be produced. Her first play The Sinner's Place, which she wrote for her senior project at Mount Holyoke, was rejected for production by her college's drama department as they considered it too experimental since she wanted to have dirt on the stage during the performance.{{Cite news|url=https://www.americantheatre.org/2000/10/01/the-possession-of-suzan-lori-parks/|title=The Possession of Suzan-Lori Parks|last=Garrett|first=Shawn Marie|date=2000-10-01|work=American Theatre|publisher=Theatre Communications Group|access-date=2018-09-19|language=en-US}} When her second play, Betting on the Dust Commander, first premiered, it ran for three nights in a bar in Manhattan's Lower East Side called Gas Station.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/10/30/the-show-woman|title=The Show-Woman|last=Als|first=Hilton|date=2006-10-30|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=2018-09-18|language=en-US}} It is a short, one-act play set in Kentucky, centering around the lives of a couple, Mare and Lucius, who have been married for 110 years. The play's title comes from the horse that won the Kentucky Derby in 1970, Dust Commander. As the play goes on, we discover that Dust Commander's Derby is responsible for bringing Mare and Lucius together, and through the couple's discussion of him they think back over their many years of memories together. Poet Philip Kolin argues that Parks's incorporation of non-linear time and a repetitive style is reminiscent of African rituals and the way that their retelling of stories often incorporate the past in a literal manner.{{cite journal |id={{Gale|A206534461}} |last1=Kolin |first1=Philip C. |title=Cultural memory and circular time in Suzan-Lori Parks's betting on the dust commander |journal=Notes on Contemporary Literature |date=May 2009 |volume=39 |issue=3 }}{{cite book |last1=Parks |first1=Suzan-Lori |title=The America Play and Other Works |date=2013 |publisher=Theatre Communications Group |isbn=978-1-55936-736-3 }}{{page needed|date=April 2023}}

One of her best-known works is Topdog/Underdog. This play marked a departure from the heightened language she usually wrote.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}} Parks is an admirer of Abraham Lincoln and believed he left a legacy for descendants of slaves. It tells the story of two African-American brothers: Lincoln and Booth. Lincoln works at a boardwalk arcade, dressing up like Abraham Lincoln and letting the tourists shoot him with plastic guns. He got this job because he could be paid less than the white man who had the job before. Author Joshua Wolf Shenk argues that Parks does not judge Lincoln in this play, but rather enjoys bringing him into the other characters' lives and seeing how they are affected. In an interview, Parks said, "Lincoln is the closest thing we have to a mythic figure. In days of Greek drama, they had Apollo and Medea and Oedipus – these larger than life figures that walked the earth and spoke – and they turned them into plays. Shakespeare had kings and queens that he fashioned into his stories. Lincoln, to me, is one of those."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/07/theater/theater-beyond-a-black-and-white-lincoln.html|title=Theater; Beyond a Black-and-White Lincoln|last=Shenk|first=Joshua Wolf|date=2002-04-07|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=2016-04-20}}

After her book Getting Mother's Body was published,{{citation needed|date=May 2024}} Parks gave herself the task of writing 365 plays in 365 days, ultimately produced as 365 Plays/365 Days.{{Cite news |last=Robertson |first=Campbell |date=2006-11-10 |title=A Playwright's Cycle, With a New Work a Day for an Entire Year |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/10/theater/10park.html |access-date=2024-05-18 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

The plays were presented by 725 performing arts groups, taking turns until the entire cycle was performed. The performances started in 2006 at The Public Theater in New York City, and included venues such as the Denver Center Theatre Company, colleges in England and Australia and the Steel City Theatre Company in Pueblo, Colorado.Moore, John. [https://www.denverpost.com/2006/11/10/365-days-365-plays/ "365 Days … 365 Plays"], The Denver Post, November 10, 2006, retrieved January 15, 2017. Other venues were the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and the Center Theater Group in Los Angeles.

Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 premiered off-Broadway at the Public Theater in a developmental production in March 2014 and a full production that fall. Directed by Jo Bonney, the cast featured Sterling K. Brown, Louis Cancelmi, Peter Jay Fernandez, Russell G. Jones, and Jacob Ming-Trent.[http://www.lortel.org/Archives/Production/5805 "Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 March"], lortel.org. Retrieved January 14, 2017. Jacob Ming-Trent won the 2015 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play{{cite web |title=Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) |url=http://www.lortel.org/Archives/Production/5914 |website=Lortel Archives |access-date=14 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116181411/http://www.lortel.org/Archives/Production/5914 |archive-date=16 January 2017 |url-status=unfit}} and Parks won the 2015 Obie Award for playwriting presented by the American Theater Wing.Obie Awards, [http://www.obieawards.com/2015/05/2015-obie-award-winners-announced/ 2015 Winners] obieawards.com The play, which takes place during the American Civil War, is presented in three parts: Part 1, A Measure of a Man; Part 2, The Battle in the Wilderness; and Part 3, The Union of My Confederate Parts.Hetrick, Adam. [http://www.playbill.com/article/suzan-lori-parks-father-comes-home-from-the-wars-extends-again-com-335607# "Suzan-Lori Parks' Father Comes Home from the Wars' Extends Again"], Playbill, November 17, 2014. From September 15 to October 22, 2016, the play had its London premiere at the Royal Court in a transfer of the Public Theatre production directed by Jo Bonney. The cast featured Steve Toussaint, Nadine Marshall, Leo Wringer, Sibusiso Mamba, Tom Bateman, and Jimmy Akingbola.[https://royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/father-comes-home-from-the-wars/"] royalcourttheatre.com, retrieved October 25, 2018

The play was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The Pulitzer committee wrote: "A distinctive and lyrical epic about a slave during the Civil War that deftly takes on questions of identity, power and freedom with a blend of humor and dignity."[http://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/suzan-lori-parks-0 "Suzan-Lori Parks"] pulitzer.org, retrieved January 14, 2017

The Red Letter Plays refers to Fucking A and In the Blood, two plays incorporating themes from The Scarlet Letter. Both plays have a mother named Hester struggling in a society where they put her in the role of outcast.{{Cite web |last=Windman |first=Matt |date=2017-09-21 |title=Suzan-Lori Parks' 'Red Letter Plays' offer powerful, rewarding theater |url=https://www.amny.com/entertainment/suzan-lori-parks-red-letter-plays-offer-powerful-rewarding-theater-1-14244938/ |access-date=2022-05-02 |website=amNewYork |language=en-US}} The first play, In the Blood, premiered in 1999 and follows the story of Hester, a penniless mother of five who is condemned by the men who once loved her. In the Blood was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Fucking A premiered in 2000 and tells the story of Hester, an "abortionist" trying to free her son from prison.{{Cite web |title=Fucking A |url=https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/93488/fucking-a |access-date=2022-05-02 |website=Concord Theatricals |language=en}}

In 2017, Signature Theatre Company produced these two plays in the same season. Parks said: "They were conceived from the same idea but until now have lived very separate lives. I can't wait to participate in the dialogue that will come from witnessing these two works in concert."{{Cite news |title=Upcoming shows and events at Signature Theatre in New York |url=https://www.signaturetheatre.org/shows-and-events/The-Red-Letter-Plays-at-Signature.aspx |access-date=2022-05-02 |website=www.signaturetheatre.org}}

In October 2022, Sally & Tom, a play about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, began performances at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.{{Cite news |last=Paulson |first=Michael |date=2022-10-05 |title=Suzan-Lori Parks Is on Broadway, Off Broadway and Everywhere Else |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/05/theater/suzan-lori-parks.html |access-date=2022-10-06}}

Plays for the Plague Year, an anthology of plays and songs, described by The New York Times as "Parks's diaristic musings on the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic and a coincident string of deaths, including those of Black Americans killed by police officers", was scheduled for a November 2022 premiere at Joe's Pub, with Parks onstage singing and starring.{{cite web|url=https://publictheater.org/productions/season/2223/plays-for-the-plague-year2/|title=PLAYS FOR THE PLAGUE YEAR|website=Public Theater|date=2023}}

The Harder They Come, Parks's musical adaptation of the 1972 Jamaican reggae film was staged at the Public Theater in 2023.

{{col-begin}}{{col-break|width=50%}}

• The Sinner's Place (1984)
• Betting on the Dust Commander (1987)
• Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom (1989)
• The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World A.K.A. The Negro Book Of The Dead (1989–1992)
• Pickling (1990) (radio play)
• Third Kingdom (1990) (radio play)
• Locomotive (1991) (radio play)
• Devotees in the Garden of Love (1992)
• The America Play (1994)
• Venus (1996)
• In The Blood (1999)
• Fucking A (2000)
• Topdog/Underdog (2001)
• 365 Days/365 Plays (2002–2003)
• Unchain My Heart (The Ray Charles Musical) (2007)
• The Book of Grace (2010)
• Porgy and Bess (2011) (Book Adaptation)
• Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2, and 3) (2014)
• White Noise (2019) (winner, 2019 Obie Award, Playwriting)[http://iobdb.com/Archives/Production/6554 White Noise] lortel.org, retrieved May 13, 2019
• Sally & Tom (2022)
• The Harder They Come (2023){{cite web | url=https://publictheater.org/productions/season/2223/the-harder-they-come/ | title=The Harder They Come }}

{{col-end}}

• Girl 6 (1996)
• Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005)
• Native Son (2019)
• The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021)

• {{cite news | title=Suzan-Lori Parks's Aha! Moment | url=http://www.oprah.com/rys/omag/rys_omag_200305_aha.jhtml | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080113054854/http://www.oprah.com/rys/omag/rys_omag_200305_aha.jhtml |date = May 2003| archive-date=2008-01-13 }}
• {{cite web | title=Commencement Speech to the Mount Holyoke College Class of 2001 | publisher=Mount Holyoke College | url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/oped/loriparks.shtml | date=27 May 2001 }}
• "An Equation for Black People Onstage". In The America Play and Other Works, 19–22. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1995.
• "From the Elements of Style". In The America Play and Other Works, 6–18. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1995.
• "Possession." In The America Play and Other Works, 3–5. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1995.
• "Tradition and the Individual Talent". Theater 29.2 (1999): 26–33.

• {{cite book |title=Getting Mother's Body: A Novel |url=https://archive.org/details/gettingmothersbo00park|url-access=registration|location=New York |publisher=Random House |year=2003 | isbn=1-4000-6022-2}}

• 1990: Obie Award Best New American Play – Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom
• 1992: Whiting Award
• 1995: Lila-Wallace Reader's Digest Award
• 1996: Obie Award for Playwriting – Venus
• 2000: Guggenheim Fellowship Playwriting
• 2000: Pulitzer Prize Drama finalist – In The Blood
• 2001: MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant
• 2002: Pulitzer Prize for Drama – Topdog/Underdog
• 2002: Drama Desk Award Outstanding New Play nomination – Topdog/Underdog
• 2002: Tony Award for Best Play nomination – Topdog/Underdog
• 2006: Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts from the Council for the Arts at MIT (CAMIT)
• 2007: Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement|url= https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#the-arts}}
• 2008: NAACP Theatre Award - Ray Charles Live! A New Musical
• 2015: Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History - "Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3"[https://kennedyprize.columbia.edu/archives/173 "Kennedy Prize, 2015"], columbia.edu, February 23, 2015, retrieved January 14, 2017
• 2015: Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize{{cite news|last1=Piepenburg|first1=Erik|title=Suzan-Lori Parks Is Awarded the Gish Prize|url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/14/suzan-lori-parks-is-awarded-the-gish-prize|access-date=October 14, 2015|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 14, 2015}}
• 2015: Lucille Lortel Outstanding Play Award nomination - Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3
• 2015: Pulitzer Prize Drama finalist - Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3
• 2017: PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Awards for Master American Dramatist
• 2018: Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in Drama{{Cite news|url=https://news.yale.edu/2018/03/07/yale-awards-eight-writers-165000-windham-campbell-prizes|title=Yale awards eight writers $165,000 Windham-Campbell Prizes|date=2018-03-07|work=YaleNews|access-date=2018-03-07|language=en}}
• 2019: Outer Critics Circle Award, Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play — White NoiseStaff. [http://www.playbill.com/article/hadestown-leads-the-outer-critics-circle-awards-with-6-wins# " 'Hadestown' Leads the Outer Critics Circle Awards With 6 Wins"], Playbill, May 13, 2019.
• 2023: Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play -Topdog/Underdog
• 2024: Royal Society of Literature International Writer{{cite web|url=https://bronasbooks.com/2024/12/10/royal-society-of-literature-international-writers-2024/|title=Royal Society of Literature International Writers 2024|date=10 December 2024|access-date=2 January 2025|website=bronasbooks.com}}

In 2001, Parks married blues musician Paul Oscher; they divorced in 2010.{{Cite web|date=2006-10-17|title=Suzan-Lori Parks and Paul Oscher|url=https://www.bmi.com/news/entry/20061018parks_and_oscher_suzan_lori_parks_and_paul_oscher|access-date=2021-10-05|website=BMI.com|language=en}} By 2017, she married Christian Konopka, with whom she has a child.{{Cite web|title=Giving History a New Voice Keeps It Alive|url=https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2017/08/24/giving-history-new-voice-keeps-it-alive|access-date=2021-10-05|website=The Vineyard Gazette - Martha's Vineyard News|language=en}}

Parks noted in an interview that her name is spelled with a "Z" as the result of a misprint early in her career:

:

When I was doing one of my first plays in the East Village, we had fliers printed up and they spelled my name wrong. I was devastated. But the director said, 'Just keep it, honey, and it will be fine.' And it was.[http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/books/article/A-moment-with-Suzan-Lori-Parks-playwright-1115418.php "A moment with Suzan-Lori Parks, playwright"], The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 26, 2003.

She teaches playwriting at Tisch School of the Arts in the Rita & Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing.

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• Baym, Nina (ed.) "Suzan-Lori Parks". In The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 6th edition, Vol. E. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2003: 2606–2607.
• Collins, Ken and Victor Wishna. "Suzan-Lori Parks." In [https://web.archive.org/web/20070208130741/http://www.intheircompany.com/ In Their Company: Portraits of American Playwrights]. New York: Umbrage Editions, 2006: 186–189.
• NPR interviews. "[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6480604 Suzan-Lori Parks]".
• [http://brooklynrail.org/2006/11/theater/in-dialogue "In Dialogue: The Imperceptible Mutabilities of Susan-Lori Parks in 365 Plays And As Many Days Across The Whole Kingdom"] interview by Barbara Cassidy, The Brooklyn Rail, November 2006.
• Geis, Deborah R. 2008. Suzan-Lori Parks. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• {{cite thesis |last1=Ghasemi |first1=Mehdi |title=Quest/ion of Identities in African American Feminist Postmodern Drama: A Study of Selected Plays by Suzan-Lori Parks |date=2016 |url=https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-29-6496-3 }}
• Marshal, John. 2003. "A Moment with Suzan-Lori Parks, Playwright." Seattle Post-Intelligencer (May 25). Accessed April 20, 2015. http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/books/article/A-momentwith-Suzan-Lori-Parks-playwright-1115418.php.
• Wetmore Jr., Kevin J. 2007. "It's an Oberammergau Thing: An Interview with Suzan-Lori Parks." In Suzan-Lori Parks: A Casebook, edited by Kevin J. Wetmore Jr. and Alycia Smith-Howard, 124–140. London and New York: Routledge,

{{wikiquote}}

• {{IBDB name}}
• {{IMDb name|663016}}
• {{iobdb name|488}}
• [http://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/suzan-lori-parks#/ Suzan-Lori Parks] - The Whiting Foundation
• [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9399764/Suzan-Lori-Parks#807419.hook Suzan-Lori Parks] - Encyclopædia Britannica
• [http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/parks_suzan-lori.html Voices from the Gaps Biography] - University of Minnesota
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080509010340/http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~cybers/parks2.html Women of Color Women of Words Biography] - Rutgers University
• [https://www.flickr.com/photos/mhc/sets/72157594575961985/ Suzan-Lori Parks '85 Visits MHC] (March 2007)

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Category:Postmodern theatre

Category:Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners

Category:Tisch School of the Arts faculty

Category:Writers from Kentucky

Category:Writers from Massachusetts

Category:African-American women novelists

Category:The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize winners