Beth Kander is an award-winning author and playwright with tangled roots in the Midwest and Deep South, who currently calls Chicago home. The granddaughter of immigrants, she loves exploring how worlds old and new can intertwine—or collide.
Beth earned a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mississippi University for Women; her undergraduate years were spent at Brandeis University, where she double-majored in American Studies and Near Eastern & Judaic Studies, with minors in Creative Writing and Hebrew Language & Literature.
Playwriting honors include the T. Jefferson Carey Memorial Playwriting Award (2022); Henry Award for Best New Play or Musical (2019-2020); Headwaters New Play Award (2018); Equity Library Theatre-Chicago Award (2017); Ashland New Plays Festival (2015, 2016); Eudora Welty New Play Awards (2008, 2010, 2012); and the Charles M. Getchell New Play Award (2012), among others. Current projects include a commissioned play for Creede Repertory Theatre, which will premiere in May 2023; a children’s picture-and-recipes-book called DO NOT EAT THIS BOOK (Sleeping Bear Press, 2023); and two upcoming dark and twisty novels. By day, she works in the nonprofit world as a strategist and grantwriter.
A proud parent-artist, her favorite characters are her two brave, hilarious kids, and she cheers for parent-artists everywhere. Beth is represented by Allison Hellegers at Stimola Literary Studio. For more: www.bethkander.com
