Peter Barr Nickowitz is an American poet, playwright, and screenwriter. Nickowitz grew up in

Fairfield, Connecticut Fairfield is a New England town, town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It borders the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Bridgeport and towns of Trumbull, Connecticut, Trumbull, Easton, Connecticut, Easton, Weston, Connecticut, W ...

and graduated from

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, where he received a Ph.D. in English and American literature. He is the author of ''Rhetoric and Sexuality: The Poetry of Hart Crane, Elizabeth Bishop, and James Merrill'' (Palgrave, 2006). Nickowitz's debut collection of poems, ''Cinema Vernacular'', was released in 2014 by Publication Studio. For the Huffington Post, Carol Muske-Dukes writes: "''Cinema Vernacular'' is built around a protagonist's ongoing everyday and romantic affairs in two cities: New York and Paris. The reader finds herself drawn into the poetry "movie," drawn into the fluid "camera work" of the "director's cut" — and then drawn past all these elements to the heart of the poem, the place where form, all form, becomes superfluous and the poem itself speaks unforgettably to the reader." In Goodreads.com Kevin Killian writes: "''Cinema Vernacular'' is a stunning new collection of poetry by Peter Nickowitz. Using forms like screenplays and even films in his poetics, ''Cinema Vernacular'' is porous, deft, concerned with our relationship to the intangible and how desire filters through image and text. These poems mark, with recognizable pathos and sharp turns of hilarity, the arrival of a major voice." His poems have appeared in literary magazines including ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published new works by Jack Kerouac, ...

'', '' Barrow Street'', ''Shampoo'', ''Slope'', ''Marsh Hawk Review'', and '' Third Coast'', and he was a National Poetry Series finalist. His plays include ''The Alice Complex'' (with Kate Mara and Harriet Harris;

Lisa Banes Lisa Lou Banes (July 9, 1955 – June 14, 2021) was an American actress known for more than 80 film and television roles, as well as stage appearances on Broadway and elsewhere. Banes won a 1981 Theatre World Award for her performance as Aliso ...

and Xanthe Elbrick) ("Smart, incisive..." - ''NY Times''), ''Backgammon at the Louvre'',Jones, Kenneth
"Banes and Elbrick Star in Feminist Thriller for FringeNYC"
Playbill, Retrieved 2016-05-10. and ''Songs & Statues''. They have been produced at the Cherry Lane, Dixon Place, The Blank Theatre, and Stella Adler Studio, where he was the 2008-09 Harold Clurman Playwright-in-Residence. His screenplays (co-written with Bill Oliver) include ''The Debutante'', which received a grant from the Jerome Foundation, ''Lulu'', a drama based on the life of silent film star Louise Brooks, which was optioned by Neve Campbell and Peer Oppenheim, and '' Jonathan'', about a young man who has a condition in which he shares his body with another consciousness. He has taught at the

LaGuardia Community College LaGuardia Community College is a Public college, public Community colleges in the United States, community college in New York City. It is in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in and part of the City University of New York. LaGuardia i ...

of the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

, the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

, and

The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...

. He currently teaches in the Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing at

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nickowitz, Peter Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights Brandeis University alumni New York University Institute of Fine Arts alumni The New School faculty LaGuardia Community College faculty New York University Institute of Fine Arts faculty