Yussef El Guindi Wins the 2010 Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award

Yussef El Guindi has won the 2010 Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award. The prize, which is granted every other year to an American writer of a Middle Eastern background by a consortium composed of San Francisco’s Golden Thread Productions, New York’s Lark Play Development Center, and Chicago’s Silk Road Theatre Project, comes with a $10,000 commission to write a new play. In addition, the honor provides for artistic development support for two years and possible productions at both Silk Road and Golden Thread.

El Guindi’s plays include Language Rooms, Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes, Back of the Throat, Such a Beautiful Voice is Sayeda’s, Karima’s City, and Ten Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith. His new work, Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World, will be produced at at ACT in Seattle in June.

Honorable mentions went to playwrights Nastaran Ahmadi, Denmo Ibrahim, Ken Kaisser, Mona Mansour, and Heather Raffo.