About Leah Ryan and Her FEWW
Leah Ryan's FEWW and its annual prize were established to honor the memory of Leah Ryan, and to encourage and support the work of women writers. It is the purpose of the Prize to perpetuate the integrity, compassion and creativity that Leah herself possessed and inspired in others.
A playwright, essayist, and true woman of letters, Leah Ryan's plays have been performed all over the United States. Her play Bleach, a dark comedy about the legacy of the Armenian genocide, received the Maibaum Award for plays dealing with issues of social justice. Ryan taught playwriting, English, and creative writing to a wide variety of students, including those at the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising, where she was a professor in the Arts and Communications department and founder of their Writing Center. She also worked with groups of high school and college students at Vassar and New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse Theater Apprentice Training Program where members of the Apprentice Company have performed several of her plays and adaptations. She received a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts for her work with Epic Theatre Centre, creating modern adaptations of classic plays with groups of middle and high school students.
She graduated with honors from Smith College as an Ada Comstock Scholar, winning the Denis Johnston prize for excellence in playwriting three times, and the Jill Cummins MacLean Prize once. Ms. Ryan went on to earn her Artist Diploma in Playwriting at Juilliard and her MFA from the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop, where she won the Distinguished Teaching award and was twice chosen to take part in the annual Iowa Playwrights Festival.
Her publications include the literary anthology For Here or To Go, and Even More Monologues by Women for Women, essays in The Best of Temp Slave, as well as work in many small magazines. Her play Pigeon was published by Playscripts, Inc. Her short work also appeared in 400 Words, including the debut issue. She was Fiction Editor and a regular columnist at Punk Planet magazine.
Leah Ryan died of leukemia on June 12, 2008 in New York City. Her family and friends believe this prize is the truest and most meaningful way to remember her exemplary life and extraordinary work.