Photo by Johnny Knight
Winner of the inaugural Patty Abramson Prize from Theater J in Washington, DC.
Nicole Cox (she/her) is a creative and professional writer. Whether she’s drafting a play or educational policy, she’s collaborating with colleagues and reaching for honest language, real relationships, and style.
Her script, Abomination, won the inaugural Patty Abramson Prize from Theatre J in Washington, DC. It’s the story of the groundbreaking Ferguson v. J.O.N.A.H trial, in which a New Jersey jury decided, for the first time in the nation, that gay conversion therapy is consumer fraud.
Her first production, Office of the Speaker, about a ghostwriter who makes a Faustian deal with someone who is definitely not based on Paul Ryan, won Best Drama at DC’s 2019 Capital Fringe Festival.
In 2015, Paula Vogel and Dan O’Brien selected her play, All Other Nights, about a prodigal daughter who returns home for the Passover Seder, for workshop at the Sewanee Writer’s Conference.
The recipient of an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council, her playwriting has been supported by Theater J, Spooky Action Theatre’s New Works in Action Series, Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival, PlayPenn, the National 1-Minute Play Festival, DMV QFest, 4615 Theatre Company, Fine Print Theatre Company, Stage 773, and Chicago Dramatists.
She’s been invited to artists’ residencies at Rivendell Colony, in Tennessee, and Chateau de Poigny, just outside Paris. You can read her interview with Adam Szymkowicz @ “I Interview Playwrights” here.
The editors at Briar Cliff Review nominated her poem, “I Want Lou Reed,” for a Pushcart Prize. Other poetry, creative nonfiction, and book reviews have been published in Tablet Magazine, Electronic Literature, Split Lip, Hanging Loose, Painted Bride Quarterly, Gertrude, American Book Review, Another Chicago Magazine, and other literary journals.
For almost 15 years, Nicole taught first-year college students everything from Rhetoric to Antiracism. Currently, she proudly serves as a Writing Instructor for the Joint Forces Staff College at National Defense University, at Fort McNair in the District of Columbia.
She’s also a ghostwriter, freelancer, and secret editor. She’s the friend who helps you rewrite your resume and talks your teenager through their college application essays.
Nicole grew up in Omaha, NE, and has lived in New York, Boston, and Chicago. She earned her MFA in Poetry from Emerson College.
She lives with her husband and his comics collection in Washington, DC.
Artistic Statement
I tried writing about city life and rock n roll, which, when I close my eyes, fills up most of who I am. But I couldn’t turn away from the stories about people I know - people who are wild, dramatic, and heartbreaking, who are born into places they don’t fit into, and who are searching for a place to belong. So I started writing about them. Children who have to act like adults. Adults who act like children. The expectations of our communities. And what it means, anyway, to belong someplace, or to someone.
I try to show characters in authentic situations that put their crazy on full display. It’s my way of processing, ordering, and making sense of the chaotic house I grew up in.
I’m a member of many communities, but I don’t really fit in anywhere. Pretty sure that’s what keeps me writing.
Thoughtful website consultation provided by graphic designer, Sophie Gilbert, and filmmaker, Eli Ungar-Sargon.