Life breathes in the commas, truth lies in the ellipses… memory lingers in the margins.

David James Parr’s prolific literary career includes four novels, five novellas, twelve screenplays, sixteen plays, and seventy-two short stories. He is a three-time winner of the Tennessee Williams Short Fiction Award, and the film adaptation of his play Eleanor Rigby Is Waiting nabbed Best Independent Feature at the Manhattan Film Festival in 2019. He has been a finalist for The O'Neill Playwright's Conference, and his plays have twice landed him among the Top 10 in The Austin Film Festival Playwriting Competitions - in 2019 for Mimi at The 44th Parallel and in 2024 for Pluto Is Listening. Pluto also sparked cosmic applause, winning BroadwayWorld’s award for 2024’s Best Off-Off-Broadway Production. And his revolutionary immersive play Slap&Tickle is currently poised for an off-Broadway run. David is a proud founding partner and Artistic Director of Boundless Theater.

PROLOGUE

In the quiet suburbs of Ohio on the cul-de-sac Dundee Court, David started building castles with words instead of bricks, cast G.I. Joe and Barbie against type in front lawn epics, and populated the backyard with entire universes. After moving to the Warner family poultry farm in southwestern Pennsylvania, David grew up surrounded by dense woods and occasional fowl odors and began hunting and pecking tales on a manual typewriter. Inspired by his book-loving, film-going parents, Donna Warner and Dave Parr, David was also fortunate to receive encouragement in his formative years from a formidable cast of incredible teachers. Enter Stage Left: Aleta Lardin, Lisa Erb, Laura Davis, Elaine Oswald, and Michelle Herman. Graduating from The Ohio State University where he majored in Creative Writing, Theater and Women’s Studies, David subsequently moved from the horizontal sprawl of Chicago to the vertical maze of New York City to hone his craft and collaborate with many fantastic artists.

LITERALLY SPEAKING

David's writing is characterized as love letters to unsung characters, unchartered places, and undiscovered truths. You may stumble upon him at a dimly lit café or in a candlelit corner of a bar in New York City, scribbling notes in the margins of his pages or typing furiously (but quietly) on his trusty laptop.