Staci Swedeen has received numerous awards in playwriting, including a 2014 Individual Artists Fellowship from the Tennessee State Arts Council, the Arts and Letters Award in Drama, a New York State Council for the Arts Grant for New Plays and an Alfred P. Sloan commission. A Dramatist Guild Fellow alum, Core Lark Theatre and Emerging Artists Theatre company member, Staci is also a professional actress and former Literary Manager of the Penguin Rep Theatre. Her play “The Goldman Project” played Off Broadway and is published by Samuel French. Other plays have been performed across the country, published in numerous anthologies and presented in many festivals. Staci was Professor of Playwriting at Fairfield University and on the faculty of The Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, CT for six years. She was the Executive Producer of a new non-profit theatre in Knoxville Tennessee called "Flying Anvil Theatre" (www.flyinganviltheatre.com) for two years and continues acting in her one woman show “Pardon Me For Living” (a biting comedy involving a rabid raccoon) which she performed most recently at Piccolo Spoleto 2013.) Staci is a graduate of the University of Washington.