American Book Awards
1 appearances
-
Edition 38 (2017) Winner
Holly Hughes
ホリー・ヒューズ
Holly Hughes
Profile
- Gender
- Female
- Born
- 1955-03-10 （Saginaw, Michigan）
- Nationality
- United States
- Languages
- English
- Residence History
- Saginaw, Michigan → New York City → Ann Arbor, Michigan
Career
- Occupations
- performance artist, playwright, professor, editor
- Active Years
- 1980-
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design, WOW Café Theater (associated)
- Influenced By
- Sam Shepard, John Waters, Charles Busch
- Influenced
- subsequent generations of queer solo performers, younger writers and performers associated with WOW Café and new queer theatre
- Nominations
- Lambda Literary Award (Drama) finalist (1997) — Clit Notes
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kalamazoo College | — | — | B.A. | 1973-1977 | United States |
Kalamazoo College
Degree:
B.A.
Period:
1973-1977
Year of Graduation:
1977
Country:
United States
Faculty/department not specified in available sources
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | National Endowment for the Arts (grant) | — | — | National Endowment for the Arts | grant recipient (一部経歴で助成が問題化したことがある) |
| 1994 | Obie Award (Special Citation) | — | — | Obie Awards | 受賞 |
| 1999 | Lambda Literary Award (Drama) | O Solo Homo (editor, with David Román) | ドラマ / 演劇 | Lambda Literary | 受賞 |
| 2010 | Guggenheim Fellowship | — | — | John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | 受賞 |
National Endowment for the Arts (grant)
Organization:
National Endowment for the Arts
Result:
grant recipient (一部経歴で助成が問題化したことがある)
Obie Award (Special Citation)
1994
Organization:
Obie Awards
Result:
受賞
Lambda Literary Award (Drama)
1999
Work:
O Solo Homo (editor, with David Román)
Category:
ドラマ / 演劇
Organization:
Lambda Literary
Result:
受賞
Guggenheim Fellowship
2010
Organization:
John Simon Guggenheim Foundation
Result:
受賞
Awards & Nominations
Works
Major Works
The Well of Horniness
1983 solo performance / performance artAn early breakthrough piece addressing sexual representation and female desire through frank, solo-performance theatricality.
sexualityfemininitybodily expression
The Lady Dick
1984 solo performance / essayistic theatreA piece involving linguistic play and humor around body and identity, frequently discussed in later criticism and performances.
identityhumorembodiment
Dress Suits to Hire
1987 play / theatreA play written and performed by Hughes; critics described it as poetic while also channeling a B-movie sensibility.
female subjectivitycultural parody
Clit Notes
1996 solo monologue / performanceA solo performance in which Hughes portrays herself at different ages, her mother, and various lovers—addressing sex, the body, generations, and memory.
generationsfamilysexual self-expression
O Solo Homo (editor, with David Román)
1998 anthology (queer performance)An anthology collecting queer solo performances; Hughes's own 'Clit Notes' is included.
queer performancesolo theatre
Bibliography
- The Well of Horniness (1983)
- The Lady Dick (1984)
- Dress Suits to Hire (1987)
- World Without End (1989)
- Clit Notes (1996)
- O Solo Homo (1998, edited with David Román)
- Animal Acts: Performing Species Today (2010, edited with Una Chaudhuri)
- Memories of the Revolution: The First Ten Years of the WOW Café Theater (2015, co-edited)
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- feminist/queer theatrical expressionmonologue-centered performanceexperimental, essayistic narration
- Recurring Motifs
- sexuality and desirebody and imagegenerations and memoryhumor and camp
Legacy
Holly Hughes is a central figure in 1990s culture-war debates and queer theatre; through solo performance she provoked conversation about sexual self-expression and embodiment. As an educator she has influenced generations of theatre practitioners.
In Popular Culture
- The controversy over the NEA Four is widely cited as emblematic of the culture wars
- Influenced civic protest events such as the 2017 'Not My President's Day' series
Quotes
-
While Ms. Hughes's more poetic writing recalls Sam Shepard, the campy B-movie side of her sensibility shows her to be equally in tune with John Waters's movies and Charles Busch's drag extravaganzas.
Source: Stephen Holden, The New York Times (1988) (1988)
Trivia
- One of the NEA Four whose NEA funding was vetoed in 1990, becoming emblematic of the culture wars.
- Married cultural anthropologist Esther Newton in 2015.
- Organized the 'Not My President's Day' series of performances protesting the Trump presidency in 2017.
- Won the Lambda Literary Award in 1999 for the anthology 'O Solo Homo'.