David Carkeet
"David Carkeet is one of my favorite comic authors. I love his linguistic mystery, Double Negative, but the sequel, The Full Catastrophe, is even funnier."
"There's a guy named David Carkeet . . ."
"Anyone who doesn't laugh out loud at David Carkeet's writing needs to have their pulse checked."
--Carl Hiaasen
Six by Twain: Plays from Short Works of Mark Twain
These are short play adaptations (most running 10-12 minutes) of selected Mark Twain works. Six adaptations are currently in circulation; they are based on these works: "Buck Fanshaw's Funeral," "The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm," "Cannibalism in the Cars," Meisterschaft, "What Is Man?", and "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" (a 50-minute play). Production history to date. See the New Play Exchange for more information.
Other Plays
The Real Househusbands of Vermont
A voiced introduction before the lights come up makes clear that this comic ten-minute play is a parody of the popular Bravo reality show “The Real Housewives of New York.” Here three old Vermonters, with mutual trust and unstated fondness for one another, amicably discuss how to resolve a boundary line encroachment. A son-in-law visiting from NYC is baffled by the rustic good will.
Production history to date. See the New Play Exchange for more information.
Bio
David Carkeet is the author of six novels, Double Negative, The Greatest Slump of All Time, I Been There Before, The Full Catastrophe, The Error of Our Ways, and From Away; a comic memoir, Campus Sexpot; and two novels for young adults, The Silent Treatment and Quiver River. Essays in The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian, The Village Voice, Salon, Poets and Writers, The Oxford American and The Guardian (UK). Honors: an O. Henry Award, an Edgar nomination, the Creative Nonfiction Award from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and the James D. Phelan Award from the San Francisco Foundation.
David was born and raised in Sonora, California. He attended college at U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Davis, followed by graduate school at the University of Wisconsin and Indiana University. For 30 years he taught linguistics and writing at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He also directed the MFA program there and edited its literary journal, Natural Bridge. Since 2003, he and his wife, Barbara, have lived in Vermont. They have three grown daughters, Anne, Laurie, and Molly.