David Kranes

David Kranes is the author of seven novels and three volumes of short stories–most recently, the novel Abracadabra (2017) and the collection of stories The Legend’s Daughter (2013). His 2001 novel, The National Tree, was made into a film by Hallmark, which aired in November, 2009. His short fiction, which has appeared in such magazines as Esquire, Ploughshares, and Transatlantic Review, has won literary prizes and been widely anthologized. Over 40 of his plays have been performed in New York and across the U.S (in theaters such as The Actors’ Theater of Louisville, The Mark Taper Forum, Manhattan Theater Club, Cincinatti’s Playhouse in the Park; his Selected Plays was published in 2010. His most recent theater venture was contributing a play to an evening of six short plays on the theme of “bravery,” three written by American playwrights, three by Iraqi playwrights. His play, A Loss of Appetite was performed at Salt Lake Acting Company on April, 2014 to honor his extensive body of work. He has written for radio, film and for dance companies. The opera, Orpheus Lex, for which he wrote the libretto, was performed at New York City’s Symphony Space in February of 2010 and again, recently, in Salt Lake. For 14 years, he directed the Playwrights’ Lab at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute. In 2015, he was asked to recreate a national-in-scope version of this Playwright’s Lab for Salt Lake Acting Company, which has been a resounding success. His latest novel, Abracadabra (2018) was given a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly and is being shopped for a television series. Mr. Kranes is an award-recognized mentor and continues mentoring whenever and wherever he can, most recently, in Provence, France.