KIRA ROCKWELL (she/her) is a playwright from the heart of Texas. Her plays include The Tragic Ecstasy of Girlhood (2019 Elliot Norton Nomination for Outstanding New Play, Third Culture Theatre in collaboration with HBO and Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network); Oh To Be Pure Again (MFA Playwrights’ Workshop with NNPN); With My Eyes Shut (Original Works Publishing); and Nomad Americana (Fresh Ink Theatre). Her work has been supported by the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, National New Play Network, The Kennedy Center, Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Hollywood Fringe Festival, The Bridge Initiative, Boston Center for the Arts, and more. She is a recipient of the 2019 Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award, National Winner of the Bechdel Test Fest, Runner-Up for the 2019 Princess Grace Award in Playwriting/ Fellowship with New Dramatists, Second Place recipient of the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, Finalist for Festival of New Texas Plays, Semi-finalist for The 2020 Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm, among others. Kira holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from Baylor University and an MFA in Playwriting from Boston University. Before graduate studies, Kira worked in various nonprofits at the intersection of social work, youth development, and arts education. She strives to incorporate those learned practices and lived experiences into her writing by developing trauma informed spaces that make way for communal healing. She writes to sculpt the contemporary Southern narrative in an earnest attempt to disrupt complacency and dismantle stereotypes.