Karen Hartman

Karen Hartman was the first-ever playwright honored by Amplify (formerly Volt), an unprecedented festival of three simultaneous off-Broadway premieres by a single author: New Golden Age (Primary Stages, Blackburn Prize Finalist); The Lucky Star (The Directors Company); and Goldie, Max & Milk (MBL Productions, shortlisted for the LAMBDA Literary Award). Hartman has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Princeton’s Hodder Fellowship and a Fulbright Scholarship, and her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio, the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, MacDowell Colony, New Dramatists, the Helen Merrill Foundation, Hedgebrook, Playwrights Center and more.

Hartman’s plays are published by Concord Theatricals (Samuel French), as well as Dramatists Play Service, Theater Communications Group and Playscripts, and her personal and political essays have appeared in The New York Times and the Washington Post. Current and recent projects include Alice Bliss in the 2025 NAMT Festival of New Musicals (Music by Jenny Giering, Lyrics by Adam Gwon, Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award), In the Mood, a musical with swing standards directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon, and a film adaptation of her award-winning play Roz and Ray. Hartman founded and leads The Hundred Day Reckoning: A Creative Response to Hard Change.