Yussef El Guindi Author

Michael Malek Najjar is an associate professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Oregon, USA with a specialization in Arab American and Middle Eastern Theatre forms. He is the author of Arab American Drama, Film and Performance, 1908 to the Present and the editor of Four Arab American Plays: Works by Leila Buck, Jamil Khoury, Yussef El Guindi, and Lameece Issaq & Jacob Kader. He is on the advisory board of Arab Stages. Yussef El Guindi is a prolific Arab-American playwright of Egyptian descent whose works have been produced across the USA since Back of the Throat first premiered in 2004. He writes full-length, one-act, and adapted plays that focus on the Arab/Muslim experience in the United States. El Guindi has been the recipient of many prestigious playwriting awards including the Steinberg/American Theater Critics Association’s New Play Award, Gregory Award, Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, ACT New Play Award, Seattle Times’ "Footlight Award", the M. Elizabeth Osborn Award, L.A. Weekly’s Excellence in Playwriting Award, Chicago’s After Dark/John W. Schmid Award for Best New Play, and the Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award.