True Story: A Trilogy

Dan O’Brien is a playwright, poet, librettist, and essayist whose recognition includes a Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama & Performance Art and the UK’s Fenton Aldeburgh Poetry Prize. True Story: A Trilogy of O’Brien’s plays was published by Dalkey Archive Press in 2023, and in 2021 his collection of essays, A Story That Happens: On Playwriting, Childhood, & Other Traumas, was published by Dalkey Archive in the US and by CB Editions in the UK. His poetry collections are Survivor’s Notebook, Our Cancers, New Life, Scarsdale, and War Reporter. His plays include The Body of an American, winner of the PEN USA Award, the Edward M. Kennedy Prize, and the Horton Foote Prize, and The House in Scarsdale, winner of a PEN America Award. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the actor and writer Jessica St. Clair, and their daughter Isobel.

Praise for A Story That Happens “A master class in surviving through art.” ― Margaret Gray, The Los Angeles Times “Powerful . . . . This is a book for our times. It reminds us that theatre is ‘fractured and failing yet struggling towards the mouth’s translation of the heart’s tongue’. Like [O’Brien], we buzz with the desire for the ‘chance for more life, and for that most valued of theatrical currencies – change’.” ― Alice Jolly, The Times Literary Supplement "Subtly weaving between sometimes harrowing personal reminiscences and perceptive and astute lessons on the art of dramatic writing, the book is a quiet revelation.” ― Caridad Svich, Contemporary Theatre Review Praise for Our Cancers “Our Cancers is an excellent example of Shelley’s secret alchemy, which turns 'to potable gold the poisonous waters which flow from death through life.' . . . Writing the truth, [O’Brien] says, ‘saved him.’ And it has produced an exquisite and terrible beauty in these pages.” ― Stephen Wilson, The Times Literary Supplement “O’Brien explains that his obligation as a writer is ‘To tell others the truth, as skillfully as possible. To make art out of pain. To heal.’ Our Cancers tells his truth not only skillfully but masterfully, making from pain a lasting chronicle of art that traces fragmentary moments of healing over time.” ― J. D. Schraffenberger, North American Review “These are sparse and beautiful poems to live by.” ― Sophie Thomas, Magma Poetry Praise for War Reporter “A masterpiece of truthfulness and feeling, and a completely sui generis addition not just to writing about war but to contemporary poetry” ― Patrick McGuinness, The Guardian Praise for The Body of an American “Poetic . . . Truthful . . . A lyrical and poignant work of theater” ― Alexis Soloski, The New York Times “Hauntings, on a personal and national scale, guilt, obsession and depression form the subject of this dense, knotty play . . . a play that tightens its grip as it probes where war lives, and discovers we each carry it inside ourselves.” – The Guardian “An engrossingly subjective docu-drama which feels psychologically acute and politically important . . . a really superb piece of theatre.” – The Stage Praise for The House in Scarsdale “[A] tour-de-force…in an inexorable forward motion rife with adventure, anger, frustration, and a certain joy of the chase.” – Stage Stuck “Dan O’Brien has written an American gothic tale on a par with Pulitzer Prize winner Sam Shepard’s best works.” – TheaterMania