Harry Newman

“This powerful book is written with an economy of language, yet screams volumes about what happens when we turn a blind eye to the unholy alliance of power, greed and politics.” - The Rumpus

Harry Newman’s plays and poetry often involve questions of justice and the effects of power on individuals and society.

His collection, Led from a Distance, published by Louisiana Literature Press, is a sequence of political poems, exploring the moral and emotional consequences of years of war fought at a distance and mediated mainly through screens, when seen at all. His poetry has appeared widely in literary journals. Sample poems can be read online at Ecotone, Rattle, Asheville Poetry Review, and Warscapes.

Newman’s plays include The Occupation, Dry Time — written in the early 1990s and likely the first climate change related play — The Dark, and a translation of Patrick Süskind’s The Double Bass. They have been workshopped and produced at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, the Public Theater in New York, the Cincinnati Playhouse, the Guggenheim Works & Progress series, the Segal Theatre Center, and many other theaters across the U.S., as well as in Germany.

Press and Media: 

"Led from a Distance," (review), The Rumpus

"How We Fail to Humanize War," PBS NewsHour

Readings:

Elk River Books, Livingston, MT (video), July 2023

Cornelia Street Cafe, NY (video), March 2018