ALICE EVE COHEN
Author, Playwright, Solo Theatre Artist

Alice Eve Cohen is a playwright, solo theatre artist and author, whose plays have been performed for over 200,000 people on four continents. Winner of the 10th Annual National Jewish Playwriting Contest for Oklahoma Samovar in 2021, she received the 2019 Jane Chambers Feminist Playwriting Award for In the Cervix of Others, which was a featured program selection at the 2022 Women Playwrights International Conference Montréal. Her new play, HOTEL LIMBO, has received 2023 readings and developed with New York Theatre Workshop, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Orchard Project, and University of California Irvine. Her acclaimed memoirs have received the Elle Literary Grand Prize & Oprah magazine's 25 Best Books of Summer. Recipient of fellowships and grants from the NYS Council on the Arts, the NEA, and Virginia Center for Creative Arts, she has written television for Nickelodeon and CBS and has composed music for theatre, dance, and film. Recent work includes What I Thought I Knew, produced nationally, a finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, nominated for 5 Broadway World Awards; Mrs Satan & the Nasty Woman, presented by the 2020 Philadelphia Women's Theatre Festival and the Kitchen Theatre; her aria, Revolution Begins in the Bedroom, produced by American Opera Projects for their 2021 virtual tour. Alice has an MFA from The New School and a BA cum laude from Princeton University.

She teaches at Augsburg University's Creative Writing MFA Program and is on the Creative Writing faculty of The New School, where she received the 2020 Distinguished University-Wide Teaching Award.

TEACHING: workshops, residencies, private consulting

2020 Distinguished Teaching Award: The New School's highest award for faculty.

AWARDS INCLUDE:

* 10th Annual NATIONAL JEWISH PLAYWRITING CONTEST 2021

* JANE CHAMBERS PLAYWRITING AWARD
* ELLE LITERARY GRAND PRIX: Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year
* OPRAH MAGAZINE, 25 BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER
* SALON.COM: Best Books of the Year
* Indie Next List Notables
* 4 VCCA Fellowships: Virginia Center for Creative Arts
* Playwriting fellowship, NYS Council on the Arts

* Literature fellowship, NYS Council on the Arts

* National Endowment for the Arts, new play development grants

* O'Neill National Playwrights Conference 2-time finalist

* 5 Broadway World Award regional nominations, including Best Play

* Voice/Over Screenwriting Award, The School of Media Studies
* A Year of Reading: Best First Lines
* 10 BEST BOOKS, The Winnsboro News (Texas)

* EMMY AWARD commendation for original film score for "Clotheslines"

"Her darkly hilarious memoir is an unexpected bundle of joy." O, the Oprah Magazine

“A gripping story about one of the most wrenching decisions a woman can make.” People magazine

"Gripping and deeply moving." Elle

“I could not put this book down. I got to the last pages, and I had tears in my eyes. It is a remarkable story.” –Harry Smith, CBS, The Early Show

"About what happens when crisis or change in fortune upends what someone thinks she knows about herself, or about how life works … Her memoir, which is shot through with humor, touches on … the stormy mix of ambivalence and love that many women bring to motherhood." The New York Times

“It is rare for a memoir about motherhood to read like a thriller, but What I Thought I Knew … is just that. The book is fascinating, brutally honest, and very funny.” – Annie Pleshette Murphy, ABC News Now

“Cohen is first and foremost a performer—a writer and actor of one-woman plays—so she knows how to build tension to a climax. Her easy intimacy when recounting the events of a pivotal year of her life is amazing.” –Bookpage

“Her witty, dramatic story builds suspense up to the final page.” –MORE Magazine

“By turns black comedy, Kafkaesque nightmare, medical mystery, and crisis of faith, What I Thought I Knew is ultimately a love story. Blessed with a witty, unsentimental, utterly human voice, Alice Eve Cohen has taken what might have been a personal catastrophe and turned it into a memoir of astonishing candor.” –Donald Margulies, author of Dinner with Friends, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama

“A hell of a well told story – a book you won't put down. I loved every word.” –Abigail Thomas, author of A Three Dog Life

“The Year My Mother Came Back is a perfect book. I want to tell every body, every mother, every daughter, to read it” —Abigail Thomas, bestselling author of A Three Dog Life
“A riveting journey." Julie Metz, bestselling author of Perfection
“[A] must-read memoir” —Parent & Child magazine
"Full of moments of wisdom, deep candor and humor... beautifully written." --Jewish Woman Magazine

“A wry, magical memoir about the transcendent power of mother-daughter love… ‘It doesn’t matter whether she’s a ghost, or a memory, or my idea, or her idea, or God’s idea, or dust, or sound waves, or transfigured molecules, or an echo from the Cosmos. She’s here with me,’ writes Alice Eve Cohen in The Year My Mother Came Back.” —Elle magazine

“A finely wrought memoir . . . [Cohen] finally finds peace with the complex woman who had more of an impact on her life than she ever realized.” —Publishers Weekly

“Evolving into a sort of magical realism that wouldn’t be out of place in a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel… a heartwarming story, perfect for Mother’s Day, for both mothers and daughters.”—The Oklahoman

“Cohen’s must-read memoir navigates complex mother-daughter bonds.” —Parent & Child magazine

"The Year My Mother Came Back (Algonquin) is full of moments of wisdom, deep candor and humor, and it’s beautifully written... This love story of both past and present ‘isn’t a book about finding answers,’ Cohen has said, ‘it’s about asking questions.’”—Jewish Women Magazine

"A multi-generational story with Cohen’s remarkable, ahead-of-her-time mother—remembered and imagined—at the center of it all.”—Birmingham Magazine

"This thoughtful memoir shows how our past and present remain constantly intertwined, and how being a mother is a complex journey that’s often full of stunning surprises." BookPage

“A little book that packs a powerful message. This book would make the perfect Mother’s Day gift. It was written with grace and great love… Expect to see this title on a lot of Best Of 2015 lists. Cohen is a masterful storyteller.”—The Winnsboro News

“A gorgeous, magical, meaningful memoir… Oh my God, I love this book. The story grabbed me right away. I sank into the couch with that book and just soaked it up... Please put it on your nightstand and share it with friends.” —Reading With Robin radio show

"Fiercely brave and unflinchingly honest, Alice Eve Cohen...has written an important memoir that takes the reader on an astonishing journey."—The Brooklyn Rail

"Cohen turns to the memory of her trailblazing feminist mother, who also battled cancer, for strength, wisdom, and closure. I love a fiercely honest memoir; I’d be glad to put this on my shelf next to Joan Didion and Ariel Gore."—Book Riot, 4 Small Press Books to Read this Spring

“For moms, The Year My Mother Came Back is must-read title for spring break."—Working Mother magazine

“10 Amazing Books Written by Female Authors… Here are some of my favorite books written by some fantastic female authors.”—Buzzfeed

“A memoir and love story about parenthood, loss and connection. With honesty and humor, Cohen describes a particularly challenging period of her life, when her late mother seems to reappear to help her find her way.”—The Jewish Week

AWARDS
* ELLE'S LETTRES GRAND PRIX: Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year
* 25 BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER—Oprah Magazine
* SALON.COM, Best Books of the Year
* Indie Next List Notables

REVIEWS, AWARDS AND MEDIA INCLUDE:

* Elle's Lettres 2009 Grand Prix award for best non-fiction book of the year
* Oprah.com 25 BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER
* The New York Times feature article
* Interview with Harry Smith on CBS The Early Show
* Salon.com Best Books of the Year
* Elle Magazine review & Readers Choice prize for August
* Elle.com Top Ten Smartest, Sizzling Beach Reads
* People Magazine review
* Selected by Indie Booksellers for "Indie Notables"
* Interview on Radio New Zealand, Nine To Noon
* Interview in the New York Post
*Interview on Oprah.com
* Related Article in Huffington Post:
"Dr. George Tiller Saved My Life…and My Baby's Life"
* Reader reviews on Amazon
* Interview on WNYC, The Leonard Lopate Show