Anton Piatigorsky

Anton Piatigorsky is an American-Canadian author and playwright.

He was born and raised in the Washington, DC area, and currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.^[1] He is an alumnus of Brown University,^[2] where he studied theatre and religion.^[3][4]

Piatigorsky has twice received the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play/Musical in the Independent Theatre category (for "Easy Lenny Lazmon and the Great Western Ascension" in 1999, and for "Eternal Hydra" in 2009.^[5] His adaptation of S. An-sky's classic Yiddish play The Dybbuk, was produced at Soulpepper Theatre in 2015.^[6][7] In addition to his solo work as a playwright, Piatigorsky collaborated with composer Brian Current on the opera Airline Icarus, with Piatigorsky writing the libretto.^[8]

Piatigorsky was a runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award in 2012 for his collection of short stories, The Iron Bridge.^[9] The collection imagines the adolescent lives of notorious 20th century dictators, including Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Idi Amin.^[10]

Piatigorsky has previously taught Creative Writing at McMaster University.^[11]

• Easy Lenny Lazmon and the Great Western Ascension, Playwrights Canada Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0887545887^[12]
• Anton Piatigorsky: Two Plays (includes "The Offering" and "The Kabbalistic Psychoanalysis of Adam R. Tzaddik"), Playwrights Canada Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0887546242^[13]
• Eternal Hydra, Coach House Books, 2005. ISBN 978-1770560468^[14][15]
• The Iron Bridge, Goose Lane Editions, 2012. ISBN 978-0864927514^[16][17][18]
• Al-Tounsi, Crowsnest Books, 2019. ISBN 978-0921332602^[19]