Karen Malpede
Karen Malpede is a playwright, director, and essayist whose groundbreaking work spans over six decades in New York City’s cultural avant-garde. She is the author and director of 22 plays and the co-founder of Theater Three Collaborative, established in 1995 with her late husband and artistic partner, the OBIE-winning actor and producer George Bartenieff. Together, they created socially and politically charged theater that challenged conventional narratives and championed justice.
Her memoir Last Radiance: Radical Lives, Bright Deaths (Vine Leaves Press, October 2025) marks her first work in nonfiction, following a lifetime devoted to the stage.