Above: cover design by Eugenie Rosenberg
Below: Dell Books, staff artist

THE EDGE

Written under the name Shirley Mezvinsky.

OVERVIEW:
An emotionally charged novel which dramatizes the message of "the feminine mystique." An unsparing portrait of the crucial twenty-four hours in the life of Lois Marks, a talented, terrified middle-class wife and mother, living - and dying a little, every day - in a small midwestern suburb. The reader is carried right along with Lois Marks to the very edge of life itself.

REVIEWS:
"A really brilliant study of a personality in disintegration...beautifully written...extremely well done."
-Alan Pryce-Jones, N.Y. Herald Tribune

"A book worth reading...tackles a current problem and results in a piece of genuine, artfully created experience...It is written with the assurance of the artist and with great sensibility...Shirley Mezvinsky weaves a spell, and makes a visit in Limbo a fascinating experience."
-Daniel Stern, Staurday Review

"A powerful and moving story...Because it is so very good, men and women may find themselves following its absorbing record of one woman's journey into self-awareness with a curiosity that their own wives have never aroused."
-Baltimore Sun

"A novel with universal human appeal...for everyone who has ever wondered whether they had taken the right fork in the road when the choice was still open to them, and later doubted the rightness of that decision. The big question in their minds being "IF ONLY..."
-Martha Foley

PUBLICATION HISTORY:
USA:
Hardback: Doubleday and Co.: NY
Softcover: Dell: NY

Great Britain:
Hardback: Widenfeld & Nicolson Ltd.: London
Softcover: The New English Library, Ltd.: London

Currently available from:
http:/​/​www.alibris.com

SELECTED WORK

Full Length Plays
The Radiant
WORLD PREMIERE 2010-11 The New Theatre, Coral Gables, FL. THE RADIANT centers on the true, tempestuous, and dramatic life of Madame Marie Curie.
ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT
NEW YORK PREMIERE October 2009 Chicago World Premiere, 2005 "Jeff Award"
CLARENCE DARROW's LAST TRIAL
2006 Carbonell Award Nominee; 2004 NEA "Access to Excellence Award", in collaboration with New Theatre, FL; 2001 New American Play Prize (Finalist)
"AKA"
Dark comedy of shifting identities and cultures.
OPEN ADMISSIONS
Tony & Drama Desk nominations, New York Times pick for the “Ten Best Plays of the Year” list, Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award.
A PIECE OF MY HEART
The Barbara Deming Prize for Women Playwrights, The Susan Blackburn Prize (Finalist, The Kittredge Foundation Award.
THE CONTEST
National Foundation for Jewish Culture Award
MARGARET AND KIT
Susan Smith Blackburn Award (finalist)
PEARLS ON THE MOON
National Endowment for the Arts Residency Grant at The Alley Theatre of Houston, TX Jane Chambers Play Award (finalist)
SPECKLED BIRDS
Multigenerational play commissioned by Theatreworks, USA.
OUT OF TIME
An explosive, sexually charged drama drawing on the supernatural.
Anthology of Plays
FRONT LINES: Political Plays by American Women, Shirley Lauro & Alexis Greene, Editors
2009 New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts & Media, Collaboration Award Finalist. Playwrights include: Paula Vogel, Quiara Hudes, Emily Mann, Shirley Lauro, Cindy Cooper, Nilaja Sun, Jessica Blank. Foreword by Julie Crosby, Artistic Director, The Women's Project, New York.
One Act Plays
OPEN ADMISSIONS
New York Times pick for the “Ten Best Plays of the Year” list, Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award, Samuel French OOBA Festival Award.
NOTHING IMMEDIATE
Samuel French Play Writing Award
THE COAL DIAMOND
The Heidemann Prize at Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival, selected for "Best Short Plays of 1980"
BACK STORY
A play commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville showcasing the work of their Playwrights.
Other Work