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Biography
American

Phyllis Nagy

1962

American playwright and screenwriter whose adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel The Price of Salt became the Oscar-nominated film Carol (2015), directed by Todd Haynes and starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Nagy's stage plays — including Weldon Rising, Butterfly Kiss, and Never Land — explore identity, violence, and sexuality with dark wit and formal daring. She has been more celebrated in London, where she has lived for decades, than in the United States.

Past sales0
PeriodContemporary
NationalityAmerican
1. Biography

A short life of the author

Phyllis Nagy (born 1962 in New York) is an American playwright and screenwriter who has lived primarily in London since the early 1990s. Her plays — Weldon Rising (1992), Butterfly Kiss (1994), The Strip (1995), Never Land (1998) — are sharp, unsettling works that explore American violence, queer identity, and the mechanics of obsession.

Her breakthrough into wider recognition came with her screenplay adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel The Price of Salt (published as Carol), which became Todd Haynes’s film Carol (2015). The film, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, was a critical triumph and earned Nagy an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Collecting Nagy

Nagy’s published plays are available through Methuen and Nick Hern Books in the UK. First editions are modestly priced. The screenplay of Carol was published alongside analyses of the film.

As a figure more associated with London theatre than with American publishing, her collectible market is small and specialist but growing alongside interest in queer cinema.