Jan Balakian, who holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University, is the author of two prize-winning screenplays, a romantic comedy called Everyone’s Depressed and the adaptation of Black Dog of Fate by Peter Balakian. Her scholarly work includes essays on American drama and interviews with American playwrights—Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and Wendy Wasserstein—published by Cambridge University Press. She teaches literature and writing at Kean University in New Jersey.