C. Quintana

C. Quintana
EducationCollege of Santa Fe (BA)
Columbia University (MFA)
WebsiteOfficial website

C. Quintana (also known as CQ and previously known as Christina Quintana) is a Cuban-American playwright, poet, and writer. Her[a] works have been published in literary journals and produced across the United States. The Heart Wants, her chapbook of poetry, was published in 2016 by Finishing Line Press.[1]

Education and career

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Quintana attended Ursuline Academy New Orleans and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, a performing-arts high school.[2] She graduated from College of Santa Fe in 2010 with a degree in theatre and a minor in creative writing.[3] Under the guidance of Charles Mee, she earned an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University School of the Arts.[2]

Quintana is the founder of QuintanaTown Consulting, a writing consultancy for scripts, college and graduate school essays, and cover letters. She founded the Live Lunch Series in 2014, a project aiming to bring theatre to workplaces during lunch.[4] The project premiered at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and expanded to The Fortune Society, an organization that helps previously incarcerated people integrate into society.[5]

Much of her writing revolves around themes of injustice, loss, queerness, and marginalized identities.[1] At her website, she self-identifies as "a queer writer with Cuban and Louisiana roots," and says she "tells stories that mine the misconception of dissimilarity and proclaim, 'You are not alone.'"[6]

Personal life

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Quintana, who is nonbinary and gender non-conforming, changed her professional listing from Christina to C. in 2022. She goes by CQ and legally petitioned for this name change in 2023.[7]

Awards

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Quintana is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships for her writing:

  • 2014 Lambda Literary Emerging Voices Fellow in Fiction[8]
  • 2017 Van Lier New Voices Fellowship[9]
  • 2017 Arch & Bruce Brown Playwriting Competition – Honorable Mention: Azul[10]
  • 2017-18 New York's Playwrights Realm writing fellowship recipient[11]
  • 2018 MacDowell Colony Fellowship[12]

Plays

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  • Enter Your Sleep (2012): Productions with Elm Theatre New Orleans, Baby Crow Productions, and Yale Cabaret[13]
  • Blank Canvas (2014): Production (awarded "Best Short") in the 12th annual Downtown Urban Theater Festival[14]
  • Scissoring (2014): World Premiere at INTAR (2018);[15] staged reading (2014) at the Alliance Theatre[16]
  • Three Thousand Seizures (2015): Semifinalist for Southern Rep Ruby Prize[17]
  • Evensong (2016): World Premiere at Astoria Performing Arts Center[18]
  • The Great Lonely Roamer & The Night that Changed Everything (2016): Workshop Production in NYU Voices Festival[19]
  • Azul (2017): Honorable Mention in the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation playwriting competition[10]
  • Citizen Scientist (2018): Public reading at the 2018 First Light Festival, hosted by the EST/Sloan Project (commission)[20]
  • Mr. San Man (2018): Studio Retreat and public readings at the Lark Theatre[20]

Filmography

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Year Title Notes
2020 The Baker and the Beauty "Side Effects"
2024 Alert: Missing Persons Unit "Jedidiah & Lucy"
2024 Orphan Black: Echoes "It's All Coming Back" and "Attracting Awful Things"

Notes

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  1. ^ Quintana uses she/any pronouns. This article uses she/her for consistency.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Author Q&A: Christina Quintana | Tethered by Letters". tetheredbyletters.com. Retrieved 2018-12-03.
  2. ^ a b Smith, Kelundra (2016). "Facing South". American Theatre. 33 (8): 118–121 – via ProQuest.
  3. ^ "College of Santa Fe Celebrates its Graduating Class of 2010". Targeted News Service. June 2, 2010.
  4. ^ "The Live Lunch Series". Fractured Atlas.
  5. ^ "The Live Lunch Series: The Fortune Society Edition". Indiegogo.
  6. ^ Quintana, Christina (2020). "CQ: Writer". Christina Quintana. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  7. ^ Quintana, C. [@cquintanatown] (February 7, 2022). "Hi, world! I am a GNC/nonbinary writer who has changed my name to C. Quintana, or CQ professionally & otherwise. ..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  8. ^ Valenzuela, Tony (April 22, 2015). "Rita Mae Brown & John Waters to be Honored at the 27th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary Review – via ProQuest.
  9. ^ "The Lark Awards Brittany K. Allen and Christina Quintana with 2017 Van Lier New Voices Fellowship". The Lark.
  10. ^ a b "Foundation Announces Winners of 2017 Playwriting Competition | Arch & Bruce Brown Foundation". aabbfoundation.org. Retrieved 2018-12-04.
  11. ^ "Awards & Prizes". American Theatre. 34 (9): 11. November 2017 – via Theatre Communications Group.
  12. ^ Selvin, Claire (2018-08-29). "MacDowell Colony Awards Fellowships to 87 Artists". ARTnews. Retrieved 2018-12-04.
  13. ^ "When P.K. Met Glory". New Haven Review. 22 January 2018. Retrieved 2019-01-15.
  14. ^ "HERE | SHOWS | 12th Annual Downtown Urban Theater Festival". www.here.org. Archived from the original on 2018-11-25. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  15. ^ Collins-Hughes, Laura (2018-06-30). "Review: In 'Scissoring,' Visits From Ghosts of a Closeted Past". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-01-15.
  16. ^ "The Alliance Theatre of Atlanta has announced". American Theatre: 19. February 2014 – via Academic OneFile.
  17. ^ "SOUTHERN REP THEATRE ANNOUNCES WINNER OF THE 2015 RUBY PRIZE" (PDF). www.southernrep.com. 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-09-12. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  18. ^ "Evensong « APAC – Astoria Performing Arts Center". Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  19. ^ "The Great Lonely Roamer & The Night That Changed Everything | New Play Exchange". New Play Exchange.
  20. ^ a b "Christina Quintana on planet hunting, academic anxiety, women's basketball, and CITIZEN SCIENTIST". Ensemble Studio Theatre. February 6, 2018.
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