Clay McLeod Chapman

New York, NY
Clay McLeod Chapman is the author of "rest area," a collection of short stories, and "miss corpus," a novel. "Miss corpus" was recognized in part of The New Yorker's "Reading Glasses" series in 2003. Currently, he is writing a trilogy of children's novels titled "The Tribe"—book one, "Homeroom Headhunters," hits the shelves in 2013 on Hyperion books. Recently, Chapman's story “the battle of belle isle” was featured in Akashic Books’ regional-noir anthology “Richmond Noir.” He was a contributing author on “The Rolling Darkness Revue,” a roaming reading-series of horror writers created by Glen Hirshberg and Pete Atkins, culminating in the anthology At The Sign of the Snowman’s Skull. He was a contributing author to One Ring Zero's "As Smart As We Are" album, featuring such writers as Paul Auster and Jonathan Lethem. He will occasionally write from time to time for his geek-gods Marvel Comics and Fangoria Magazine.  Chapman’s story "late bloomer" was adapted into film by director Craig Macneill. An official selection at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, the short won the audience award for Best Short at the Lake Placid Film Festival and the Brown Jenkins Award at the 12th Annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. Their most recent collaboration, “Henley,” a short film based on the chapter “The Henley Road Motel” from his novel "miss corpus," was an official selection at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. It was awarded Best Short Film at the 2011 Gen Art Film Festival and the 2011 Carmel Arts and Film Festival. Upcoming films include the sci-fried feature "White Space," starring Holt McCallany, co-written with Ryan Colucci and directed by Ken Locsmandi. Chapman is the creator of the rigorous storytelling session The Pumpkin Pie Show. In its ten-plus years of existence, it has performed internationally at the Romanian Theatre Festival of Sibiu, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the New York International Fringe Festival, the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, the Edmonton Fringe Festival, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, the Dublin-based thisisnotashop art space, IGNITE Festival, the Women Center Stage Festival and the Impact Theatre Festival. The Pumpkin Pie Show continues to perform in New York City annually with long-time scene-stealer Hanna Cheek. Chapman has written the book for the musical Hostage Song with music and lyrics by Obie-winning Kyle Jarrow. He also wrote the book for SCKBSTD, a new musical with Grammy-winner Bruce Hornsby. He is the author of such plays as "commencement," "teaser cow," "JULIAN," "bar flies," "lee’s miserables," "No Exitway," "duct-tape to family-time," "drinking games," "redbird," "jewish mothers," "junta high," "nested doll," "the interstate and on," "the cardiac shadow" and "volume of smoke." Stage versions of his short stories “birdfeeder” and “undertow” were selected for publication in The Best American Short Plays: 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 anthologies. Chapman was educated at the North Carolina School of the Arts for Drama, the Burren College of Art, and Sarah Lawrence College. He currently teaches writing at The Actors Studio MFA Program at Pace University.

Shows created:
The Pumpkin Pie Show: Boogedy Boo (2014)
The Pumpkin Pie Show Variety Night (2013)
The Pumpkin Pie Show: Halloween All-Stars (2013)
The Pumpkin Pie Show: Lovey Dovey (2012)
The Pumpkin Pie Show: Amber Alert (2011)
The Pumpkin Pie Show: Commencement (2010)
Hostage Song (2010)
The Pumpkin Pie Show: Commencement (2010)
The Pumpkin Pie Show: In the Margins (2009)