Jenny Laird

Jenny Laird is a playwright and author-adapter. She is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists, where her work has included Ballad Hunter and Only the Sound; Only the Sound received the 2003 Jeff Award for Best New Work. Laird has also received the Cunningham Prize for playwriting, Mill Mountain Theatre’s New Play Award, and an Illinois Arts Council Playwriting Fellowship. She previously taught playwriting at DePaul University.

For young readers, Laird adapted Mary Pope Osborne’s Afternoon on the Amazon as a Magic Tree House graphic novel, published by Random House in 2024. She has also been credited as an adapter on other Magic Tree House graphic novels, including Dinosaurs Before Dark.