ABOUT ME

Dennis Danziger is a writer and a teacher.  His books include A Short History of a Tall Jew, Daddy, The Diary of an Expectant Father, and a forthcoming memoir 
about teaching in America, written in collaboration with a former student. 

His play, Shalom Vietnam, a one act from the full-length Richard Nixon Sex Tapes, will be presented at the 37th Annual Willian Inge Theater Festival in May 2018.

The Richard Nixon Sex Tapes is composed of eleven one-acts, each of which examines either a president or his era, ranging from JFK in the 1960s through Donald Trump.  

In 2017 and 2018, several of the one-acts were produced in Los Angeles, including: Silent Cal (JFK), The Richard Nixon Sex Tapes (Nixon) and Trim (Clinton) at the Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre; Waiting for Ivanka (Trump) and My Three Sons (GHW Bush) at the Stella Adler Theatre.

Other productions include Almost Men (HB Playwrights Foundation, NYC), Pennant Fever (LA Actors Theater) and Double Play (HRC Showcase Theatre in Hudson, NY).

TV writing credits include Taxi, Kate and Allie, My Sister Sam, and The White Shadow.

Danziger’s essays have appeared in The Huffington Post, on The Good Men Project and in Black Clock. 

Danziger taught English (and coached basketball) for 24 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District where he shepherded thousands of student essayists and poets to their first publications and regularly defeated his students in 3-point shooting contests.

Along with his wife, the writer Amy Friedman, he co-founded POPS (Pain of the Prison System) the Club, which creates and supports clubs in high schools that provide a sacred space and a platform for the voices of teenagers whose lives have been impacted by mass incarceration. To learn more, please visit POPS the Club.

For their work with POPS the Club, in 2017 Amy and Dennis were named Points of Light by the volunteer organization founded by President GHW Bush and that same year were invited by the Obama White House to a Convening on Social Justice. They annually publish a collection of students’ writings and artwork; Pops Anthologies are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.