Emily C. A. Snyder

Emily C. A. Snyder (born September 10, 1977 in Amherst, Massachusetts) is an American novelist, playwright and director. She is the founder and artistic director of Turn to Flesh Productions.

She attended the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, for her undergraduate degree where she studied theatre and literature. In 2009, she received her masters in Theatre Education from Emerson College in Boston, MA. She has taught at Saint Bernadette Catholic School in Northborough, MA, Hudson Catholic High School and Hudson High School, Hudson, MA, and the Performing Arts Center of Metrowest in Framingham, MA. Currently, she lives in New York, New York.

Novels

Twelve Kingdoms

Snyder is the author of the Twelve Kingdoms Novels, set in an alternative Celtic world, published by Arx Publishers, LLC.^[1] Her first novel, Niamh and the Hermit, subtitled "A Fairy Tale" received mixed reviews, mostly based around the rich but archaic language of the book. Reactions ranged from Thomas Howard's (Author of C.S. Lewis: Man of Letters):

"When I first saw this book, I feared that it might be just another effort to hook on to the Tolkien wagon. It is not. Very far from that. It is wholly original, and all I can say is that it is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. The author is entirely in control of her narrative, and, drawing on the tradition of ancient Celtic tales, gives us something genuinely new. What we have here is a very noble achievement."^[2]

To such Amazon.com reviews as:

"I bought the book to read for fun. Sometimes I felt like I had to study the book to understand what was going on. The dialogue was long and written in a style that required a lot of words with little meaning. I would have to stop and think about what was being said to get the point of the dialogue. There is very little setting description and the author moves between characters with little explanation. I wish it had been written more in a modern style to allow the characters and story to flow easier."^[3]

Niamh and the Hermit featured original artwork and music by the author. A second novella, Charming the Moon was published soon after.

Gothic Austen

Snyder has also published what she terms a "Gothic Austen" novel, Nachtstürm Castle from Girlebooks.com. This sequel to Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey has received generally positive reviews from Austen aficionados.^[4]

From 1999-2000, Snyder published under the pseudonym Elspeth on the Republic of Pemberley.^[5]

Short Stories

Marion Zimmer Bradley first published Snyder in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, with the short story: If We Shadows Have Offended.

Soon after that, Snyder was invited to contribute to Sword and Sorceress, an ongoing anthology edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Snyder's short story Better Seen Than Heard appeared in Sword and Sorceress XIX.

Theatre^[6]

From 1998–present, Snyder has been active in the theatre, working primarily as a director and playwright.

Her New York City-based company, Turn to Flesh Productions, will be bringing her five-act iambic pentameter play, Cupid and Psyche ~ A New Play in Blank Verse^[7] to Off-Broadway in time for Valentine's 2014.

Playwright

Published Plays

In 2009, she began publishing her plays through Playscripts, Inc.^[8] These include:

Wallace's Will (Part of An Evening's Diversion series.)
The French Butler (Part of An Evening's Diversion series.)
Charming Princes (Part of Grimms Aghast series.)
Math for Actors

Produced Plays

Many of Snyder's original plays and musicals have been completed and produced, including:

Cupid and Psyche (2009 Boston, MA) - Five-act iambic pentameter play
Nutracker (2005 Marlborough, MA) - Story-in-Dance based on Hoffmann's fairy tale of the same name, using the music of Tchaikovsky
King of Fools (2005 Hudson, MA) - Musical loosely based on Grimms King Thrushbeard
Bearskin (2004 Marlborough, MA) - Opera-ballet loosely based on the Grimms fairy tale of the same name

Director

In 2000, Snyder studied John Barton's verse technique with RSC actors. Combined with her introduction to Kristen Linklater's approach to freeing the natural voice, Snyder has developed her own physically robust style of directing classic works.

Gaudete Academy

From 2006-2012, Snyder directed at Gaudete Academy, a Summer Shakespeare company for adolescents and young adults which she founded in the greater Boston area. During that time, Gaudete Academy produced everything from Hamlet to A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Hudson Drama Society

From 1999-2012, Snyder worked at the Hudson Drama Society, which she also helped found, teaching, writing, and directing plays. Several of her original pieces were developed through this society, including "Wallace's Will" which also won "Best Play" in 2008.

Additional Companies

Snyder has also directed for the Sudbury Savoyards^[9] (2004 Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance), the Hudson/Marlborough Arts Alliance^[10] (2005 Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate) and Framingham Community Theatre^[11] (2010 Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None).

Web Publications

Christian Guide to Fantasy

In 2000, Snyder launched the Christian Guide to Fantasy^[12] which was in answer to many Christian parents initial fear of the Harry Potter novels. The site was a series of reviews of popular fantasy novels, meant as a guide for the concerned parents. It has remained a mostly frozen site for the past several years.

Tower of Ivory E-zine

For a few years, Snyder and her college partner Annie McAndrew co-edited Tower of Ivory E-zine, which featured short-stories, articles, poems, artwork and interviews, of such notables as Teresa Edgerton,^[13] whom she credits as one of her greatest literary influences.^[14] Tower of Ivory closed in 2003.

References

External links

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