C. Quintana (also known as CQ and previously known as Christina Quintana) is a Cuban-American playwright, poet, and writer. Her works have been published in literary journals and produced across the United States. ''The Heart Wants'', her

chapbook A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered bookle ...

of poetry, was published in 2016 by Finishing Line Press.

Education and career

Quintana attended Ursuline Academy New Orleans and the

New Orleans Center for Creative Arts New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, or NOCCA, is the regional, pre-professional arts training center for high school students in Louisiana. NOCCA opened in 1973 as a professional arts training center for secondary school-age children. Locate ...

, a performing-arts high school. She graduated from

College of Santa Fe Santa Fe University of Art and Design (SFUAD) was a private, for-profit art school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The university was built from the non-profit College of Santa Fe (CSF), a Catholic facility founded as St. Michael's College in 1859, an ...

in 2010 with a degree in theatre and a minor in creative writing. Under the guidance of Charles Mee, she earned an MFA in Playwriting from

Columbia University School of the Arts The Columbia University School of the Arts, (also known as School of the Arts or SoA) is the fine arts graduate school of Columbia University in Morningside Heights, New York. It offers Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees in Film, Visual Arts, ...

. 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. The project premiered at the

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitts ...

and expanded to The Fortune Society, an organization that helps previously incarcerated people integrate into society. Much of her writing revolves around themes of injustice, loss, queerness, and marginalized identities. 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.'"

Personal life

Quintana, who identifies as

nonbinary Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

and

gender non-conforming Gender variance or gender nonconformity is behavior or gender expression by an individual that does not match masculine or feminine gender norms. A gender-nonconforming person may be variant in their gender identity, being transgender or non-bina ...

, changed their professional listing from ''Christina'' to ''C.'' in 2022. She goes by ''CQ'' and legally petitioned for this name change in 2023.

Awards

Quintana is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships for her writing: * 2014

Lambda Literary The Lambda Literary Foundation (also known as Lambda Literary) is an American LGBT literature, LGBTQ literary organization whose mission is to nurture and advocate for LGBTQ writers, elevating the impact of their words to create community, prese ...

Emerging Voices Fellow in Fiction * 2017 Van Lier New Voices Fellowship * 2017 Arch & Bruce Brown Playwriting Competition – Honorable Mention: ''Azul'' * 2017-18 New York's Playwrights Realm writing fellowship recipient * 2018

MacDowell Colony MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States, founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDowell ...

Fellowship

Plays

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

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Quintana, Christina Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Columbia University School of the Arts alumni American LGBT dramatists and playwrights American writers of Cuban descent 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights Santa Fe University of Art and Design alumni MacDowell Colony fellows 21st-century American LGBT people