Ayun Halliday is an American writer and actor. She is best known as the author and illustrator (or, as Halliday herself terms it, "the chief primatologist") of the long-running

zine A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very s ...

''The East Village Inky''. The

got its name from Halliday's living in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

's East Village, and "Inky" being the nickname of her then-infant daughter India. Her first

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

, ''Peanut'', was published in December 2012 and was positively reviewed by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''.

Early life

Halliday was born in Indianapolis,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. She attended Park Tudor School and

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

, where she obtained a degree in theater performance. She is also a licensed massage therapist, who completed her training at the Chicago School of Massage Therapy. After graduating, she joined the

Neo-Futurists The Neo-Futurists are an experimental theater troupe founded by Greg Allen in 1988, based on an aesthetics of honesty, speed and brevity. Neo-Futurists in theatre were inspired by the Italian Futurist movement from the early 20th century. Origin ...

, an experimental theater troupe in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. It was during her tenure with the troupe that she met her husband, playwright

Greg Kotis Greg Kotis (born 1965/1966) is an American playwright, best known for writing the book and co-writing the lyrics for the musical ''Urinetown''. Biography Career Kotis studied political science at the University of Chicago, where he was a membe ...

Personal life

She lives in East Harlem, New York. She and Kotis have two children: India (born 1997) and Milo (born 2000). Halliday and Kotis are co-founders of Theater of the Apes. Halliday created and hosts ''Necromancers of the Public Domain'', a monthly performance series in New York City, wherein a dusty book from the New York Society Library is turned in a low budget variety show.

Published books

*''The Big Rumpus'' (published in the UK as ''Mama Lama Ding Dong'') (2002) *''No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late'' (2003) *''Job Hopper'' (2005) *''Dirty Sugar Cookies: Culinary Observations, Questionable Taste'' (2006) *''Always Lots of Heinies at the Zoo'' (2009) *''The Zinester's Guide to NYC'' (2010) *''Peanut'' (2012) *''Creative, Not Famous: The Small Potato Manifesto (2022)'' *''Creative, Not Famous Activity Book (2023)''

Plays

*''Farang (1992)'' *''Bagel: Anatomy as Simile (1994)'' *''

Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind ''Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind: 30 Plays in 60 Minutes'' (Too Much Light or TML) was the longest running show in the history of theater in Chicago and was the only open-run Off-Off-Broadway show in New York. The show was originally perfor ...

(1989-1998)'' *''The Mermaid's Legs'' (2014) *''Fawnbook'' (2015) *''Zamboni Godot (2017)'' *''Nurse! (2018)''

References

External links

Official websiteDirty Sugar Cookies food blogWhogoslavia? travel blog2006 Interview with AyunTheater of the Apes websiteWhy Mommy Drinks podcast
Ayun Halliday: What the Freakin' Fudge? {{DEFAULTSORT:Halliday, Ayun Living people American women bloggers American bloggers American memoirists American humorists American children's writers Writers from Indianapolis 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 1965 births 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers American women memoirists Women humorists People from East Harlem People from the East Village, Manhattan