Neil Ferron

Neil Ferron is an award-winning poet, author, and playwright who graduated magna cum laude from Santa Clara University in 2005. He is the founder and artistic director of 12th Avenue Drama, a small Seattle-based theater company. His play, “Sweet, the Breath of Children,” was produced in 2007 and was awarded a Seattle Times Critic’s Pick. Neil received an artist grant from the King County Arts Commission to help produce the play. While an undergraduate, Neil traveled to Calcutta to work for six months in an orphanage run by the Missionaries of Charity. His experience there, as well as his work with homeless teenagers at a shelter in California, has shaped much of his writing, which attempts to balance grace with a social justice message. He won a Canterbury Fellowship to work on a series of short stories that focused on his time in India. In addition, Neil was awarded a first place prize by the Academy of American Poets for his poem, “In its proper place,” and a Santa Clara Review Editor’s Choice for one of his short stories. Neil will study playwriting at Trinity College Dublin.