My Bio

D.C. Copeland

Bio:

D.C. Copeland is an established writer.  While a student at Yale University, D.C. Copeland became the literary assistant to Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University and, among other books, the author of Shakespeare:  The Invention Of The Human and The Western Canon:  The Books And School Of The Ages.  Copeland worked with him on The Best Poems Of The English Language: From Chaucer to Frost and Where Shall Wisdom Be Found.  From 2002 until the end of his life in 2019 Professor Bloom was Copeland’s mentor.  He wrote the following about her writing:

“D.C. Copeland will not be understood by many of her generation but she will be a voice of it. [She] is an extraordinary writer, both in Kafkaesque parable and highly original short plays that succeed in evading the only apparent influences of Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco… She brings to the stage a power of invention and a control of the language that I find refreshing. I recommend her without reservations.” 

Copeland is an accomplished dramatist.  Recently her play Forget-Me-Not was a finalist in Manhattan Repertory’s One Act Festival.  Her play These Foolish Things premiered at Alex Timber’s The Tank and was produced at New York University’s Black Box Theater.  In Portland, Oregon many of her plays were premiered and produced:  The Truth According to Rose premiered at The Fertile Ground Festival.  After The Fall was produced by The New Shit Show.  Her faux-gothic short play Wasptown was produced by Monkey With A Hat On.  Play ran for three weeks at Shaking-The-Tree Theatre.  The Undiscovered Country ran for six weeks at Defunkt Theatre.  Copeland’s screenplay Angie was workshopped in Los Angeles by Bobby Morsesco, Oscar-winning writer and producer of the movie Crash.  Angie has presently been creating interest on behalf of producers who want to make it into a pilot for Netflix audiences.  

When she was sixteen-years old Copeland was given the opportunity to work with a beloved and retired English Teacher for an independent study. The focus of their work was on The Theatre of The Absurd.  Copeland wrote a play that year entitled Merrily Down The Stream which has since been performed at least twice; once in New York City and once in Portland, Oregon.  It is regularly taught by Professor Kevin O’Rourke (Boardwalk Empire) in his theatre seminar at Williams College in Massachusetts.

Copeland is a prolific poet.   Many of her poems are collaborations with the visual artist and fashion designer and photographer Joronne Jeter.  Recently ”There Is No Happy Ending” was published by The Gravity of The Thing and The 34th Parallel published her “Rainy Day In New York City”.   Aaduna featured Copeland’s sonnet For Those At Work in their special edition to celebrate poetry month. The publisher and CEO of aaduna magazine William E. Very Jr.  said of her the following:

 “We will publish poetry by Copeland who brings a diverse array of creative talent that has started to nurture a committed fan base. Copeland is achieving literary status because her poetry, plays, essays and other literary pathways have made a soulful connection to the hearts and minds of her readers…Copeland is a gem and a growing creative institution for us to cherish and support!”

D.C. Copeland is an experienced speaker.  She has delivered presentations to a wide range of audiences from small intimate groups to audiences of over five hundred. She has done talkbacks with audiences who have watched her plays.  She has appeared on television (Huffington Post and Newsmaxx) and looks forward to the opportunity to continue to appear before television audiences.  She has appeared on podcasts which focus on the millennial experience.  She has just finished recording a podcast with Hard Girl, Soft Life which has 1.5 million subscribers.  

On Quora, Copeland has presently 732,300 readers.  Her focus on Quora is mental health, Jungian archetypes, the MBTI personality test, attracting a partner, finding happiness, embracing the shadow self and letting go of one’s fear of death.  She has also been featured by The Los Angeles Times in an effort to describe the path to overcoming eating disorders. 

She won the best speaker at Georgetown Junior Statesmen Summer Program out of a cohort of over two hundred students when she was sixteen years old.

Growing up.  Copeland started to write plays and poems when she was seven years of age.  Her poetry was published in the local newspaper when she was eight years old.  In her youth, Copeland’s plays were neighborhood affairs.  They would take place in her basement using The Rainbow Bright curtains made by her father.  From ages five to seventeen, she acted and directed at the local community center and at the high school. Copeland won The New York State Championship for Dramatic Performance at sixteen years old.   In her senior year of high school, Copeland was asked to direct the spring musical for the theatre club.  No student had ever before been invited to direct a play at her high school.  

In high school, Copeland was the winner of a national writing contest sponsored by The Daughters of The American Revolution.  In addition, Copeland was awarded The George Bryant Creativity Award which is given each year to one student out of a public school cohort of two-hundred and fifty. 

Copeland was accepted to apprentice at the exclusive and prestigious Williamstown Theatre Festival where she acted alongside such talents as Chris Pine (Star Trek and Dungeons and Dragons), Elizabeth Meriwether (creator of The New Girl) and Jeremy Strong (Succession).  She distinguished herself as a comedian during Lewis Black’s cabaret night.  

Copeland distinguished herself at Yale University.  She received her Bachelor of Arts in English.  She was the only freshman accepted to an acting workshop with Al Pacino.  Copeland directed several productions on campus including Angels In America by Tony Kushner and Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss II for The Yale Opera Company.  She wrote and directed a play entitled Shakespeare Unknown which involved stringing together lesser known Shakespeare plays and performing them with a cast of fourteen actors.   Her senior thesis was entitled Gertrude Stein:  Evoking Human Sympathy by Writing In The Continuous Present.   

Copeland received her masters degree in the Humanities at New York University.  Her thesis was entitled Left In The Lurch:  The Space of Conceptual Art in Warhol and Beckett.  Her faculty advisor at NYU was Thomas DeZengotita, professor at NYU and Dalton High School; writer for Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly and The New York Times and author of Mediated:  How The Media Shapes Your World And The Way You Live In It and Postmodern Theory and Progressive Politics: Toward a New Humanism. 

Literary Assistant.  When Copeland worked for Harold Bloom she was a liaison between Professor Bloom and his editors and publishers at Chelsea House Publishers. She was also the literary assistant to New York Times best-selling author Mark Kurlansky and worked on his books 1968:  The Year That Rocked The World and The Big Oyster:  History On The Half Shell.

Drama Teacher.  Copeland has also given back to the children of her community by teaching drama at Friends Seminary School in New York City to students age five to nine.  

 An Artist’s Manifesto:  Writing Under The Influence Of A Millennial Emergence.  Copeland recently published  An Artist’s Manifesto on Amazon where it is available in hardback, paperback, ebook and audiobook.  The book has earned fifty 5-star ratings.  Readers rave about its unique insight not found in any other book.  As one of her reviewers states, it is “the voice of a generation”.  Copeland uses this book to build name recognition and to facilitate her appearances on television and podcasts.   She has not officially promoted the book though the book helps to promote a message that is at the heart of her writing:  Leave society and shrug off its conventions.  Come home to yourself, your soul and your spirit.  

Societal Dropout:  A Culture Manifesto For The New Millennium. An Artist’s Manifesto has evolved into a group of thirteen stand-alone essays divided into thirteen chapters and is presently entitled Societal Dropout:  A Culture Manifesto For The New Millennium.  The manifesto articulates truths that many people feel but have yet to be heard directly expressed and articulated; especially about themes of death, drugs, gender wars, mental health, social media, polyamory,  the life and times of the artist, critical thinking, artificial intelligence, the importance of creativity and the millennial experience.  

Copeland is writing for those who need a witness to testify that we do live in a dark time and that the hackneyed methods used to motivate us out of it are not working.  She writes for readers who want to listen to a story about overcoming the conventions of contemporary culture and the psychological and spiritual illnesses fostered by it.  Her manifesto is for college age students who are looking for fodder to feed their own inner rebellions and revolutions, artists and those who love art, academics and those who love and are immersed in academia, millennials and gen-Zs that feel their voice is underrepresented in contemporary culture.  Copeland’s work is for the normal, everyday person who experiences that society does not give a rat’s tail about themselves as individuals and for the individual who is simply unsatisfied with the care that society does provide.

Marketing and Promotion.  Copeland plays a pivotal role in raising money for her plays in order for the productions to have the money to hire SAG and AFTRA actors and crew.  She helped raise money for the marketing and promotion of her plays in Portland, Oregon’s newspapers and magazines such as The Oregonian, Willamette Weekly and Artswatch.  She has done and will continue to do interviews with press and event planners and has and will continue to appear on television and on podcasts to promote her work.

Copeland has a comprehensive marketing plan below and will work diligently with a private publicist to promote the evolved version of her manifesto entitled Societal Dropout:  A Culture Manifesto For The New Millennium.