{{Short description|American writer}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2026}} {{Use American English|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox writer | occupation = Playwright, novelist | period = 2017–present | notable_works = ''Sasha Masha'' | awards = Lambda Literary Award (nominee) }} '''Agnes Borinsky''' is an American playwright and author, who wrote the young adult novel ''Sasha Masha,'' a coming-of-age story about a queer Jewish American girl, nominated for a Lambda Award in 2021. She wrote and performed in ''A Song of Songs'' in 2022, which retold through a queer lens the biblical book ''Song of Songs.'' In 2023, her play ''The Trees'' premiered at Playwrights Horizons' theatre; the work imagines the lives of siblings whose bodies root into the earth in a Connecticut park. This work was compared to ''Waiting for Godot'', ''Sagittarius Ponderosa'' and ''How to Live in a House on Fire.''

==Life== Borinsky comes from Baltimore and her mother is from Boston.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kelley |first=Rich |date=January 21, 2016 |title=Agnes Borinsky on Cybernetics, Norbert Wiener, Boston, Baltimore, Yiddish, and RUTH |url=https://www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org/est-blog/agnes-borinsky-on-cybernetics-norbert-wiener-boston-baltimore-yiddish-and-ruth |access-date=January 26, 2026 |website=Ensemble Studio Theatre |language=en-US}}</ref> She lived for some years in New York before she moved to Los Angeles. In 2012, she joined Donna Oblongata, who was directing a play based on ''Les Misérables''. The unconventional play was said to be unlicensed,<ref name=":8" /> although the original book of ''Les Misérables'' is out of copyright.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hugo |first=Victor |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Les_mis%C3%A9rables/fb7w8JSQN1MC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=les+mis%C3%A9rables&pg=PA28&printsec=frontcover |title=Les misérables |date=1886 |publisher=G. Routledge and sons |language=en}}</ref> The play was performed for a week on the east coast of America after the fifty-plus cast had rehearsed the work under a circus tent.<ref name=":8" /> In 2016, she became an artist-in-residence at the University Settlement<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 27, 2020 |title=Past Artists-In-Residence |url=https://www.universitysettlement.org/programs/arts/performance-project/past-artists/ |access-date=January 26, 2026 |website=University Settlement |language=en-US}}</ref>, where Alison Fleminger encouraged her to abandon the restrictions of writing a conventional play. As a result, Borinsky led over twenty collaborators to create a participatory show called "Weird Classrooms". Her next project was a working group based in Brooklyn at the Bushwick Starr theatre.<ref name=":8" />

== Writings == An early experimental theatre piece, ''Of Government'', was commissioned in 2015 and performed in 2017.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gilmer |first1=Sigrid |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yA8oEAAAQBAJ&dq=agnes+borinsky&pg=PP1 |title=Unusual Stories, Unusually Told: 7 Contemporary American Plays from Clubbed Thumb: U.S. Drag; Slavey; Dot; Baby Screams Miracle; Men on Boats; Of Government; Plano |last2=Gionfriddo |first2=Gina |last3=Barron |first3=Clare |last4=Backhaus |first4=Jaclyn |last5=Borinsky |first5=Agnes |last6=Arbery |first6=Will |last7=Ryan |first7=Kate E. |date=April 22, 2021 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-350-19421-2 |pages=301 |language=en}}</ref> It was reviewed by the ''New York Times'' as having a "globe-crossing plot that is as twisty and slippery as ... an eel", with an opening musical number reminiscent of ''The Little Mermaid.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |date=June 9, 2017 |title=Review: A Shaggy Fish Story With a Bounty of Questing Heroines (Published 2017) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/09/theater/of-government-review.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628151550/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/09/theater/of-government-review.html |archive-date=June 28, 2022 |access-date=January 11, 2026 |language=en}}</ref>'' Borinsky's first novel was published in 2020.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/agnes-borinsky/sasha-masha/ |title=SASHA MASHA {{!}} Kirkus Reviews |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last1=Mason |first1=Derritt |last2=Matos |first2=Angel Daniel |last3=Slater |first3=Katharine |date=2025 |title=The 2025 Francelia Butler Lecture: Curtains, Blinds, and Closet Doors |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978113 |journal=Children's Literature Association Quarterly |language=en |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=5–38 |doi=10.1353/chq.2025.a978113 |issn=1553-1201|url-access=subscription }}</ref> ''Sasha Masha'' is a coming-of-age story about a queer Jewish American girl, but, according to Kirkus Reviews, unlike other books of the genre "doesn't arrive at a clear resolution possessing all the answers, instead displaying a sense of peace with the ongoing journey ahead".<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Palm |first=Kiri |date=2020 |title=Sasha Masha by Agnes Borinsky |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/770775 |journal=Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books |language=en |volume=74 |issue=3 |pages=122–123 |doi=10.1353/bcc.2020.0735 |issn=1558-6766|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The same year Borinsky established The Working Group for a New Spirit, which brought together creative practitioners online during the COVID-19 pandemic to discuss texts.<ref name=":8">{{Cite web |last=Krane |first=Daniel |date=July 30, 2024 |title=Through the Uncertainty, Agnes Borinsky and the Working Group for a New Spirit Are Taking Inventory of Our Lives {{!}} The Brooklyn Rail |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2020/11/theater/Through-the-Uncertainty-Agnes-Borinsky-and-the-Working-Group-for-a-New-Spirit-Are-Taking-Inventory-of-Our-Lives/ |access-date=January 11, 2026 |website=brooklynrail.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bent |first=Eliza |date=December 1, 2020 |title=I Want You in My Zoom. {{!}} EBSCOhost |url=https://openurl.ebsco.com/contentitem/gcd:147751060?sid=ebsco:plink:crawler&id=ebsco:gcd:147751060 |access-date=January 11, 2026 |website=openurl.ebsco.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 2022 Borinsky retold the biblical book ''Song of Songs'' through a queer perspective, which debuted at the Bushwick Starr, with the writer also in a central role, and was directed by Machel Ross.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Feldman |first=Adam |title=A Song of Songs {{!}} Theater in New York |url=https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/a-song-of-songs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220811032727/https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/a-song-of-songs |archive-date=August 11, 2022 |access-date=January 11, 2026 |work=Time Out New York |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Jeremy O. Harris and Bushwick Starr to Present A Song of Songs |url=https://playbill.com/article/jeremy-o-harris-and-bushwick-starr-to-present-a-song-of-songs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241006171927/https://playbill.com/article/jeremy-o-harris-and-bushwick-starr-to-present-a-song-of-songs |archive-date=October 6, 2024 |access-date=January 11, 2026 |website=Playbill |language=en-US}}</ref> A participatory work, audience members were invited to place paper offerings on an altar, referred to by the reviewer as a "shrine to the dead".<ref name=":4">{{Cite news |date=March 13, 2022 |title=Review: 'A Song of Songs' Makes a Sacrament of Remembrance (Published 2022) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/13/theater/review-a-song-of-songs.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241122063448/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/13/theater/review-a-song-of-songs.html |archive-date=November 22, 2024 |access-date=January 11, 2026 |language=en}}</ref> The ''New York Times'' described the work as "deeply affecting" and one that led the "audience toward a meditative consideration of their own mourning for those they have lost, to death or otherwise".<ref name=":4" />

In 2023 her play ''The Trees'' premiered at Playwrights Horizons' theatre; the work imagines the lives of siblings whose bodies root into the earth in a Connecticut park.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Rabinowitz |first=Chloe |title=World Premiere of Agnes Borinsky's THE TREES to be Presented at Playwrights Horizons in February |url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-broadway/article/World-Premiere-of-Agnes-Borinskys-THE-TREES-to-be-Presented-at-Playwrights-Horizons-in-February-20221222 |access-date=January 11, 2026 |website=BroadwayWorld.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Crystal Dickinson, Max Gordon Moore, Ray Anthony Thomas, More to Star in Agnes Borinsky's The Trees |url=https://playbill.com/article/crystal-dickinson-max-gordon-moore-ray-anthony-thomas-more-to-star-in-agnes-borinskys-the-trees |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250612152049/https://playbill.com/article/crystal-dickinson-max-gordon-moore-ray-anthony-thomas-more-to-star-in-agnes-borinskys-the-trees |archive-date=June 12, 2025 |access-date=January 11, 2026 |website=Playbill |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=April 4, 2022 |title='Downstate' and 'Catch as Catch Can' in Playwrights Horizons New Season |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/04/theater/playwrights-horizon-season.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220404154947/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/04/theater/playwrights-horizon-season.html |archive-date=April 4, 2022 |access-date=January 11, 2026 |language=en}}</ref> Directed by Tina Satter,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Dziemianowicz |first=Joe |date=March 5, 2023 |title='The Trees' review — aimless new play doesn't ground itself |url=https://www.newyorktheatreguide.com/reviews/the-trees-off-broadway-review |access-date=January 11, 2026 |website=New York Theatre Guide |language=en}}</ref> the play deals with themes of mutual care, community, queer liberation and civil rights.<ref>{{Cite web |title=If You Took Root, Who Would Tend the Soil? Review of "The Trees" |url=https://www.thebody.com/article/review-of-the-trees |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308191438/https://www.thebody.com/article/review-of-the-trees |archive-date=March 8, 2023 |access-date=January 11, 2026 |website=www.thebody.com |language=en-US}}</ref> The New York Theatre Guide criticised Borinsky's plot, but also compared the work to ''Waiting for Godot''.<ref name=":1" /> In a similarly mixed review, the ''New York Times'' described how in the play "Borinsky invites guesses; the problem is that we might not care enough for any of the people or ideas onstage to bother hazarding them".<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 6, 2023 |title=Review: Mining a Whimsical Absurdist Vein in 'The Trees' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/05/theater/the-trees-review-playwrights-horizons.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306021741/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/05/theater/the-trees-review-playwrights-horizons.html |archive-date=March 6, 2023 |access-date=January 11, 2026 |language=en}}</ref> The work has been compared to ''Sagittarius Ponderosa'' by MJ Kaufman and ''How to Live in a House on Fire'' by Kari Barclay.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last=Barclay |first=Kari |date=2024 |title=Burning Hope: Staging Queer Ecology in a Time of Wildfire |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-theatre-quarterly/article/burning-hope-staging-queer-ecology-in-a-time-of-wildfire/3C01979BA3B7F6AD57F04C6D8E4D1460 |journal=New Theatre Quarterly |language=en |volume=40 |issue=4 |pages=372–386 |doi=10.1017/S0266464X24000320 |issn=0266-464X}}</ref> The three works examine the impact of (wild)fire through queer perspectives.<ref name=":7" /> Indeed, Borinsky's work has been discussed as part of a "trans theatre" movement.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oswald |first=Sylvan |date=2023 |title=Towards a Trans Theatre |url=https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350123205.ch-026 |journal=The Methuen Drama Handbook of Gender and Theatre |pages=475–490 |doi=10.5040/9781350123205.ch-026 |isbn=978-1-350-12320-5 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== Awards ==

* 2021: Lambda Award nominee for ''Sasha Masha''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=Porter |date=March 15, 2021 |title=The US-Based Lambda Literary Awards Program Names Its 2021 Finalists |url=https://publishingperspectives.com/2021/03/the-us-based-lambda-literary-awards-program-names-its-2021-finalists/ |access-date=January 11, 2026 |website=Publishing Perspectives |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Personal life == Borinsky is Jewish American; she is also transgender.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Playwright Interview: Agnes Borinsky |url=https://www.playwrightshorizons.org/watch-listen/playwright-interview-agnes-borinsky |access-date=January 11, 2026 |website=www.playwrightshorizons.org |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":6" /> She lives in Los Angeles.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Borinsky |first=Agnes |title=Agnes Borinsky |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/contributor/agnes-borinsky |access-date=January 11, 2026 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books}}</ref>

== Selected works ==

=== Novels ===

* ''Sasha Masha'' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Borinsky |first=Agnes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qFq9DwAAQBAJ&q=agnes+borinsky |title=Sasha Masha |date=November 10, 2020 |publisher=Macmillan + ORM |isbn=978-0-374-31081-3 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Plays ===

* ''Of Government (2017)<ref name=":3" />'' * ''A Song of Songs'' (2022)<ref name=":2" /> * ''The Trees'' (2023)<ref name=":0" />

== References == <references />

== External links ==

* Interview: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5LttjAv8Sc "I aspire to be a bimbo" with Agnes Borinsky] {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borinsky, Agnes}} Category:Jewish American writers Category:Transgender Jews Category:Jewish American dramatists and playwrights Category:Transgender dramatists and playwrights Category:Jewish American novelists Category:Transgender novelists Category:People from Los Angeles Category:Living people Category:LGBTQ people from California Category:Year of birth missing (living people)