Alan Newton, a native of Auburn, Alabama, is currently a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of Kansas, where he specializes in playwriting, dramatic literature and southern literature. He received a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.Ed. from the University of Virginia and an M.A. from Michigan State University. He has had staged readings of his plays in Michigan and Kansas. Whiteout, produced by English Alternative Theatre at the University of Kansas, is his first full production. It was featured at the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival regional competition in January 2001, and won the 2001 KC/ACTF Lorraine Hansberry National Playwriting Award.
