Draft:Frederick Robert Kirwin

Frederick Robert Kirwin (born October 12, 1942) is an American poet, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright.

Early life
Frederick Kirwin was born in Rochester, Pennsylvania to Frederick Bayard Kirwin from Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, and Roberta (née Webb) Kirwin from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has two siblings, Richard James Kirwin and Christine Thibodeau and nieces and nephews Beth Kirwin-Auman, Josh Kirwin, JusticeLee Auman and Bryan, Gabrielle, and Kyle Thibodeau. His father, Frederick Bayard Kirwin, was of Scottish, English, Irish, and Ibero-Hispanic descent. He was a District Sales Manager and independent contractor for Fuller Industries, Inc. Roberta Kirwin was of Scottish, English, Irish, and Jewish descent. She was a television producer/director for WEDU - Ch. 3, and the Television Coordinator for the West Florida Education District and a producer/moderator of School Slate broadcast from the former WSUN studios on the St. Petersburg Pier, and a member of the National Association of Women Broadcasters, Delta Kappa Gamma.

Education
Frederick Kirwin graduated from Boca Ciega High School in St. Petersburg, FL, in 1960, and later attended Florida State University in Tallahassee where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and International Affairs, and a Master of Arts in Government. He passed the Prelims for the PhD program at Florida State in Government, received a teaching fellowship and published a scholarly article with Richard Gray, PhD, on the “Presidential Succession in Chile: 1817-1966,” Journal of Inter-American Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Jan., 1969), and later resigned from the program, instead opting to accept a Shubert Fellowship in Theatre, eventually earning an MFA in Playwriting.

Selected Works
Books include, Songs Of the Garden of Delights (poetry); Body Carnal (poetry); Body Sacred (poetry); Talking About Diana’s Death (novel), Billy and Dakota (love story); Dog Bites Man (a thriller and now an award-winning feature film), Past Love, Praise, Indifference, Blame (play). Production of plays includes, Billy (Playwrights Horizons, NYC) ; Swan Dive (Playwrights Horizons, NYC) ; Dog Bites Man (Marlborough Theatre, Brighton, UK, and later at the Rock Theatre, Brighton, U.K.); The Lottery (Tristan Bates Theatre, Covent Garden, London, UK, and later at Fox Theatre, London, UK); Talking about Diana (King's Head Theatre, London, UK, and later at the Camden People's Theatre, London, UK).

Awards
Kirwin is the recipient of a Shubert Fellowship; The Dramatists Guild Fund Award in honor of Mr. Richard Rodgers; five Edward Albee Foundation Fellowships    ; and was a Playwright-in- Residence at North Carolina School of the Arts. His screenplay for the movie Dog Bites Man has received two Best Script awards, and the movie has received an additional eight awards, including two Best Director for Vincent Zambrano, two Best Actor for Andrew Philip Rogers and Cade Morrison.

Personal life
In 1975, Edward Albee introduced Kirwin to artist, Scott Kahn while Kahn and Kirwin were visiting Albee at the Edward F. Albee Foundation in Montauk, New York. Kahn and Kirwin were married in 2020 in a civil ceremony. It was officiated by Will Blythe, the noted New York Times best-selling author and former literary editor of Esquire magazine.