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Sarah Ruhl is a playwright, poet, and essayist. Her works include the memoir Smile, 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write (a New York Times Notable Book), two books of poetry, and 14 plays. Her plays have been produced on Broadway and been translated into 15 languages. She is a two-time Pulitzer finalist and Tony Award nominee, and the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" grant. She is currently professor of playwriting at the Geffen School for Drama at Yale. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., with her family. Ruhl's new book is Lessons from my Teachers (Simon & Schuster, May 6, 2025), an inspiring meditation on the life-altering bonds between teacher and student and the ineffable wisdom imparted both inside and outside the classroom.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
A portrait of my life, told through stories about the many teachers I've been lucky enough to have, from preschool to the present.
On your nightstand now:
Let's see, having a look at a rather large pile. If you want I can whittle this down: Intermezzo by Sally Rooney, Morning and Evening by Jon Fosse; Antarctica by Claire Keegan; Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch by Rivka Galchen; Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko; Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri; The Playbook by James Shapiro; The America Play and Other Works by Suzan-Lori Parks; The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton; Green Water, Green Sky by Mavis Gallant; Poetry Unbound by Pádraig Ó Tuama; Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck; Shantideva's A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life translated by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche; galleys of Jacinda Ardern's upcoming A Different Kind of Power; and Moby-Dick by Herman Melville--still not done with it.
Favorite book when you were a child:
My favorite childhood books were the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. I was a true zealot and still am. In fact, I just bought a tea towel from the Betsy-Tacy Society, of which I am a proud card-carrying member. The society worked to get Lovelace's books back into print after they went out of fashion for a time. They are the coziest books, and the characters feel absolutely real and three-dimensional, as you follow them from their Midwestern childhoods into adulthood. Those books also taught me that being a woman and being a writer is eminently possible, from the time I was seven.
Your top five authors:
Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, Sharon Olds, Elizabeth Bishop, Shakespeare.
Book you've faked reading:
I don't fake reading.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. I think this classic has the power to banish loneliness and change lives. It's the perfect book to give to a young person on their way to college, or after they suffer a heartbreak, when they need a wise companion.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Sheila Heti's Pure Colour. I love the inside of that book too; I think it's a work of mystery and genius; I was excited that Sheila helped design the font for the cover and I simply had to have it in my hands. I'm obsessed with fonts.
Book you hid from your parents:
That would be The Wit and Wisdom of Fat Albert by Bill Cosby. I hid it because I stole it from my preschool, which was in a church basement. I was desperate to read the book at home and keep it for myself. But ultimately, I felt too guilty about the stolen object.
Book that changed your life:
Reflections on a Mountain Lake by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo. This book explained Tibetan Buddhism to me with such clarity and vividness that I sought out the author (an incredible Buddhist nun) in person at a teaching in New York City, and that teaching changed the course of my life. Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo was the first Western woman (born in England) to undergo a 12-year retreat in a Himalayan cave. When she emerged, she founded a nunnery, and she continues to teach and write books. Her story is utterly inspiring.
Favorite line from a book:
"'Life, life, life!' cries the bird." --from Virginia Woolf's Orlando
Five books you'll never part with:
My father's copy of e.e. cummings's 100 Selected Poems; Betsy and the Great World by Maud Hart Lovelace; Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke; Max Ritvo's Four Reincarnations; and Paula Vogel's The Baltimore Waltz and Other Plays.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
I'd love to read all of Agatha Christie's books again for the first time. I was a big Agatha Christie enthusiast when I was little, and I also love reading her books as a grown-up, and now I never know when I'm going to remember a plot. Sometimes I think I've ingeniously figured out the mystery in my middle age, but it's really just that I read the book when I was a kid.