At age five I wrote my first short story: “The Boy and the Gril and I Love You.” Fast-forward to age 11 when I published my own book with typewritten pages (thanks mom), colored-pencil illustrations, a cardboard cover, and contact paper: The Halloween Weekend We’ll Never Forget. It was a murder mystery involving me and my best friend solving a murder on our block. It won a prize.
At age 15, algebra came easy to me, so I spent the whole class writing poetry. I got in trouble when the teacher asked to see my notebook and found it full of poems. I started publishing short stories in the high-school literary magazines. College, too.
At 24 I wrote my first novel which I had forgotten about until I recently found it in a box. Since then I have written three other novels, one of which was published serially online. I circled back to poetry for many years, publishing a chapbook and seeing my poems in isolated journals and anthologies. I still write the occasional haiku on Instagram, and the odd–really odd–story on my Substack.
I started writing plays in 2017, having lived the full gamut of life’s rich pageantry. My full-lengths and short comedies have had productions and readings off-Broadway and in regional theatres.
Accolades for which I am humbly grateful:
- Advanced Bookwriter – BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop (The Suspects: A Sustainability Murder Mystery)
- Semi-Finalist – 2024 National Playwrights Conference (The Widow)
- Finalist – 2022 Austin Film Festival Pitch Competition (Helene: Hitler’s Jewish Athlete)
- Nominee – 2021 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (The Incels)
- Fellow – 2018-22 New Jersey State Arts Council playwriting fellowship (The Caregivers)
- Resident Playwright – 2020-21 NJ Play Lab (The Incels)
- Contributing Playwright – the 2021 Telly Award-winning Heroes & Villains Monologues (Eleanor Roosevelt’s Pudding)
- Semi-Finalist – 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival (The Fencers)
- Semi-Finalist – 2018 Bay Area Playwrights Festival (The Caregivers)
- Resident Playwright – 2018-19 INKubator program at Art House Productions in Jersey City (The Incels)
- Featured Playwright – 2018 New Jersey Writers Theatre’s Women Playwrights Series (The Widow)
I have degrees from Columbia University, NYU, and St. John’s University, and am a member of Dramatists Guild and HonorRoll!. I’m also an épée fencer and a professional fundraiser.
Here’s a profile that the NJ State Council on the Arts videotaped:
What People Say
While still relatively early in her career, Ruth Zamoyta is an astute, prolific and talented
Cheryl Katz, Co-Founder and Lead Dramaturg, The NJ Play Lab
writer, with a strong sense of collaboration and professionalism.
I am a big advocate of Ruth’s work. It is risky and surprising, and she is not afraid to tackle difficult topics and make bold theatrical statements.
John Pietrowski, Artistic Director, Writers Theatre of NJ
Ruth is a talented writer with compelling ideas, unique and honest characters, and a strong sense of her own artistic vision.
Kaitlin Stilwell, Resident Dramaturg, Luna Stage Company
Ruth Apolonia Zamoyta 