Peter Hay

Who is Peter Hay?

Peter Háy, is the son of Gyula Háy, and is the author of over a dozen books, including an anecdote book series for Oxford University Press, a history of MGM, MGM: When the Lion Roars and Ordinary Heroes: Chana Szenes and the dream of Zion the story of Hannah Senesh, the Hungarian Jewish poet and heroine of World War II.

Born in Budapest in 1944, Hay was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College and read classics and literature at Merton College, Oxford. He emigrated to Canada in 1967 and taught at Simon Fraser University and Western Washington University. Before moving to Southern California in 1980, he founded the play publishing arm of Talonbooks, a Canadian cultural publisher, and was responsible for publishing the plays of dozens of Canadian playwrights.

After working in the professional theatre world, including as the first dramaturg of the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, he was a dramaturg at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference in Waterford, Connecticut, and at the early Sundance Institute Playwrights Workshops in the early '80's.