Don Shewey

Don Shewey is a prominent American journalist, theater critic, editor, therapist, and LGBTQ+ community health activist. Raised as the child of a military family, his upbringing spanned various locations—including living in a trailer park in Waco, Texas—before he went on to study at Rice University and Boston University. Moving to New York City, he forged an influential career chronicling the contemporary stage, publishing hundreds of articles and reviews for major cultural publications such as The New York Times, The Village Voice, Esquire, and Rolling Stone. An openly gay writer, his seminal contribution to the documentation of queer theater includes three major books on the medium: his acclaimed biography Sam Shepard, the interview anthology Caught in the Act: New York Actors Face to Face, and the historic compilation Out Front: Contemporary Gay and Lesbian Plays. In his later career, Shewey expanded his focus into somatic therapy, psycho-sexual-spiritual education, and intimacy coaching, graduating from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in 2018 and authoring memoirs including Daddy Lover God: A Sacred Intimate Journey.