ABOUT VW
Victor Wishna is an award-winning writer, editor, author, playwright, and commentator, among other things. A graduate of Stanford University and the New School's creative writing MFA program, he has written for the Wall Street Journal, the Baltimore Sun, the Miami Herald, the Kansas City Star, Humanities, and other major magazines and newspapers. He is a national correspondent for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency; he contributes a weekly real estate feature to the New York Post and his column “Letter from New York” was syndicated nationally. Victor also served as special aide to Chancellor Arnold Eisen at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he assisted with researching, editing, and writing of official speeches and publications.
After nearly 12 years living and writing in New York City, Victor returned to his hometown of Kansas City, where he lives with his wife and their two young children. In 2011, he founded The Vital Word and, as Chief Editorial Officer, has helped find the right words for an array of nonprofit, corporate, and individual clients. His words can also be seen—and heard—via the local and national media outlets to which he regularly contributes, and his regular commentary on NPR affiliate KCUR-FM, for which he has received multiple awards from the Kansas City Press Club.
As a dramatist (and comedist), he has composed nearly a dozen plays, several of which have been produced regionally and locally. His first full-length play, Shearwater, was selected as a winner of the Panndora's Box Festival of New Works in Long Beach, Calif., and a finalist in Playhouse on the Square's New Works @ The Works Playwriting Competition in Memphis. His play DNR was named a semi-finalist in the Blue Ink Playwriting Competition at the American Blues Theater in Chicago. He was a theatre contributor and columnist for KCMetropolis and the author of In Their Company: Portraits of American Playwrights (Umbrage Editions, 2006), which won an Independent Publisher Book Awards Silver Medal. He also served as the original Artistic Director for the Midwest Dramatists Center, a regional playwright incubator based in Kansas City.
When not writing for publication, production, or pleasure, Victor is honing his stand-up routine, which he has performed at numerous clubs and special events around New York, the Midwest, and elsewhere. In June 2010, he was named New York’s second-funniest amateur Jewish comedian by The Jewish Week. Seriously.
- For a complete resume, please click here.
- For samples of Victor's work for corporate and nonprofit clients, please click here.
- For links to some of Victor's articles and dispatches for JTA, please click here.
- For Victor's theatre reviews and features at KCMetropolis.org, please click here.
- For his sports-related radio commentary, “A Fan’s Notes,” on KCUR-FM, please click here.
- For word- and language-related musings on BookRiot.com, please click here.
- For weekly Kansas City Chiefs commentary on ArrowheadAddict.com, please click here.
- For more information about Victor's playwriting, please click here.
- For an example of his original stand-up comedy, please click here.