When David Valdes was growing up on welfare in rural Maine, he didn’t expect to be a published author or produced playwright someday. But he loved reading and writing and knew at least that he’d be first in his immediate family to get a college degree. As a playwright, his work has been presented across the US and in the UK by the Humana Festival, New York Theatre Workshop, Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company, Portland Stage, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and more. His playwriting has won the Generations Prize, a Brother Thomas Artists Fellowship, and multiple commissions. After making a name for himself as a Boston Globe magazine columnist, he authored three nonfiction books:  Homo Domesticus, praised as a “touching, humorous memoir” by BookList;  A Little Fruitcake, named a Today Show Top 10 Holiday Book; and Rhinestone Sisterhood, featured on NPR. Since then, he’s been a blogger for the Huffington Post. Growing up a mixed-ethnicity Cuban-American, raised fundamentalist Christian, but knowing he was gay at a young age, Valdes Greenwood says he’s had the full tour of the American experience, which is why his writing includes characters across the cultural spectrum. As the parent of a mixed race child, he’s thrilled to bring to life a kick-ass African-American heroine in Revengers, in a story whose characters encompass diverse races and orientations.