Elaine Romero, playwright and professor in the University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film & Television (TFTV), has been awarded a 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship, one of the nation’s most prestigious and competitive honors supporting exceptional achievement in the arts and humanities.
Granted by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the fellowship is awarded following a rigorous, peer-reviewed selection process to individuals who have demonstrated distinguished accomplishment and the capacity for future innovation. Since its founding in 1925, the Guggenheim Fellowship has supported generations of influential artists, writers and scholars, providing recipients the freedom to pursue ambitious work at the highest level. Romero is one of 223 distinguished individuals chosen from this year’s pool of nearly 5,000 applicants.
“I am honored, shocked, and moved to receive the Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting,” said Romero. “My colleagues and students in the College of Fine Arts and the School of Theatre, Film & Television have created an environment where arts research thrives and where faculty and students can wrestle with challenging social questions while reinventing and reconfiguring form. The University of Arizona leads R1 Institutions when it comes to research in the arts and I’m grateful that our mission and lives align in ways that uphold the work of students and faculty here at this land-grant university on the U.S./Mexico border.”
“This is an extraordinary moment for Elaine and for the College of Fine Arts,” added Dean Hasan Elahi. “Her work exemplifies the power of imagination and storytelling to transform how we understand the world. Achievements like this are rare, and we are thrilled to celebrate the contributions she continues to make to the arts.”
Romero has written more than 100 plays, with productions staged across the United States and internationally. Her work explores history, culture and identity, and has been published in more than 50 anthologies while being developed with leading theaters and organizations nationwide. Her plays have been commissioned and produced by institutions including the Kennedy Center, the Goodman Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, the Alley Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company and Red Bull Theater, with productions and readings in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle and Mexico City. Notable works include A Work of Art (Goodman Theatre/Chicago Dramatists world premiere), Modern Slave (commissioned by Ford’s Theatre), Prosperita (Red Bull Theater, Off-Broadway) and Secret Things (National Hispanic Cultural Center world premiere). Romero advances the field as director of the National Latine Playwrights Award & Festival and as playwright-in-residence at Arizona Theatre Company, the state theater.
Romero, who began at the University of Arizona in 2014, plays an integral role in the School of Theatre, Film & Television’s Live and Screened Performance program, where she mentors students in the creation and development of new work.
“These days are dark. The Guggenheim brings the light,” Romero said. “As a playwright and prognosticator, my characters find their truths through lyrical language and a shifting sense of place. I free them from the restrictions of time. I weave together layers of what has been, what is, and what might be,” she added. “In TFTV’s Live and Screened Performance, I guide my students to write from unexpected inner worlds, to create without knowing, to take a risk on that unfamiliar sound––their own voice. No one can take our creations from us. The Guggenheim Fellowship shouts, ‘We see you, we hear you, and we believe in your next play.’”
Her Guggenheim Fellowship will support the development of Diablos Aquí (Devils Are Here), a two-character drama set on the U.S.-Mexico border. The play follows a father and daughter navigating immigration enforcement, civil liberties and personal responsibility. Drawing on Romero’s approach to “vertical history,” the work weaves past, present and imagined future into a single timeline, aiming to reflect ongoing social and political change while examining questions of fate, choice and consequence.
Romero’s recent honors include the 2024 Professor Alberto Ríos Outstanding Literary/Arts Award, which recognizes individuals whose work advances understanding of Latine communities and culture. In addition to commissions from major theaters, she regularly participates in national programs such as the O’Neill Playwrights Conference and Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, and collaborations with regional, Off-Broadway and international companies. Her work has been widely referenced and studied.
Romero joins a distinguished group of University of Arizona faculty within the College of Fine Arts who have received Guggenheim Fellowships, including Dean Hasan Elahi, School of Art Regents Professor Sama Alshaibi and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Professor of Art David Taylor. She is the first Guggenheim recipient in the School of Theatre, Film & Television.