Doug Van Hooser
Printed Publications Digital Publications Forthcoming Publications Pushcart Prize Nomination
Doug Van Hooser
Sunlight and ripples on turquoise water

Make the ordinary misbehave.

POET · AUTHOR · PLAYWRIGHT · DIRECTOR

A body of poems, stories, essays and plays—and a life in theatre where words become voices, rooms, gestures and light.

Chicago / Wisconsin
Words / Stage / Direction

Enter the work ↘

01 / Writing

Attention is a form of art.

Doug Van Hooser writes toward the moment when something familiar shifts slightly out of place. Poetry, fiction, essays and drama share the same impulse: notice closely, then make the reader look again.

The work has appeared across a wide range of literary journals, with recent publications including Cloudbank, Poetry Quarterly, Book XI and others. The archive is intentionally expansive; this site gives it room to breathe.

POETRY · FICTION · ESSAY · DRAMA · THEATRE 

 

02 / Selected work

 
 

“No one said”

POETRY / 2026

Published in Cloudbank, Issue 20.

Read publication ↗

“Over”
”The Argument”
”How could you do that”

POETRY / 2025

Fresh Water Magazine, May 2025.

Open archive ↗

“Coda”

POETRY / 2023

A poem published by ArLiJo.

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03 / Theatre

Writing for the room.
Directing for the moment.

Van Hooser’s work extends from the page into live performance. As a playwright, he brings the compression and attention of poetry to dialogue, character and stage action. His plays have been read in Chicago.

As a director, he is interested in the space between what is written and what an audience actually sees: rhythm, silence, movement, proximity and the charged instant before a line lands.

PLAYWRITING

Full Length Plays: Birds Sing in the Morning, Conviction, We Just Met, Betsy’s Luncheonette

One Act Plays: Caledonia, Marge, Ice Fishing, A Cross to Bear, Hail to the Orange Hail to the Blue, The Biological Lottery, Priceless

Ten Minute Plays: An App For That, SPF 50, Hear Ye Hear Ye, A New Beginning, All the Tomorrows, Love’s Song, Double Feature

DIRECTING

The Theatre of Western Springs: Will Dunne’s Pigeons

THE ROOM

Doug’s plays have had readings at Three Cat Productions, Chicago Dramatists Theatre, and Ubiquitous Players

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04 / Archive

The trail of published work.

A living index of poetry, fiction and essay publications.

05 / About

A writer’s job is not to explain the world. It is to make the world impossible to ignore.

— Doug Van Hooser

Doug Van Hooser is a poet, author, playwright and director whose work moves between literary publication and live performance. His poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous journals and magazines, and his work has received Pushcart Prize and Orison Anthology nominations.

He is drawn to the overlooked detail, the sideways observation and the theatrical possibility inside ordinary life. On the page, that can become a poem or story. In the theatre, it becomes voice, body, timing and space.

06 / Contact

For readings, theatre, publications & collaborations.

Interested in a reading, performance, directing collaboration, publication, interview or other project?
Comments or someone I haven’t seen in a decade or two. Get in touch.

Start a conversation ↗

© 2026 Doug Van Hooser
Poet · Author · Playwright · Director

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