Kayla Cagan’s first book, Piper Perish, received universal praise and starred reviews from ALA Booklist, as well as being an Amazon Bestseller, a Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Month, and making the Indie Next Choice list. It was also picked as a Spirit of Texas High School Reading Program 2018 selection, a Kansas NEA Reading Circle Catalog selection, and a nominee for the Overdrive Book selection. Her second book, Art Boss, was called “an engaging portrait of the artist as a young woman” by Kirkus Reviews, and “an automatic pick-up for fans” by Booklist. Both books were selected for the Quarantine Book Club series in 2020.

Her numerous short plays and monologues have been published by Applause Books and Smith & Kraus, and are widely contracted and produced nationally in high schools and universities. In 2025, Kayla’s play, Scratch My Back, was selected by DePaul University for their Climate Action Collective, with an honorarium from the Vincentian Endowment Fund grant. Also in 2025, she was one of 15 writers chosen to read her poetry at “The Great Outdoors at Greystone Mansion.” Recent dramaturgy projects include Jeff Tabnick's Early Days and Jarrett King's The Captive.

Additionally, Kayla has also contributed comics and essays to assorted projects, including Girl Crush Zine, Womanthology, and Unite and Take Over: Stories Inspired by the Smiths, and animator Leigh Lahav’s Shakespeare’s Fangirls. She also has taught writing seminars with The Coop Workshop and Writers Circle. In 2025, Kayla worked as a reader for the Bay Area Playwrights Foundation program.

Absurdism, American modern and contemporary play development, Beckett, Brecht, and Ionesco, poetry, Grotowski and Viewpoints methodologies and trainings, Jewish theater.

English, conversational Spanish, conversational Hebrew, conversational ASL

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