Ensler, Eve (1953– )

US playwright. She achieved international success with her book and play The Vagina Monologues (1996), based on interviews with more than 200 women about their sexual experiences. After the success of the play, which won a 1997 Obie Award, Ensler initiated V-Day, an international effort to stop violence against women.

The Vagina Monologues comprises a number of first-person vignettes, from hilarious to harrowing, that illuminate women's fantasies and fears, expose abuse, and demystify female sexuality. Ensler has written several other plays, including Necessary Targets (2001), the story of two US women who go to Bosnia to help women overcome their painful memories of the war, and The Good Body (2004), which explores how women strive to achieve society's standard of beauty.