Nicholas Patricca
Professor Emeritus
Nicholas A. Patricca is a poet, playwright, educator, and Professor Emeritus at Loyola University Chicago, where he also serves as an advisor to the Center for Faculty Development. He is a member of the TOSOS Theater Collective in New York City, an active member of the Dramatists Guild of America, and a member of PEN International's San Miguel Centre in Mexico, through which he works to protect writers unjustly persecuted for their creative work and investigative journalism.
Patricca is a contributing columnist to the Windy City Times, where he has published more than 100 editorials and articles addressing religion and culture, literacy and civil society, democracy and education.
He has performed his poetry and performance pieces nationally and internationally. Two volumes of his poetry have been published, and his work has appeared in numerous international journals. His performance pieces were among the earliest artistic works to explore the effects of AIDS on individuals and communities.
His two most recent plays, Layla the Body Washer and Incident at Jerusalem, were published by Dramatic Publishing Company in 2025. His play Oh, Holy Allen Ginsberg received the Oscar Wilde Award in Dublin, Ireland, in May 2006. That August, The Defiant Muse — honoring the life and work of the Mexican poet and philosopher Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz — received the Alexander S. Onassis International Distinction Prize in Athens, Greece.
His most widely produced and translated play is The Fifth Sun (Spanish: El Quinto Sol), which tells the story of Óscar Romero, the martyred archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador, who worked to protect the dignity and well-being of the poor in his country.
Patricca holds a Ph.D. in Philosophical Theology from the University of Chicago (1972), where he studied with philosophers and theologians Paul Ricœur and David Tracy.
You may contact Nick via email at nicholas.patricca@gmail.com or npatric@luc.edu.
Education
Ph.D. in Philosophical Theology from the University of Chicago
Specialty Area
Playwriting
Publications/Research Listings
His two most recent plays, Layla the Body Washer and Incident at Jerusalem, were published by Dramatic Publishing Company in 2025. Patricca is a contributing columnist to the Windy City Times, where he has published more than 100 editorials and articles addressing religion and culture, literacy and civil society, democracy and education.
Awards
His play Oh, Holy Allen Ginsberg received the Oscar Wilde Award in Dublin, Ireland, in May 2006. That August, The Defiant Muse — honoring the life and work of the Mexican poet and philosopher Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz — received the Alexander S. Onassis International Distinction Prize in Athens, Greece.