James Magruder

James Magruder (born 1960) is an American playwright, author, and translator. Magruder received his doctorate in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism at the Yale School of Drama. He is best known for his work on Broadway where he wrote the book for the musical Triumph of Love and adapted Jeff Whitty's original book for the Broadway mounting of the musical Head over Heels.

His translation, Three French Comedies (Yale University Press, 1996) was named an "Outstanding Literary Translation of the Year" by the American Literary Translators Association.

He has also published a short story collection, Let Me See It (2014), and three novels, Sugarless (2009), Love Slaves of Helen Hadley Hall (2017) and Vamp until Ready (2021). Sugarless was a Lambda Literary Award finalist and was shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelists Award and the 2010 William Saroyan International Writing Prize.

His book, The Play's the Thing, on the first fifty years of the Yale Repertory Theatre was published in 2024.

He is a six-time recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award and a five-time fellow of the MacDowell Colony. He has taught at the Yale School of Drama and Swarthmore College.