Stuart Spencer is a playwright and novelist. His play Resident Alien was originally produced at the Humana Festival of New Plays, and has had numerous productions in regional theatres across the country. A three-play anthology (Plays By Stuart Spencer) is published by Broadway Play Publishing. Other plays include Blue Stars (published in the Best American Short Plays of 1993-94), Painted From Memory (seen at New York Stage & Film) and Alabaster City, commissioned by South Coast Rep. Other titles include Judy Garland Died For Your Sins, Go to Ground, The Critic and His Wife, The Rothko Room, and Strange Bedfellows.

His playwriting textbook, The Playwright’s Guidebook: an insightful primer on the art of dramatic writing, was published by Farrar Straus & Giroux in 2002 and has sold over 40,000 copies. Edward Albee described the book as "indispensable." 

His first novel, The Protagonist, was a modern retelling of a Sophoclean tragedy set in upstate New York. His current project is a novel about ‘the fabulous Lunts’ — Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne — who spend their entire adult lives on stage with each other until they’re not sure whether they’re themselves or the characters they play.

Spencer also teaches playwriting and dramaturgy at Sarah Lawrence College, and in private workshops.