<p><strong>August Wilson</strong> was the most iconic African American playwright of the late-twentieth century, most known for the Century Cycle, a series of ten plays set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. Of these, <em>Fences</em> earned him a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award in 1987, and another Pulitzer Prize in 1990, for <em>The Piano Lesson</em>. In 1996,<em> Seven Guitars</em> premiered on the Broadway stage, followed by <em>King Hedley II</em> in 2001 and <em>Gem of the Ocean</em> in 2004.</p>
<div><strong>Tony Kushner</strong>’s plays include <em>A Bright Room Called Day</em>, <em>Angels in America, Parts One and Two</em>, <em>Slavs!</em>, <em>Homebody/Kabul</em>, the musical <em>Caroline, or Change</em> and the opera <em>A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck</em>, both with composer Jeanine Tesori. He has adapted and translated Pierre Corneille’s <em>The Illusion</em>, S.Y. Ansky’s <em>The Dybbuk</em>, Bertolt Brecht’s <em>The Good Person of Szechwan</em> and <em>Mother Courage and Her Children</em> and the English-language libretto for the opera <em>Brundibár</em> by Hans Krasa. He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols’s film of <em>Angels in America</em>, and for Steven Spielberg’s <em>Munich</em> and <em>Lincoln</em>. His books include <em>Brundibar</em>, with illustrations by Maurice Sendak, <em>The Art of Maurice Sendak, 1980 to the Present</em> and <em>Wrestling With Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict</em>, co-edited with Alisa Solomon. Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, two Evening Standard Awards, an Olivier Award, an Emmy Award, two Oscar nominations, and the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, among other honors. In 2013, he was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. He lives in Manhattan with his husband, Mark Harris.</div>
