In honor of Women’s History Month, here are the 20 women playwrights who have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an annual award given for “a distinguished play by an American author…dealing with American life” that began in 1917, and will be awarded next on May 5, 2025.
It might be worth noting that in the first half of the twentieth century, a woman was awarded the prize an average of once every ten years, followed by a gap of 23 years. The interval has narrowed considerably in the last decade.
The work of more than two dozen other female playwrights have been designated Pulitzer finalists since the finalist category was created in 1983 (See list at bottom)
Each play title below is accompanied by the year in which the award was given, and linked to an Amazon page (where you can learn more about it, and purchase the script); as well as to any productions I reviewed, and to the Pulitzer Board’s official citation (which they’ve only written since 2009.)
Zona Gale, Miss Lulu Bett, 1921. First a novel, and afterward a silent movie, the play tells the story of an unmarried woman who fights her family for dignity, and tries to find love. (the link is to the full text, which is now in the public domain)
Susan Glaspell, Alison’s House, 1931, a play based on the life of Emily Dickinson, who was receiving extensive attention as the hundredth anniversary of her birth approached. On the last day of the nineteenth century, her family recalls the late renowned poet, Alison Stanhope,.(the link is to a collection of Glaspell plays)
Zoe Akins, The old maid,, 1935, an adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel about a woman’s fight to reclaim the affection of her daughter, who she reluctantly gave to her cousin to raise.
Mary Coyle Chase, Harvey, 1945, a comedy about a man who befriends an invisible rabbit. (My review of a biography: Pulling Harvey Out of Her Hat: The Amazing Story of Mary Coyle Chase.)
Frances Goodrich, The Diary of Anne Frank., 1956 (co-written with Albert Hackett), a dramatization of the popular diary by a victim of the Holocaust.
Ketti Frings, Look Homeward, Angel, 1958. Based on Thomas Wolfe’s 1929 coming-of-age, largely autobiographical novel of the same name, it takes place in a boarding house in Altamont, North Caroline.
Beth Henley, Crimes of the Heart., 1981. The lives of three quirky sisters who have gathered back home in their hometown in Mississippi and try to understand their mother’s suicide years earlier. Henley wrote the screenplay for the starry 1986 movie adaptation.
Marsha Norman, ‘night, Mother, 1983. Taking place in one evening, the play begins with Jessie calmly telling her mother Thelma that by morning she will be dead, as she plans to commit suicide. As with Henley and “Crimes of the Heart,” Norman also wrote a screenplay of her play for a starry 1986 movie adaptation (Sissy Spacek was in both movies.).
Wendy Wasserstein, The Heidi Chronicles., 1989. (My review of the 2015 Broadway production of The Heidi Chronicles)
Heidi is an art historian whom we follow over more than two decades, staring with a high school dance in 1965, as she aims for happiness in both her career and (less successfully) with her romantic relationships. Wasserstein’s play was embraced as an insightful portrait of a generation of women facing old pressures and new challenges
Paula Vogel, How I Learned to Drive, 1998 (My review of the 2022 Broadway production of How I Learned to Drive.). The story of a pedophile, alcoholic and would-be pornographer named Peck who starts grooming his niece for sex from the age of 11, a play told with humor, artful metaphors, craftsmanship and, above all, empathy.
Margaret Edson, Wit, 1999, a renowned English professor dying of cancer examines what makes life worth living
Suzan-Lori Parks, TOPDOG UNDERDOG, 2002 (My review of the 2022 Broadway revival of Topdog/Underdog.) Two brothers with with the loaded names of Lincoln and Booth spend much of their time practicing, and arguing over, the con game known as three card monte, in a play that is less a literal depiction of two down-and-out Black brothers than a smart, dark, often funny allegory, with subtle allusions to the Bible (Cain and Abel) and less subtle similarities to classic Theater of the Absurd.
Lynn Nottage, Ruined, 2009
“A searing drama set in chaotic Congo that compels audiences to face the horror of wartime rape and brutality while still finding affirmation of life and hope amid hopelessness.” This is the first of Nottage’s two Pulitzer Prizes, the only woman to be so honored.
Quiara Alegría Hudes, Water by the Spoonful, 2012 (My review of the 2013 Off-Broadway production of Water By The Spoonful)
“An imaginative play about the search for meaning by a returning Iraq war veteran working in a sandwich shop in his hometown of Philadelphia.”
Annie Baker, The Flick, 2014. (My review of the 2013 Off Broadway production of The Flick.)
“A thoughtful drama with well-crafted characters that focuses on three employees of a Massachusetts art-house movie theater, rendering lives rarely seen on the stage.”
Lynn Nottage, Sweat 2017 (the second of her two Pulitzers) (My review of Sweat.)
“For a nuanced yet powerful drama that reminds audiences of the stacked deck still facing workers searching for the American dream.”
Martyna Majok , Cost of Living 2018. (My review of the 2022 Broadway production of Cost of Living.)
“An honest, original work that invites audiences to examine diverse perceptions of privilege and human connection through two pairs of mismatched individuals: a former trucker and his recently paralyzed ex-wife, and an arrogant young man with cerebral palsy and his new caregiver.”
Jackie Sibblies Drury, Fairview 2019 (My review of Fairview.)
“A hard-hitting drama that examines race in a highly conceptual, layered structure, ultimately bringing audiences into the actors’ community to face deep-seated prejudices.”
Katori Hall, The Hot Wing King, 2021
“A funny, deeply felt consideration of Black masculinity and how it is perceived, filtered through the experiences of a loving gay couple and their extended family as they prepare for a culinary competition.”
Sanaz Toossi, English, 2023 (My 2025 review on Broadway )
“A quietly powerful play about four Iranian adults preparing for an English language exam in a storefront school near Tehran, where family separations and travel restrictions drive them to learn a new language that may alter their identities and also represent a new life.”
Eboni Booth, Primary Trust, 2024 (My review)
A simple and elegantly crafted story of an emotionally damaged man who finds a new job, new friends and a new sense of worth, illustrating how small acts of kindness can change a person’s life and enrich an entire community.
Female finalists since 1983:
Painting Churches, by Tina Howe,
And What of the Night?, by Maria Irene Fornes
Fires in the Mirror, by Anna Deavere Smith
Keely and Du, by Jane Martin (a pseudonym)
Pride’s Crossing, by Tina Howe
Freedomland, by Amy Freed
Running Man, by Cornelius Eady and Diedre Murray
n the Blood, by Suzan-Lori Parks
Yellowman, by Dael Orlandersmith
The Glory of Living, by Rebecca Gilman
Omnium Gatherum, by Theresa Rebeck and Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros
The Clean House, by Sarah Ruhl.
Elliot, a Soldier’s Fugue, by Quiara Alegria Hudes
Bulrusher, by Eisa Davis
In The Heights, by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes
Becky Shaw, by Gina Gionfriddo
In the Next Room or the vibrator play, by Sarah Ruhl
Detroit, by Lisa D’Amour
Rapture, Blister, Burn, by Gina Gionfriddo
4000 Miles, by Amy Herzog
The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence, by Madeleine George
Fun Home, by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori
Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2, 3), by Suzan-Lori Parks
The Wolves, by Sarah DeLappe
What the Constitution Means to Me, by Heidi Schreck
Dance Nation, by Clare Barron
Stew, by Zora Howard
Selling Kabul, by Sylvia Khoury
Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, by Kristina Wong
On Sugarland, by Aleshea Harris
