Awards spotlight - News - Brief Article

Suzan-Lori Parks' play Topdog/Underdog won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, making Parks the first African-American woman to win in the category. The announcement came the morning after Topdog opened on Broadway at the Ambassador Theatre to rave reviews. Premiering at the Public Theatre last summer, the play originally starred Jeffrey Wright as Lincoln and Don Cheadle as Booth. Poet and rapper Mos Def took over the role of Booth when the show moved to Broadway. Parks, a 1985 graduate of Mt. Holyoke College, also received a prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, commonly called the "genius" award, last October. She studied at Hampshire College with writer James Baldwin, whom she credits with encouraging her to write plays. Most recently, Topdog received Tony Award nominations for Best Play and Best Performance by a leading actor (Jeffrey Wright).

New York Foundation Awards

Playwright Cad Hancock Rux, whose play Talk ran at the Public Theatre this past April, recently won the $25,000 NYFA Prize given to an artist of exceptional promise. There are 152 recipients of the fellowship from a pool of 4,000 applicants. Of the 152, Rux was chosen as the prizewinner. Martha Southgate, author of The Fall of Rome, also received a $7,000 fellowship for fiction.

2002 Blackboard Awards

Bookseller of the Year--Jawanza Kunjufu, African American Images, Chicago, IL

Fiction--Any Way the Wind Blows by E. Lynn Harris

Nonfiction--Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones by Quincy Jones

Children's--Grandpa, Is Everything Black Bad? by Sandy Lynne Holeman, illustrated by Lela Kometiani

COPYRIGHT 2002 Cox, Matthews & Associates
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group