FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Marjorie Miller, Administrator, The Pulitzer Prizes
[email protected]
New York, N.Y. (October 5, 2026) — The 2009 and 2017 Pulitzer Prize Drama winner Lynn Nottage, a playwright, screenwriter, installation artist and professor of theatre arts at Columbia University, has been elected to the Pulitzer Prize Board, the Pulitzer Administrator’s Office announced today.
One of the most acclaimed American dramatists of the contemporary era, the Brooklyn-born Nottage is the first (and so far the only) woman to have won the Drama Prize twice: first for “Ruined,” and later for “Sweat,” which went from The Public Theater to Broadway and London's West End. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world. She also is currently an artistic associate at the National Theatre in London.
“Lynn Nottage’s extraordinary artistic achievements, deep commitment to excellence, and expansive understanding of storytelling across theater, film, and opera make her an exceptional addition to the Pulitzer Prize Board,” said Nicole Carroll, chair of the Pulitzer Board, executive director of NEWSWELL and professor of practice at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Nottage's recent and ongoing projects include the upcoming musical “Imitation of Life” (composed by John Legend and directed by Whitney White) at The Shed; the opera “This House” (co-written with Ruby Aiyo Gerber and composed by Ricky Ian Gordon) at Opera Theatre of St. Louis; and a TV adaptation of Bernardine Evaristo's “Girl, Woman, Other” for the BBC. She also has earned Tony nominations for the Broadway productions of “MJ the Musical” and “Clyde's.” Her earlier work includes “Intimate Apparel” (later adapted as an opera), “By The Way,” “Meet Vera Stark,” “Mlima's Tale” and “Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine.” In addition, she has created performance installations such as “This is Reading,” which grew out of her research for “Sweat.”
Alongside her theatrical oeuvre, Nottage co-founded the production company Market Road Films, whose projects include documentaries and a Peabody-nominated podcast. She has developed original work for Amazon, HBO, Showtime and Harpo; wrote and produced for Spike Lee's Netflix series “She's Gotta Have It”; and served as a consulting producer on “Dickinson.” Her many honors include a 2007 MacArthur Fellowship, a 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship, three Obie Awards, the PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award and a spot on the 2019 TIME 100. A graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, Nottage also worked in Amnesty International's press office for four years. She sits on the board of the Dramatists Guild, belongs to both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is an artist-in-residence at the Park Avenue Armory. Nottage has lived in the Boerum Hill house in which she was raised since 1997.
“Winning the Pulitzer Prize was a transformative and monumental moment in my career as a playwright,” Nottage said. “I am truly honored to be elected to the board and join this esteemed group of thinkers tasked with recognizing and celebrating the voices of writers, particularly at a moment when free speech is under siege and there is a real need to protect and reinforce bold, thought-provoking and diverse perspectives.”
The Pulitzer Prizes, which are administered at Columbia University, were established by Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian-American journalist and newspaper publisher, who left money to Columbia University upon his death in 1911. A portion of his bequest was used to found the School of Journalism in 1912 and establish the Pulitzer Prizes, which were first awarded in 1917.
The 20-member board is composed of leading journalists, news executives from media outlets across the U.S. and the president of Columbia University, as well as five academics or persons in the arts. The dean of Columbia's journalism school and the administrator of the prizes are non-voting members. The chair rotates to the most senior member or members. The board is self-perpetuating in the election of members. Voting members may serve three terms of three years for a total of nine years.