Pulitzer-Prize Winning Playwright August Wilson is Dead
After a battle with liver cancer, highly acclaimed playwright dies.
Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright August Wilson has died of liver cancer; he was 60. Wilson impressed crowds with his racially and culturally powerful work including his most highly regarded pieces, chronicling racial segregation and black life in Pittsburgh during a century-long period detailed in a series of ten plays. One of the plays, Fences, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987. In 1990, Wilson won a second Pulitzer Prize for Piano Lesson. In June, Wilson was diagnosed with aggressive liver cancer and was only given a few months to live. At the time of his death, Wilson is quoted as saying, "I lived a blessed life. I am ready." Wilson died October 2 in Seattle, Washington.