Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program alum Michael R. Jackson (Cycle 14)
Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program alum Michael R. Jackson (Cycle 14) was named one of the recipients of this year's coveted Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama. This year, the prestigious annual award for literary achievement is spotlighting the Black and queer experience.
The annual English-language prize for literary achievement awards eight writers each a $165,000 unrestricted grant to support their continued writing. Along with Jackson and Davis for drama, this year's recipients are Vivian Gornick and Kate Briggs for nonfiction, Dionne Brand and Renee Gladman for fiction, and Canisia Lubrin and Natalie Scenters-Zapico for poetry.
Michael R. Jackson won a 2020 Pulitzer Prize for his semi-autobiographical musical A Strange Loop. The work, along with his most recent piece White Girl in Danger, explores themes of Black identity. He is the first musical theatre writer recognized with a Windham-Campbell Prize.