— member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers — has written
many plays, including The Trip to Bountiful which was adapted
to the screen. He wrote the screenplays for To Kill a Mockingbird
and Tender Mercies and received Academy Awards for both. His
play, The Young Man from Atlanta earned him a 1995 Pulitzer
Prize. He was elected in 1998 to the American Academy of Arts and Letters
as a member in the Department of Literature and also received the Gold
Medal for Drama for his entire work. In December 2000, he was given
the National Medal of Arts Award by President Clinton in Washington,
D.C.
