Novelist and playwright Ayad Akhtar is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the author of Homeland Elegies, which The New York Times selected as a Top 10 Book of 2020. His award-winning plays include Junk (Kennedy Prize for American Drama, Tony nomination); Disgraced (Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tony nomination); The Who & The What; and The Invisible Hand (Obie Award, two Olivier Award nominations). He is the past President of PEN America and was named New York State Author in 2021.

Photo credit – Vincent Tullo