Beth Henley is a playwright and screenwriter. She received the Pulitzer Prize and a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award in 1981 for her play Crimes of the Heart, as well as Tony and Academy Award nominations. Henley adapted her next play, The Miss Firecracker Contest, into a film starring Holly Hunter. Other works include The Wake of Jamey Foster, The Debutante Ball, The Lucky Spot, Abundance, Control Freaks, Impossible Marriage and Ridiculous Fraud. A Distinguished Professor of Theatre Arts at Loyola Marymount University, she received the 2010 ATHE Career Achievement Award in Professional Theatre.