Suzan-Lori Parks is a leading American playwright. Her numerous plays include Father Comes Home From the Wars (2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist), The Book of Grace, Topdog/Underdog (2002 Pulitzer Prize), In the Blood (2000 Pulitzer Prize finalist), Venus (1996 OBIE Award), The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, Fucking A, Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom (1990 OBIE Award for Best New American Play) and The America Play. Her work on The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess earned the production a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical in 2012. In 2007 her 365 Plays/365 Days was produced in more than seven hundred theatres worldwide, creating one of the largest grassroots collaborations in theatre history.

Named one of TIME magazine's '100 Innovators for the Next New Wave', in 2002 Suzan-Lori Parks became the first African American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her Broadway hit Topdog/Underdog. She was the 2018 recipient of the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award.