Beth Henley (playwriting) is a screenwriter, actress, and playwright. 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 a Tony nomination; her screenplay for the film version of Crimes was nominated for an Oscar as Best Adapted Play. Henley adapted her next play, The Miss Firecracker Contest, into a film that starred Holly Hunter. Other works include The Wake of Jamey Foster, The Debutante Ball, The Lucky Spot, Abundance, Impossible Marriage, and Ridiculous Fraud. Her work has been produced internationally and translated into over ten languages. Her newest dramatic work, The Jacksonian, had a staged reading in the summer of 2009 at New York Stage and Film. She wrote the screenplay for the film Nobody’s Fool and co-wrote the screenplay for True Stories. Distinguished Professor of Theatre Arts at Loyola Marymount University, she is a member of the PEN/Faulkner Writers-in-Schools National Advisory Council, the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and the Dramatist Guild. Originally from Jackson, Mississippi, and currently a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, she now lives in California.