Sewanee Writers’ Conference faculty member Dan O’Brien has been named one of two inaugural winners of the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama. The annual prize is given to a play that “enlists theater’s power to explore the past of the United States.” O’Brien won the award for his play Body of an American.
The New York Times says the play “examines the challenges of war reporting, specifically the ethical and personal consequences of the publication of a famous photograph showing the body of an American soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia.”
In addition to being a playwriting faculty member of the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Dan O’Brien was the Tennessee Williams Playwright-in-Residence at Sewanee in 2002-03 and again in 2005. He will be returning to teach at this summer’s Conference. Supported by the Walter E. Dakin Memorial Fund established thanks to the estate of the late Tennessee Williams, the Conference gathers a distinguished faculty to provide instruction and criticism through workshops and craft lectures in poetry, fiction, and playwriting.