Pearl Cleage (playwright)  is a fiction writer, playwright, poet, essayist, and journalist who has lived in Atlanta since 1969. She cites her experiences as an activist for AIDS and women’s rights and the rhythms of Black life as her muse. Cleage’s first novel What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, was an Oprah Book Club selection in 1998 and appeared on the New York Times best-seller list for nine weeks. Awards/Honors include the Bronze Jubilee Award for Literature in 1983 and the outstanding columnist award from the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists in 1991. In 2013 she was named playwright in residence of Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, and in 2018 she received a Governor’s Award for the Arts and Humanities.  Learn More.