NEW YORK — Elaine May will receive a literary award named after a stage director and performer she was familiar with.
May, 89, is the recipient of this year’s PEN/Mike Nichols Writing for Performance Award. The $25,000 award was established in 2019 to honour the legacy of Nichols. It’s a $25,000 prize. May, who was also a director of “The Heartbreak Kid” and “Mikey and Nicky”, worked as a screenwriter on “Heaven Can Wait” and “The Birdcage,” among other films.
Wednesday’s announcement by PEN included the awarding of the $50,000 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature to Ngugi wa Thiongo, a Kenyan author, and the $10,000 PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award to Jackie Sibblies Drury.
PEN America, a literary and human rights organization will honor the winners at an event hosted by Seth Meyers in New York on February 28.