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TINA FINEBERG/AP
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AUGUST WILSON (1945- )
Largely
self-educated, Wilson first attracted critical attention with Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984).
His plays center on the struggles and identity of African Americans and draw heavily on his
own experience growing up in the Hill district of Pittsburgh, a black ghetto. His characters
are ordinary people whose histories, frustrations, and aspirations he astutely portrays.
Jitney (1982), Fences (1987; Pulitzer), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988), The Piano
Lesson (1990; Pulitzer), Two Trains Running (1992), and Seven Guitars (1995) form a
series of dramas that focuses on the major issues confronting African Americans during
different decades of the 20th century.
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