August Wilson was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright.

Wilson's literary legacy is a cycle of ten plays—two of which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama—dubbed "The Pittsburgh Cycle". Each is set in a different decade, depicting the comedy and tragedy of the African-American experience in the 20th century. "This cycle," notes the theater critic Christopher Rawson, "is unprecedented in American theater for its concept, size, and cohesion."