Henley, Beth (1952-…), is an American playwright known for her witty and compassionate comedy-dramas about colorful characters in the Deep South. Henley won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for her first full-length play, Crimes of the Heart (1979), which portrays three eccentric sisters in a small Mississippi town. The Miss Firecracker Contest (1980) describes the efforts of a young woman of questionable reputation to earn respect by winning a beauty contest in a Mississippi town.
Elizabeth Becker Henley was born in Jackson, Mississippi. She studied acting at Southern Methodist University but turned to playwriting after she decided there were not enough acting opportunities for Southern women. Her first play was the one-act Am I Blue?, written while she was in college. Her other plays include The Wake of Jamey Foster (1982), The Debutante Ball (1985), The Lucky Spot (1986), Abundance (1990), Impossible Marriage (1998), and The Jacksonian (2013). Henley also wrote the screenplays for the motion-picture adaptations of Crimes of the Heart (1986) and Miss Firecracker (1989).
