Playwright who inspired ‘Moonlight’ wins PEN award

NEW YORK (AP) — The playwright who inspired the Oscar-nominated movie “Moonlight” has won a prize from PEN America, the literary and human rights organization.

Tarell Alvin McCraney received an award for best mid-career playwright, PEN announced Wednesday. Suzan-Lori Parks, best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Topdog/Underdog,” received a PEN award for “Master American Dramatist.”

Other honors included the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, given to Matthew Desmond for “Evicted.” The PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing was won by Joe Nocera and Ben Strauss for “Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA.”