Martyna Majok's Cost of Living Wins 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

The 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama has been awarded to Cost of Living, a play by Martyna Majok that appeared off-Broadway in 2017. Majok will receive a prize of $15,000. This marks her first Pulitzer win. 

The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is presented to a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life. Finalists for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama are Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (a 2016 Pulitzer finalist for Gloria) and The Minutes by Tracy Letts (a 2008 winner for August: Osage County and 2004 finalist for Man From Nebraska).

Cost of Living is the story of four very different people in four very different circumstances, each trying to get by. Eddie, an unemployed truck driver, reunites with his ex-wife Ani after she suffers a devastating accident. John, a brilliant and witty doctoral student, hires overworked Jess, a caregiver. As their lives intersect, Majok's play delves into the chasm between abundance and need and explores the space where bodies—abled and disabled—meet each other.

Cost of Living made its world premiere with Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2016 and played a New York premiere in a Manhattan Theatre Club production at New York City Center—Stage I.

Majok's other plays include Ironbound, Pretty Harbour and queens, which recently concluded a run at Lincoln Center Theater's Claire Tow Theater. Majok's latest work, Sanctuary City, will play off-Broadway's New York Theatre Workshop in the company's 2018-2019 season.