MS SC554

Recognizes playwright Beth Henley's receipt of the 2013 Governor's Arts Award for Excellence in Literature, with the awards ceremony held on February 21, 2013, at Belhaven University Center for the Arts.

Notes that Henley, a Jackson native now residing in Los Angeles, achieved critical acclaim in 1978 with her play Crimes of the Heart, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best New American Play in 1981.

Acknowledges Henley's Tony Award nomination for Best Play and Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film version of Crimes of the Heart, establishing her as a significant American dramatist.

Recognizes her subsequent works including The Miss Firecracker Contest and various television and film screenplays for public broadcasting and major studios.

Directs the resolution be presented to Beth Henley, the Governor, and the Mississippi Arts Commission, and made available to Capitol Press Corps.