Eward Albee to be Honored with Evelyn F. Burkey Award at 62nd annual Writers Guild Awards Ceremony

Edward Albee has been selected to receive the Writers Guild of America, East's (WGAE) Evelyn F. Burkey Award. Albee will receive the award at a ceremony on February 20 at New York City's Hudson Theatre.

Throughout his career, Albee has written more than 30 plays, including "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," "The Zoo Story," "The Sandbox," "Tiny Alice," "A Delicate Balance," "Three Tall Women" and "The Play About the Baby. For his work, he has won four Tony Awards, three Pulitzer Prizes, and an Obie Award. He is also a Kennedy Center honoree and has received a special Tony award for lifetime achievement, the National Medal of Arts, and a Gold Medal in drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

"In both word and deed, Edward Albee has lived a life of letters that distinguishes writers wherever they may be," said Michael Winship, WGA East president. "He would be a notable recipient of the Burkey Award for his body of work alone, but in addition, through his Edward F. Albee Foundation and its William Flanagan Center, Mr. Albee has encouraged and honored the creativity of countless others toiling in all aspects of the arts."

The Evelyn F. Burkey Award was established in 1978 to honor Burkey, who dedicated her professional life to supporting and helping writers. Burkey helped create the Writers Guild of America, East in 1953 as the union of film, television and radio writers, independent of precursor organizations. She was the WGAE's executive director until her retirement in 1972. The Burkey Award continues her mission by recognizing a person or an organization "whose contributions have brought honor and dignity to writers everywhere." In 2009, the Committee to Protect Journalists received the Burkey award. Other recipients include: Walter Bernstein, Joan Didion, Martin Scorsese, Colin Callender, Vaclav Havel, David Brown, Sidney Lumet, Arthur Miller, Joan Ganz Cooney, Art Buchwald, Horton Foote, Andy Rooney, and Walter Cronkite.

The 62nd annual Writers Guild Awards will take place on Saturday, February 20, 2010 in New York City at the Hudson Theatre in the Millennium Broadway Hotel and simultaneously in Los Angeles at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel. For more information or to purchase tickets to the New York City awards ceremony, call 212-767-7812 or visit the WGAE website at www.wgaeast.org.