Zona Gale (1874 - 1938) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and short story author, best known for her novel and play, Miss Lulu Bett (1920), which earned the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. She was the first woman playwright to receive this honor.
Zona grew up in Portage, Wisconsin, and earned a bachelor's and master's degree in literature at the University of Wisconsin. After spending six years writing as a journalist in Milwaukee and New York City, she returned to Portage in 1904, inspired that her "old world was full of new possibilities." Gale focused on writing fiction full-time back in her beloved hometown, until her death in 1938. We feature Gale in Pulitzer Prize Winners.
