Sylvia Plath(1932-1963) began publishing poems and stories as a teenager and had laready won several poetry prizes by the time she entered Smith College in 1950. In 1955 she won a Fulbright Scholar in Cambridge University, where she met Ted Hughes, whom she married in 1956. Plath was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for her Collected Poems.

Martin McDonagh's first play "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" was nominated for six Tony awards, of which it won four, and the Laurence Olivier Award. In 2003, his play "The Pillowman "had its world premiere at the Royal National Theatre and received the 2004 Olivier Award. In 2006, Martin McDonagh won an Oscar for his short film "Six Shooter".