Pearl Cleage is an Atlanta-based writer whose works include the novels, What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day, Tunnels of Love, I Wish I Had A Red Dress, and Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do; several plays, including "Blues for an Alabama Sky," "Bourbon at the Border," and "Flyin' West;" two books of essays, Mad at Miles: A Blackwoman's Guide to Truth and Deals with the Devil and Other Reasons to Riot; and a book of short fiction, The Brass Bed and Other Stories. She is also a performance artist, collaborating frequently with her husband, Zaron W. Burnett, Jr., under the title Live at Club Zebra. The two have performed sold out shows at both the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC, and The National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta, GA.

Cleage is a frequent contributor to anthologies and has been featured recently in Proverbs for the People: Contemporary African American Fiction, edited by Tracy Price-Thompson and TaRessa Stovall, and in Mending the World, Stories of Family by Contemporary Black Writers, edited by Rosemarie Robotham. She is a contributing writer to Essence magazine, and, in 1998, her novel What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day was an Oprah Book Club pick and spent nine weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Her work has also appeared in numerous anthologies, including Double Stitch, Black Drama in America, New Play’s From the Woman’s Project, and Contemporary Plays by Women of Color. Pearl is an artistic associate of Just Us Theatre Company in Atlanta and founding editor of CATALYST, a magazine of heart and mind. An academically gifted student in high school, Cleage enrolled at Howard University in 1966 where she studied playwriting. She left Howard in 1969 at the age of 20 to marry an Atlanta politician. Upon graduating in 1971 from Spelman College, she worked at a number of media jobs including hosting a local, black-oriented interview program as well as being Director of Communications for the city of Atlanta and Press Secretary for Mayor Maynard Jackson. Cleage began her playwriting career in the 1980's with productions of "puppetplay," "Hospice," "Good News" and "Essentials." This was in addition to contributing essays to national magazines such as Essence, the New York Times Book Review, Ms. and Black World. She gained national attention as a playwright beginning in 1992 with the production of "Flyin' West," which premiered at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and has subsequently been produced at a number of regional theatres across the country. After premiering at the Alliance Theatre in 1995, "Blues for an Alabama Sky" returned to Atlanta as part of the 1996 Olympic Games following a production at Hartford Stage and broke attendance records at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.