Paula Vogel was born November 16, 1951, in Washington, DC. She received her B.A. at the Catholic University of America in 1974 and her A.B.D. from Cornell University in 1977. Her first play, Meg, was produced in Washington, DC, at the Kennedy Center in 1977. In 1979 she was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts; she subsequently taught at the American Place Theatre and Cornell University. Since 1985 she has been the head of the M.F.A. writing program at Brown University, and she was awarded a Guggenheim Award in 1995. Vogel has received several grants and awards for her work, including a Bunting Fellowship, a McKnight Fellowship at the Playwright's Center, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center. She is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned To Drive, which deals with child sexual abuse and incest. The Baltimore Waltz, a tribute to her brother, won the Obie award for Best Play in 1992. Other plays include Hot 'N Throbbing, Desdemona, And Baby Makes Seven, The Mineola Twins, and The Oldest Profession. On July 1, 2008, she became an adjunct professor and the chairwoman of the playwriting department at Yale School of Drama in a five-year appointment.