Writer Quiara Alegría Hudes says that she writes “about the Latinos of North Philadelphia. That is the Great American Story that I have to tell.” She attended Yale University and Brown University. Hudes originally studied music and credits it with providing her with the structure and appreciation for the cadence of speech in her plays, musicals, and screenplays. Among other plays, Hudes wrote the book for the musical In the Heights (2008), which was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize and which won a Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as other honors. Her play, Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue (2006), was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist.