Margaret Edson will accept the 1999 George Oppenheimer Playwriting Award for her drama, Wit, at a Nov. 15 ceremony at the Newseum/NY in Manhattan.

Edson, a schoolteacher who has said she doesn't plan to pursue a career as a playwright, won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for her drama about a poetry professor facing her final days with ovarian cancer. The play continues at the Union Square Theatre after being seen in regional theatre.

The 21st annual "Oppy" is sponsored by Newsday and named after former Newsday theatre critic Oppenheimer. It is awarded to the best new American playwright whose work in produced in New York. Playwrights James Lapine and Wendy Wassertsein, Newsday critic Linda Winer and former Newsday staffers Allan Wallach and Sylviane Gold selected Edson as the winner.

Among the past winners are Lapine, Beth Henley, Harvey Fierstein, Richard Greenberg, George C. Wolfe, Nicky Silver, David Hirson, Jon Robin Baitz and Warren Leight.

-- By Kenneth Jones