Iranian American Sanaz Toossi won the Pulitzer Prize in drama Monday for her play English.

The play takes place in 2008 near Tehran, where four Iranian adults prepare for an English proficiency test. It examines how family separation and travel restrictions push them to learn a new language and how that may change their identity.

The Pulitzer board called the play “quietly powerful.”

The award includes a $15,000 prize.

Toossi is the daughter of Iranian immigrants to the United States and grew up in the western U.S. state of California.