Complex sentence: He is the author of forty-four plays as well as several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play "Buried Child".
Split into simpler sentences: He is the author of forty-four plays as well as several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs. Shepard received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play "Buried Child".