Suddenly Last Summer, a play written by Williams in 1958, shares thematic and dramatic concerns with Sweet Bird of Youth.

The Little Foxes, a play written by Lillian Hellman in 1939, concerns rivalries and disloyalties in a southern family.

Orpheus Descending, a play written by Williams in 1956, has themes and characters similar to Sweet Bird.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story, a novel by John Berendt published in 1994, also concerns sexual mores and eccentrics in the South.

The Enemy Time is a play by Williams published in Theatre in March 1959. This one-act play was an early version of Sweet Bird of Youth.