Today, we’re delighted to share the longlist for the 2025 Women’s Prize Playwriting.
It has been an amazing, record-breaking year of submissions to the Women’s Prize for Playwriting, and we’ve read stories that have travelled the world and taken in a breathtaking range of human experience.
It’s a joy to have read and advocated for these long-listed writers, and we can’t wait to keep these writers close as we invite them to join the Future Light scheme.
The longlist in full:
- Wold Meteor by Kate Attwell
- Weeping Woman by Ellen Bannerman
- The Fingerprint Bureau by Sonali Bhattacharyya
- while we burn by Olga Braga
- An Effigy Burning in the Arctic by Mareth Burns
- HIDE AND SEEK WITH JIMMY LING by Naomi Sumner Chan
- Ordinary Time by Evie Chandler
- I LOVE STRANGERS by Nurit Chinn
- Hefted by Eireann Devlin
- Sapling by Georgina Duncan
- THE (YELLOW) WALLPAPER by Phoebe Eclair-Powell
- Fucking Jane Austen by Billie Esplen
- Froggy by Sasha Frost
- A Patent Lie by Sarah Jane Gordon
- Exceptional by Afsaneh Gray
- First Gravedigger by Kayleigh Mai Hinsley
- THREE BOYS by Danielle James
- Unbirth by Christy Ku
- Down Side Up by Mei Leng Yew
- Northern Folk by Natalia Lewis
- Witch Play by Cordelia Lynn
- A Straw House by Jane McCarthy
- Car Crash by Sarah Ann McCay
- Am I Next? by Rachel McKay
- We’re Gonna Kill Billy by Alex Medland
- To The Earth You Shall Return by Hannah Mirsky
- A to B by Tia-Renee Mullings
- Yes Chef by Laurie Ogden
- If The Sea Should Part by Chloe Palmer
- VENUS: The Body by Sadie Pearson
- A Bit Salty by Mwansa Phiri
- CROSSINGS by Hannah Salt
- Przewalski’s Horses by Silva Semerciyan
- A Search for the End by Stef Smith
- WHAT I THINK OF MY HUSBAND by Amy Tobias
- Slime by Rachel Tookey
- Belongings by Jane Upton
- Up in the Mango Trees by Britny Virginia
- THE ROOM by Manjinder Virk
- Wide Open Spaces by Jane Wainwright
- The Children of Glyndwr by Emily White
Future Light is a new talent development programme supported by Arts Council England. Designed to support the writers on our longlist, Future Light marks a significant step forward in the Women’s Prize’s commitment to fostering excellence and expanding opportunities for female and non-binary writers for the stage in the UK and Ireland.
Chaired by Director and Co-Chief Executive of the National Theatre Indhu Rubasingham, the judging panel also includes Literary & Development Associate at Wessex Grove Kat Pierce, directors Milli Bhatia and Alice Hamilton, actress Romola Garai, Literary Agent Mel Kenyon, Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic Nancy Medina, the National Theatre’s Director of New Work Nina Steiger, and Guardian Editor-in-Chief Katharine Viner.
The Women’s Prize for Playwriting has previously been awarded to Amy Trigg for Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me, Ahlam for You Bury Me, and Karis Kelly for Consumed. These works have gone on to national productions and critical acclaim, with Consumed recently completing a hit tour and a sold-out run at the Traverse as part of Edinburgh Fringe, with a transfer to the Lyric Belfast and Park Theatre London now announced for Spring 2026.
The most recent winner, Sarah Grochala for Intelligence, is currently in development with Paines Plough and Ellie Keel Productions.
www.womensprizeforplaywriting.co.uk
