Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
Encyclopedia
The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize established in 1978, is for English-language women playwrights. Named for Susan Smith, (1935-1977) alumna of Smith College
Smith College
Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...

, who died of breast cancer.

Winners

  • 1978-79 Mary O'Malley
    Mary O'Malley
    Mary O'Malley was an Irish theatre director, the founder of Belfast’s Lyric Players Theatre.-Life:At the age of thirteen, whilst stopping off in Dublin, on the way to begin her first year at Loreto Convent, Navan, she attended the Abbey Theatre...

  • 1979-80 Barbara Schneider
    Barbara Schneider
    -Productions of Plays: :*Verdict on the Shooting of a Police Officer Washington Square Church, New York City...

  • 1980-81 Wendy Kesselman
    Wendy Kesselman
    -Life:Wendy Kesselman came to the Actors Theater of Louisville in 1980. She lives in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.-Works:*Becca, 1977, 1980*Merry-Go-Round, 1981, 1981*I Love You, I Love You Not, 1982, 1982*Cinderella In A Mirror, 1987...

  • 1981-82 Nell Dunn
    Nell Dunn
    -Early years:Dunn was born in London and educated at a convent, which she left at the age of fourteen. Although she came from an upper class background, in 1959 she moved to Battersea and made friends in the neighbourhood and worked for a time in a sweets factory...

  • 1982-83 Marsha Norman
    Marsha Norman
    Marsha Norman is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. She received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play night, Mother...

  • 1983-84 Caryl Churchill
    Caryl Churchill
    Caryl Churchill is an English dramatist known for her use of non-naturalistic techniques and feminist themes, the abuses of power, and sexual politics. She is acknowledged as a major playwright in the English language and a leading female writer...

  • 1984-85 Shirley Gee
    Shirley Gee
    -Life:She married actor Donald Gee on 30 January 1965; They have two sons; Joby and Daniel and five grandchildren ; Barney, Elliot, Harvey, Maisy and Ethan. She lived in Chelsea from 1965 to 2009...

  • 1985-86 Anne Devlin
    Anne Devlin
    Anne Devlin was an Irish republican who acted as housekeeper to Robert Emmet and who was also a cousin of two leading United Irish rebels, Michael Dwyer and Arthur Devlin.-Revolutionary involvement:Devlin was born in Rathdrum Co...

  • 1986-87 Mary Gallagher
    Mary Gallagher
    Mary Gallagher is an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, actress, director and teacher. For six years, she was artistic director of Gypsy, a theatre company in the Hudson Valley, New York, which collaborated with many artists to create site-specific mask-and-puppet music-theatre with...

  • 1986-87 Ellen McLaughlin
    Ellen McLaughlin
    Ellen McLaughlin is an American playwright and actor for stage and film. Her plays include Days and Nights Within, A Narrow Bed, Infinity's House, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Tongue of a Bird, The Trojan Women, Helen, The Persians and Oedipus.Producers include: Actors' Theater of Louisville,...

  • 1987-88 Caryl Churchill
    Caryl Churchill
    Caryl Churchill is an English dramatist known for her use of non-naturalistic techniques and feminist themes, the abuses of power, and sexual politics. She is acknowledged as a major playwright in the English language and a leading female writer...

  • 1988-89 Wendy Wasserstein
    Wendy Wasserstein
    Wendy Wasserstein was an American playwright and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University...

  • 1989-90 Lucy Gannon
    Lucy Gannon
    -Life:Lucy Gannon once worked as a military policewoman, a residential social worker, as well as a nurse and lived in a concrete council house with no central heating. Now she resides in a converted barn, in Derbyshire, and is one of the most sought-after TV writers aroundShe started in 1987, to...

  • 1990-91 Rona Munro
    Rona Munro
    Rona Munro is a Scottish writer. She has written plays for theatre, radio, and television; was the author of the screenplay of Ken Loach's Ladybird, Ladybird and co-author of Aimée & Jaguar by German director Max Färberböck.Munro is also known for being the author of the last Doctor Who television...

    ; Cheryl West
    Cheryl West
    Cheryl L. West is an American playwright.-Life:West holds a degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She worked as a social worker and taught before turning to playwriting. In 1990 she moved to Seattle....

  • 1991-92 Timberlake Wertenbaker
    Timberlake Wertenbaker
    - Biography :Wertenbaker grew up in the Basque Country of France near Saint-Jean-de-Luz. She attended schools in Europe and the US before settling permanently in London...

  • 1992-93 Marlane Meyer
  • 1993-94 Jane Coles
    Jane Coles
    -Plays:* Backstroke in a Crowded Pool, 1993* Cat with Green Violin, 1991* Crossing the Equator, 1995* Low Flying Aircraft, 1999* Cat With Green Violin, 2004* The Ultimate Fudge-External links:*...

  • 1994-95 Susan Miller
    Susan Miller (playwright)
    Susan Miller, two time OBIE winner and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting, is perhaps best known as the author/performer of the critically acclaimed one woman play, My Left Breast and a producer and writer for the web series Anyone But Me.-Life:Miller served for three years as the...

    ; Kristine Thatcher
    Kristine Thatcher
    -Life:Thatcher, born Margaret Schneider, began acting at 16 with a small professional company in her hometown, Lansing, Michigan. She went on to work at regional theaters across the country. Her first husband was actor Tim Thatcher...

    ; Naomi Wallace
    Naomi Wallace
    Naomi Wallace is a playwright, screenwriter and poet from Prospect, Kentucky, United States.-Life:Wallace obtained her Bachelor of Arts from Hampshire College and did graduate studies at the University of Iowa....

  • 1996-97 Marina Carr
    Marina Carr
    Marina Carr is an Irish playwright.Born in Tullamore, County Offaly, Carr attended University College Dublin before holding posts as writer-in-residence at the Abbey Theatre and Trinity College Dublin. She served as Heimbold Professor of Irish Studies at Villanova University in 2003...

  • 1997-98 Moira Buffini
    Moira Buffini
    Moira Buffini is an English dramatist, director and actor.-Career:Buffini was born in Cheshire to Irish parents, and trained as an actor at the Welsh College of Music and Drama. For Jordan, co-written with Anna Reynolds in 1992, she won a Time Out Award for her performance and Writers' Guild Award...

  • 1997-98 Paula Vogel
    Paula Vogel
    Paula Vogel is an American playwright and university professor. She received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, How I Learned to Drive.-Early years:...

  • 1998-99 Jessica Goldberg
    Jessica Goldberg
    Jessica Goldberg is an American playwright, screenwriter and television writer.-Life:Jessica is a graduate of the Dramatic Writing Program at New York University, and The Juilliard School...

  • 1999-00 Bridget Carpenter
    Bridget Carpenter
    -Life:She holds an M.F.A. from Brown University, and has taught playwriting in grammar school, high school, college, and prison.Most recently, she was a playwright-in-residence at the Royal National Theatre in London. Her plays have been produced across the country. She is working on new play...

  • 2000-01 Charlotte Jones
    Charlotte Jones (writer)
    Charlotte Jones is a British actress and playwright.Her first play Airswimming debuted in 1997 at the Battersea Arts Centre in London. Her other plays include In Flame, The Dark, The Lightning Play, and Humble Boy...

  • 2001-02 Gina Gionfriddo
    Gina Gionfriddo
    Gina Gionfriddo is an American playwright and television writer.For her writing she has received an Obie Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She has written for both the stage and for television...

  • 2001-02 Susan Miller
    Susan Miller (playwright)
    Susan Miller, two time OBIE winner and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting, is perhaps best known as the author/performer of the critically acclaimed one woman play, My Left Breast and a producer and writer for the web series Anyone But Me.-Life:Miller served for three years as the...

  • 2002-03 Dael Orlandersmith
    Dael Orlandersmith
    Dael Orlandersmith is an actress, poet and playwright who is best known for her Obie Award winning Beauty's Daughter and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama, Yellowman....

  • 2003-04 Sarah Ruhl
    Sarah Ruhl
    Sarah Ruhl is an American playwright. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship.-Biography:Ruhl was born in Wilmette, Illinois. Originally, she intended to be a poet. However, after she studied under Paula Vogel at Brown University , she was convinced to switch to playwrighting...

  • 2004-05 Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti
    Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti
    Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti is a British Sikh writer. She has written extensively for stage, screen and radio.-Life:Bhatti studied modern languages at Bristol University and has worked as a journalist and an actress....

  • 2005-06 Amelia Bullmore
    Amelia Bullmore
    Amelia Bullmore is an English actress and writer. She was born in London and studied drama at the University of Manchester. Bullmore started working as an actor but turned to writing in 1995...

  • 2005-06 Elizabeth Kuti
    Elizabeth Kuti
    -Life:English born Kuti graduated from Balliol College, Oxford with a degree in English, and completed her MA at King's College London. She is of partial Hungarian descent through her paternal grandfather....

  • 2007-08 Judith Thompson
    Judith Thompson
    Judith Clare Thompson, OC is a Canadian playwright who lives in Toronto, Ontario. Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail once declared that "...in this country, a playwright as good as Judith Thompson is a miracle." She has twice been awarded the Governor General's Award for drama, and is the...

  • 2008-09 Chloë Moss
    Chloe Moss
    -Life:Ms. Moss grew up in Liverpool and attended Manchester Metropolitan University, where she studied film. She joined the Royal Court's Young Writers programme and wrote her first professional play, A Day In Dull Armour...

  • 2009-2010 Julia Cho
    Julia Cho
    Julia Cho is an American playwright and television writer who has won national awards for her work.-Biographical information:Cho was born in Los Angeles and is the daughter of Korean immigrants. Her mother is a nurse and her father worked for an aerospace company where his job relocation led the...

  • 2011 Katori Hall
    Katori Hall
    Katori Hall is an American playwright, journalist and actress from Memphis, Tennessee.Her play The Mountaintop, about Martin Luther King's last night before his assassination, premiered in London in 2009 to great critical acclaim. After a sell-out run at Theatre 503, the play transferred to the...

     for her play Hurt Village

Special Commendation

  • Judith Adams 1998-99†
  • Leslie Ayvazian 1995-96†
  • Lesley Bruce 1993-94†
  • Caryl Churchill 1982-83†
  • Migdalia Cruz 1990-91†
  • Joanna McClelland Glass 1980-81 †
  • Zinnie Harris 2000-01†
  • Beth Henley 1979-80†
  • Julie Hebert 1998-99†
  • Beth Henley 1979-80†
  • Naomi Iizuka 2000-01†
  • Julia Jordan 2001-02†
  • Elizabeth Kuti 1999-00†
  • Joanna Laurens 2000-01†
  • Bryony Lavery 2002-03†,
  • Lisa Loomer 1993-94†,
  • Sharman MacDonald 1984-85†,
  • Chloe Moss 2004-05†
  • Phyllis Nagy 1995-96†
  • Dael Orlandersmith 1999-00†
  • Winsome Pinnock 1989-90†
  • Jenny Schwartz 2007-08†
  • Lynn Siefert 1983-84†, 1991-92†
  • Timberlake Wertenbaker 1988-89†

Finalists

  • Judith Adams 1997-98, 1998-99†, 2000-01
  • Kay Adshead 1987-88, 2001-02, 2005-06
  • Rukhsana Ahmad 2001-02
  • Claudia Allen 2002-03
  • Hanan al-Shaykh 1996-97
  • Jane Anderson 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93†
  • Leslie Ayvazian 1995-96†, 2004-05
  • Nicola Baldwin 1993-94, 1999-00
  • Lynda Barry 1991-92
  • Neena Beber 2003-04
  • Hilary Bell 1998-99
  • Jean Betts 2003-04
  • Julie Bovasso 1980-81
  • Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti 2004-05*
  • Linda Brogan 2007-08
  • Tina Brown 1978-79
  • Lesley Bruce 1993-94†
  • Moira Buffini 1992-93, 1997-98*
  • Katherine Burger 1996-97
  • Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy 1984-85
  • Kathleen Cahill 1984-85
  • Lucy Caldwell 2006-07
  • Sheila Callaghan 2006-07
  • Jo Carson 1989-90
  • Julia Cho 2001-02, 2006-07
  • Caryl Churchill 1979-80, 1982-83†, 1983-84*, 1987-88*
  • Paula Cizmar 1981-82†, 1982-83
  • Kathleen Clark 1987-88
  • Pearl Cleage 1983-84, 1993-94, 1995-96
  • Sara Clifford 1998-99
  • Lin Coghlan 2003-04
  • Kathleen Collins 1982-83, 1986-87
  • Sherry Coman 1990-91
  • Anne Commire 1988-89
  • Constance Congdon 1985-86, 1995-96
  • Trista Conger 1988-89
  • Helen Cooper 1984-85, 1986-87, 2002-03
  • Kia Corthron 1997-98
  • Migdalia Cruz 1990-91†, 1996-97
  • Alexandra Cunningham 2000-01
  • Leigh Curran 1978-79
  • Barbara Damashek 1987-88
  • April De Angelis 2005-06
  • Donna de Matteo 1982-83
  • Christian de Lancie 1993-94
  • Ruby Dee 1993-94
  • Dolly Dhingra 1999-00
  • Lydia Diamond 2007-08
  • Ann Marie Di Mambro 1994-95
  • Elizabeth Diggs 1981-82, 1987-88†
  • Nancy Donohue 1979-80
  • Katie Douglas 2006-07
  • Bathsheba Doran 2005-06
  • Rosalyn Drexler 1983-84
  • Carol Ann Duffy 1982-83
  • Susan Dworkin 1980-81
  • Helen Edmundson 1993-94
  • Margaret Edson 1993-94
  • Elizabeth Egloff 1995-96, 1996-97
  • Charlotte Eilenberg 2002-03
  • Eve Ensler 1998-99, 2000-01
  • Nancy Ewing 2000-01
  • Stella Feehily 2006-07
  • Barbara Field 1982-83, 1988-89
  • Susan Flakes 1996-97
  • Kate Fodor 2002-03
  • Maria Irene Fornes 1985-86, 1987-88
  • Amy Fox 2006-07
  • Donna Franceschild 1989-90
  • J.E. Franklin 1981-82, 1989-90, 1992-93
  • Amy Freed 1993-94, 2001-02
  • Mary Gallagher 1979-80, 1986-87*, 1989-90
  • Lucy Gannon 1988-89, 1989-90*
  • Lillian Garrett 1989-90
  • Nancy Fales Garrett 1982-83
  • Judy GeBauer 1987-88
  • Shirley Gee 1983-84, 1984-85*, 1989-90
  • Pam Gems 1978-79, 1985-86, 1996-97†
  • Alexandra Gersten 2002-03
  • Melissa James Gibson 2005-06
  • Rebecca Gilman 1998-99, 1999-00, 2004-05
  • Joanna McClelland Glass 1978-79, 1980-81 †, 1983-84, 2004-05
  • Sue Glover 1991-92
  • Debbie Tucker Green 2002-03, 2005-06
  • Linda Marshall Griffiths 2005-06
  • Rinne Groff 2002-03
  • Nikki Harmon 1988-89
  • Zinnie Harris 2000-01†, 2003-04
  • Valerie Harris 1978-79
  • Catherine Hayes 1981-82
  • Beth Henley 1979-80†, 1987-88, 2005-06
  • Jacqueline Holborough 1987-88
  • Endesha Ida Mae Holland 1992-93
  • Debbie Horsfield 1984-85
  • Velina Hasu Houston 1985-86
  • Tina Howe 1979-80, 1983-84, 1997-98
  • Noelle Janaczewska 1997-98
  • Lenka Janiurek 1978-79
  • Ann Jellicoe 1980-81
  • Catherine Johnson 1991-92
  • Cindy Lou Johnson 1984-85, 1986-87
  • Jennifer Johnston 1996-97
  • Marie Jones 1999-00
  • Julia Jordan 1996-97, 2001-02†, 2006-07
  • Yazmine Judd 1998-99
  • C. Michèle Kaplan 2006-07
  • Shirley Kaplan 1981-82
  • Julia Kearsley 1980-81, 1982-83
  • Margaret Keilstrup 1981-82
  • Adrienne Kennedy 1990-91
  • Wendy Kesselman 1980-81*, 1989-90
  • Carson Kreitzer 2003-04
  • Gail Kriegel 1983-84
  • Casey Kurtti 1987-88
  • Oni Faida Lampley 2005-06
  • Mary Lathrop 1991-92
  • Shirley Lauro 1980-81, 1991-92
  • Bryony Lavery 1980-81, 2002-03†, 2004-05, 2007-08
  • Maureen Lawrence 1990-91, 1994-95
  • Barbara Lebow 1985-86, 1994-95, 1995-96, 1997-98
  • Young Jean Lee
    Young Jean Lee
    Young Jean Lee is a Brooklyn-based playwright and director working in experimental theater. She is the artistic director of Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, a not-for-profit theater company dedicated to producing her work...

    2009-10
  • Rebecca Lenkiewicz 2004-05
  • Nell Leyshon 2006-07
  • Liz Lochhead 1998-99
  • Rosie Logan 1986-87
  • Lisa Loomer 1993-94†, 2003-04
  • Claire Luckham 1991-92
  • Anne Ludlum 2002-03
  • Sharman MacDonald 1984-85†, 1990-91, 1995-96
  • Carol Mack 1982-83
  • Emily Mann 1981-82, 1984-85, 1996-97, 1999-00
  • Melanie Marnich 2004-05
  • Nicola McCartney 1997-98
  • Mia McCullough 2004-05
  • Heather McDonald 2002-03
  • Lisa McGee 2007-08†
  • Anne McGravie 1984-85
  • Grace McKeaney 1981-82
  • Ellen McLaughlin 1986-87*, 1989-90
  • Linda McLean 2007-08
  • Jenny McLeod 1999-00
  • Clare Mclntyre 1992-93
  • Cassandra Medley 1988-89
  • Susan Miller 1979-80, 1988-89, 1994-95§, 2001-02*
  • Lois Meredith 1993-94
  • Marlane Meyer 1986-87, 1988-89, 1989-90, 1992-93*
  • Ann Mitchell 1981-82
  • Abi Morgan 2003-04
  • Lavonne Mueller 1980-81, 1986-87
  • Philomena Muinzer 1979-80
  • Melissa Murray 1985-86, 1986-87
  • Julie Marie Myatt 2007-08
  • Sally Nemeth 1994-95
  • Ann Noble 2003-04
  • Marsha Norman 1978-79†, 1982-83*, 1983-84
  • Lynn Nottage 1997-98
  • Meredith Oakes 2000-01
  • Kira Obolensky 1998-99, 2005-06
  • Edna O'Brien 1979-80
  • Tamsin Oglesby 1995-96, 2006-07
  • Mary O'Malley 1978-79*, 1985-86†
  • Louise Page 1982-83, 1984-85
  • Suzan-Lori Parks 1996-97, 1999-00
  • Sybille Pearson 1980-81
  • Carey Perloff 2001-02
  • Winsome Pinnock 1989-90†, 1991-92
  • Lucy Prebble 2003-04
  • Nu Quang 1992-93
  • Heather Raffo 2004-05†
  • Aishah Rahman 1985-86
  • Theresa Rebeck 1994-95, 2002-03
  • Christina Reid 1984-85
  • Jacquelyn Reingold 1994-95
  • Anna Reynolds 1992-93
  • Gillian Richmond 1990-91
  • Susan Rivers 1984-85
  • Kate Moira Ryan 1996-97
  • Milcha Sanchez-Scott 1986-87
  • Barbara Schneider 1979-80*, 1980-81
  • Julia Schofield 1987-88
  • Rose Scollard 1995-96
  • Adele Edling Shank 1981-82, 1982-83
  • Anna Deavere Smith 1992-93, 1993-94
  • Diana Son 1998-99
  • Susan Sontag 1992-93
  • Abbie Spallen 2006-07
  • Shelagh Stephenson 1997-98†
  • Polly Stenham 2007-08
  • Victoria Stewart 2007-08
  • Kelly Stuart 2001-02
  • Karen Duke Sturges 1979-80
  • Elizabeth Swados 1991-92
  • Polly Teale 2003-04
  • Kristine Thatcher 1985-86, 1994-95§
  • Freyda Thomas 1999-00
  • Judith Thompson 2002-03, 2007-08*
  • Katherine Thomson 2004-05
  • Jane Thornton 1985-86
  • Leonora Thuna 1986-87†
  • Susan Todd 1981-82
  • Kathleen Tolan 1997-98
  • Kay Trainor 1992-93
  • Paula Vogel 1991-92, 1992-93, 1994-95, 1995-96
  • Francine Volpe 2006-07
  • Terri Wagener 1978-79, 1983-84
  • Celeste Bedford Walker 1999-00
  • Wendy Wasserstein 1978-79, 1981-82, 1992-93
  • Alison Watson 1980-81
  • Annie Weisman 2000-01
  • Patricia Wettig 2004-05
  • Erin Cressida Wilson 1995-96
  • Tracey Scott Wilson 2001-02
  • Victoria Wood 1979-80
  • Sarah Woods 2000-01
  • Elizabeth Wyatt 1988-89
  • Olwen Wymark 1978-79, 1979-80
  • Sheila Yeger 1988-89, 1990-91
  • Shay Youngblood 1989-90
  • Karen Zacarias 2003-04

External links

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