Playwright and Co. Down native Abbie Spallen has won the Windham-Campbell Prize, one of world’s most prestigious literary awards, with a cash prize of $150,000.
The award has no submission process, longlist, or any other traits commonly associated with literary prizes, so Ms. Spallen was quite shocked when she got a phone call out of the blue from prize director Michael Kelleher.
The award citation reads: “Abbie Spallen’s plays confront audiences with all the awkward questions, reminding us with thrilling proof that theatre can still be urgently necessary.”
The Windham-Campbell Prizes were established in 2013 with a gift from the late Donald Windham in memory of his partner of 40 years, Sandy M Campbell. The prizes are administered by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University.
