Writer Joanna Murray-Smith has been announced as the first ever winner of Australia’s Mona Brand Award for Women Stage and Screen Writers, The AU Review reports. The prize comes with an award of $30,000.
The award recognizes “an outstanding Australian woman who has written for the stage and/or screen,” and was named for “the trailblazing poet, author and playwright, Mona Brand, whose nearly 30 plays were widely performed on stage in Australia and overseas.”
Murray-Smith has written over 15 plays, but her most successful has been “Switzerland,” which premiered as part of Sydney Theatre Company’s 2015 season. She also wrote the comedy miniseries “The Divorce.”
The playwright told the AU Review that she was “honored to be the first recipient of an Award that addresses the gender gap in Australia’s creative arts.” Murray-Smith explained, “The instinctive, reflexive position of theater culture has been to elevate men. This Award helps to redress the balance.”
On her writing process, Murray-Smith said, “By virtue of the fact that I’m a playwright and a mother, I’ve taught myself to be available to write at any moment! I don’t need to wait for the right light, or hide away in a quiet room — I can do it anywhere.”
There was also a Mona Brand Award given out for “an emerging woman writer, in the early stages of her career, for her first substantial produced/screened work.” This was awarded to Jada Alberts for her play “Brothers Wreck.” Alberts’ honor includes a $10,000 prize.
