On November 14, 2022, QWF will award a prize of $3000 to honour excellence in dramatic literature by a Quebec playwright writing in English. The winning play will be given a reading in Infinithéâtre’s 2022-2023 season as part of its “Pipeline” series. This prize is awarded every two years. Because of the limited number of productions in 2020 and 2021, we have extended the opening date for eligibility back to 2018, provided that the play was not already submitted for the 2018 or 2020 prize.
Publishers or playwrights with eligible titles (see eligibility criteria below) must send 5 printed copies of the play and one PDF. If it is published only as an e-book, we require 4 printed copies and one electronic copy in PDF format. PDFs must be submitted to admin@qwf.org by the appropriate deadline date.
It is the responsibility of the publisher (or author) who is submitting the plays to ensure that the submission has been received.
Each submission must be accompanied by a completed entry form and a $25 non-refundable registration fee.
Online Payment For Registration Fees
Payment of registration fees ($25 per submission) can be made electronically via the QWF Website.
Please indicate on the Submission Form whether payment has been made online or by cheque.
Eligibility Criteria
- To be eligible, a play must have an estimated performance length of at least 45 minutes and meet one of the following criteria:
- it must have been published during the eligibility period with an ISBN (copy scripts are included) or
- it must have been professionally produced for the first time during the eligibility period through a PACT company or through independent theatres that work under equity rules. In the latter case, the submitted script must be the final production script. If the play was produced online during the COVID period and meets all of the other criteria, it is considered eligible.
- Electronic and print-on-demand books are eligible provided that they became commercially available in their final form during the eligibility period, and that they meet all of the other criteria listed here.
- The playwright must be alive and have a residence in Quebec at the time of submission. A person who has been living outside of Quebec continuously for the past five years will be considered ineligible. In the case of joint authorship (by two playwrights), one of the writers must satisfy all of the above requirements. Province of publication or performance is not considered.
- The prize will be awarded to the author of the play. If two writers collaborated, the prize money will be divided equally between them, or, if one of them has died, between the living playwright and the deceased playwright’s estate. Plays with more than two writers are not eligible.
- The play must be an original work, written in English (translations are not eligible; retellings of traditional stories will be considered only if the text and interpretation are the original work of the present author).
- A play may be submitted to the QWF Awards only once.
- Rewritten, expanded or otherwise altered plays may be considered eligible only if the new version is deemed a new play by QWF.
QWF reserves the right to make the final decision regarding the eligibility of any book.
Submission Deadlines
- Plays published or performed between August 1, 2018 and September 30, 2022 may be submitted, provided that they were not submitted for the 2018 or 2020 prize.
- Plays published or performed between August 1, 2018 and May 15, 2022 must be submitted for the June 1, 2022 deadline, alongwith a completed submission form and a $25 non-refundable submission fee.
- Publishers or playwrights whose plays are to be published or performed between May 16, 2022 and September 30, 2022 must send in the completed submission form and submission fee by the June 1, 2022 deadline. Completed books, ARCs or bound galleys must be received in the QWF office by August 1, 2022. The final published book (including copy scripts) or the final production script must be received by September 30, 2022, or the submission will be disqualified.
- QWF reserves the right to determine the eligibility of all submissions.
- Plays published between August 1, 2022 and September 30, 2022 may instead be submitted for the 2024 awards.
Plays may be submitted by publishers or authors.
The plays, accompanied by the entry form(s) and either a cheque payable to “QWF” for $25 for each submission or an indication that payment has been made electronically, should be sent to:
QUEBEC WRITERS’ FEDERATION AWARDS
1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3
Westmount, QC H3Z 1X4
For further information please telephone (514) 933-0878 or email info@qwf.org.
