Writers' Card Lottery – paid writing weeks

The first Writers’ Card Lottery Fund is now closed. We will be contacting all applicants as soon as possible.

Twice a year, we’re running a free-to-apply lottery for Writers’ Card Members – anyone for whom a small payment would help buy time and space to unlock their next steps as a playwright. Recipients, selected at random, will be offered at the same rate we offer any writer – currently £600 for a week paid in advance as a one-off fee – with no strings attached and no expectations, evaluation or reporting requirements. (Though if you do finish your draft, we’d love you to share it via our Open Submissions).

A minimum 50% of lottery awards are ring-fenced for playwrights from backgrounds currently under-represented in our sector, including Black & Global Majority, Working Class, and D/deaf and disabled playwrights. Applications will be light-touch, with quick decisions and no hidden criteria, value judgments or requests for personal information we don’t need.