The Richard Imison Award, established in 1994, commemorates the life and work of Richard Imison

Richard Imison

Richard Imison was Script Editor for BBC Radio Drama from 1963 to 1991. In the thirty years that Imison worked for BBC Radio Drama it was the largest patron of original creative dramatic writing in Britain...

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Richard Imison was Script Editor for BBC Radio Drama from 1963 to 1991. In the thirty years that Imison worked for BBC Radio Drama it was the largest patron of original creative dramatic writing in Britain. In his role as Script Editor no other single individual therefore had as much influence in either the discovery of new talent or the encouragement of established writers such as Edward Albee, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, Alexander Gelman, Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...

 and Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett

Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...

 in the production of Drama for this genre.

After his death in 1993 the Society of Authors

Society of Authors

The Society of Authors is a trade union for professional writers that was founded in 1884 to protect the rights of writers and fight to retain those rights .It has counted amongst its members and presidents numerous notable writers and poets including Tennyson The Society of Authors (UK) is a...

 established the Richard Imison Award in recognition of Imison's enduring influence on the development of high quality dramatic writing.

Submissions for the award must consist of a completed nomination form as well as three copies of the writer's original script and recording of the broadcast. Further copies may be requested if the work is short-listed. Further details can be found on the Society of Authors website.

List of prize winners

The prize winners

Year	Author	Play
2010	Eoin McNamee Eoin McNamee Eoin McNamee is an Irish writer.He has written two novellas, The Last of Deeds and Love in History , which was shortlisted for the 1989 Irish Times/Aer Lingus Award for Irish Literature; and the novels, Resurrection Man , which detailed the bloodletting of the UVF gang the Shankill Butchers ;...	The Road Wife
2009	Lucy Caldwell Lucy Caldwell Lucy Caldwell is a Northern Irish playwright and novelist.Born in Belfast in 1981 in what she later described as into one of the darkest and most turbulent years of the Troubles: the year the hunger strikes began, when within a few months Bobby Sands and nine others died; when things seemed to be...	Girl from Mars
2008	Adam Beeson	The Magician's Daughter
2007	Mike Bartlett	Not Talking
2006	Nazrin Choudhury Nazrin Choudhury Nazrin Choudhury is an award winning British screenwriter and actress. She is of Bangladeshi origin.-Education:Choudhury was born in South London to Bangladeshi immigrant parents. She is the youngest of five children and received a scholarship to attend Streatham and Clapham High School...	Mixed Blood
2005	Steve Coombs	Mr. Sex
2004	Stephen Sharkey	All You on the Good Earth
2003	N.Leyshon & S. McAnena	Milk; Celia Bryce for The Skategrinder
2002	Rhiannon Tise	The Waltzer
2001	Murray Gold Murray Gold Murray Gold is an English composer for stage, film, and television and a dramatist for both theatre and radio.-Television:Gold has been nominated for a BAFTA four times in the category Best Original Television Music, for Vanity Fair , Queer as Folk , Casanova and Doctor Who...	Electricity
2000	Peter Morgan Peter Morgan Peter Morgan may refer to:* Peter Morgan , British sports car manufacturer* Peter Morgan , 1978 British Formula Ford champion* Peter Morgan , Wales and British lions international...	A Matter of Interpretation
1999	Ben Cooper Ben Cooper Ben Cooper is a retired American actor of film and television, who won a Golden Boot award in 2005 for his work in westerns.-Early films:...	Skin Deep
1998	Katie Hims	Earthquake Girl
1997	John Waters John Waters (columnist) John Waters is a columnist with The Irish Times and a former editor of Magill magazine. His career began in 1981 with the Irish political-music magazine Hot Press. He went on to write for the Sunday Tribune and later edited In Dublin magazine and Magill...  joint winner Rosemary Kay	Holy Secrets & Wilde Belles
1996	Lee Hall Lee Hall (playwright) Lee Hall is an English playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for the 2000 film Billy Elliot.-Early life:...	I Luv You Jimmy Spud I Luv You Jimmy Spud I luv you Jimmy Spud is a play set in Newcastle upon Tyne by British playwright Lee Hall starring Michael Walpert as Stephen . Originally commissioned by BBC Radio Four, it was first broadcast in 1995...
1995	Gerry Stembridge joint winner James Stock	Daisy the Cow who Talked & Kissing the Gargoyle
1994	Gabriel Gbadamosi	The Long Hot Summer of '76