Submission Guidelines

Submissions are made through Moksha. Late submissions will not be considered.

There is no submission fee.

All entrants will be contacted with the outcome of their submission. The longlist, shortlist and winners will also be announced on our website and social channels.

Grand Prize: ₦1,000,000, a professional production of the winning play by Sabi Arts, VIP access to all Sabi Arts productions for one year, and automatic entry into the next Sabi Arts Writer's Residency.

Runner Up: ₦200,000, VIP access to all Sabi Arts productions for one year, and automatic entry into the next Sabi Arts Writer's Residency.

The Julie Okoh Prize: ₦200,000, a staged reading by Sabi Arts, mentorship with Ibi Kontein, VIP access to all Sabi Arts productions for one year, and automatic entry into the next Sabi Arts Writer's Residency.

The Julie Okoh Prize is awarded to the best play written by a woman that centres the lives and experiences of women. Named after Professor Julie Okoh, whose body of work confronted the realities facing women in Nigerian society, this prize recognises plays that place women's stories at their heart. Your play does not need to imitate her themes or style, but women's lives, experiences, concerns or issues should form a meaningful part of it.

To be considered, tick the Julie Okoh Prize box when you submit. Your answer is held administratively and stays hidden from readers and jurors during artistic assessment.

Women playwrights remain fully eligible for the Grand Prize and Runner Up. The Julie Okoh Prize is an additional recognition, not a separate competition.

No writer may receive more than one prize in the same edition. Where the Grand Prize or Runner Up is awarded to a play that is also eligible for the Julie Okoh Prize, the Julie Okoh Prize will go to the next highest ranked eligible play.

The Prize is open to Nigerian playwrights aged 18 and above, whether resident in Nigeria or abroad.

Each playwright may submit one play only per edition.

Co-authored plays are not eligible.

Writers who enter one edition may apply again in subsequent editions.

We welcome original full-length plays of all genres, themes, styles and subject areas. Comedy, tragedy, realism, experimental theatre, musicals, verse drama, one-person plays and other theatrical forms are all eligible. There is no prescribed theme.

The play must be your own original work, previously unpublished and previously unproduced.

Adaptations of existing published or produced works are not eligible, including adaptations of your own.

Writers should keep production feasibility in mind, including cast size, locations, technical requirements and staging. This does not mean plays need to be small or simple. It means the work should be conceived for live theatrical production.

Plays must be written in English. Words or phrases in other languages may be used, and should be translated in a glossary at the end of the script. The glossary does not count towards the page limit.

Maximum manuscript length is 75 pages.

Submissions must be uploaded as a PDF.

There is no prescribed formatting style, but manuscripts should be clearly legible with numbered pages.

The Prize uses a blind review process. Readers and jurors do not see playwright names during artistic assessment.

Do not include your name, biography, email address, social media handle or any other identifying information anywhere in the manuscript, including the title page, headers, footers and acknowledgements. Your name must not appear in the PDF filename either.

Enter your personal information only through the submission form.

Submissions that compromise the anonymous review process may be disqualified.

The decisions of the judges are final, and no correspondence will be entered into regarding the outcome.

The Prize seeks original work created by the submitting playwright. You may use standard editing and proofreading tools, but the creative content, including story, dialogue, characters, structure and dramatic writing, must be your own.

Plagiarism is prohibited. AI-generated dramatic content is not permitted.

Sabi Arts reserves the right to disqualify any submission found to have been substantially generated by artificial intelligence or to misrepresent authorship.

Please review your manuscript carefully before submitting. Once a submission has been received it is final, and cannot be edited, replaced or resubmitted.

If you wish to withdraw before the competition closes, contact us to request a permanent withdrawal. Withdrawn submissions cannot be reinstated or replaced with a new submission.

The playwright retains full copyright to their work at all times.

Prize winners grant Sabi Arts an exclusive production licence for three (3) years for the winning play. If Sabi Arts does not produce the play within that period, all production rights revert fully to the playwright.

Prize winners, and any shortlisted writers selected for inclusion in the Anthology, grant Sabi Arts and its appointed publishing partner a non-exclusive, perpetual licence to publish their play digitally and in print as part of the Sabi Arts Playwright Prize Anthology.

A submission may be disqualified for:

• Plagiarism.
• AI-generated dramatic content, or misrepresentation of authorship.
• Previous publication or production.
• Adaptation of an existing published or produced work.
• Submission under another person's name.
• Co-authored work.
• Exceeding the maximum page limit.
• Deliberate breach of anonymity.
• False eligibility information.
• Any other material breach of the Prize rules.

For any questions about the Prize or the submission process, contact us at playwrightprize@sabiarts.org.

We look forward to reading your work and discovering the next generation of Nigerian playwrights.