Shakespeare's Sister Playwriting Fellowship

This program is currently on hiatus.

The Program

The Shakespeare’s Sister Playwriting Fellowship is an opportunity for a female-identifying playwright living in the United States to hone her craft and develop a new play during a year-long engagement with The Lark. The Fellowship includes a $10,000 cash prize, as well as a residency with our partners at Hedgebrook and a spot in A Room of Her Own's (AROHO) biennial Retreat for Women Writers at Ghost Ranch. The fellowship concludes with a one week project residency, as well as ongoing fellowship support with The Lark. Playwright and actor Ellen McLaughlin is the fellowship’s creator and mentor.

The Impact

“If we have the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think, then the opportunity will come and the dead poet who was Shakespeare’s sister will put on the body which she has so often laid down.”

— Virginia Woolf, A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN.

The Shakespeare’s Sister Fellowship seeks to establish that habit of freedom, to make possible that courage.

The Selection Process

For the pilot round, the fellowship was awarded on the basis of merit and readiness to write. Scripts were solicited and reviewed by a final selection committee composed of Ellen McLaughlin and the staff of Hedgebrook, AROHO, and The Lark.

The Fellow(s)

Our Initiatives

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