Roy Williams and Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini Awarded Prestigious Windham-Campbell Prizes for Drama

Two Leading British Playwrights Recognised with One of the World’s Richest Literary Prizes

Celebrated UK playwrights Roy Williams and Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini have been announced as recipients of the 2025 Windham-Campbell Prizes, each awarded $175,000 (approx. £140,000) to support their creative practice. The prize, administered by Yale University, is one of the most significant global awards for literary achievement, offering writers a rare opportunity for financial independence and artistic freedom.

The announcement was made on Monday 24 March 2025, alongside a total of eight recipients across fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama.

Roy Williams: A Chronicler of Modern Britain

Roy Williams, one of Britain’s most prolific and respected playwrights, is recognised for his decades-long body of work exploring race, class, and contemporary urban life. From Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads to Fallout, Williams’ plays offer unflinching insights into the tensions of modern Britain, capturing the rhythm and complexities of working-class experience with powerful authenticity.

“Such an unexpected delight to receive this prize,” said Williams. “Truly speechless. I am thrilled as well as honoured.”

The Windham-Campbell selection committee praised his “nuanced, multivocal portrayals of race and class” and his ability to create “an essential and complex theatre of contemporary life.”

Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini: Reimagining the Margins with Magic and Heart

Playwright and screenwriter Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini, a self-described “bionic, queer” artist, is celebrated for their genre-defying storytelling that blends magical realism with political and personal themes. Their works, including Muscovado, Little Miss Burden, and the recent Sleepova, centre disabled, queer, and marginalised voices, infusing British theatre with bold vision and radical empathy.

“I am over the moon and currently hurtling through space somewhere near Jupiter,” Ibini said. “I am eternally grateful to my ancestors and everyone who has helped me get this far.”

The committee described Ibini’s plays as “barrelling onto the stage with joyful abandon,” offering “new, hopeful ways of remaking the world.”

About the Windham-Campbell Prizes

Founded in 2013 by Donald Windham in memory of his partner Sandy M. Campbell, the Windham-Campbell Prizes have awarded over $19 million to writers across the globe. Recipients are nominated and selected anonymously, with the prize offering not just funding but the time and space to create new work free from financial pressure.

“This mission remains at the heart of the Windham-Campbell Prizes,” said Michael Kelleher, Director of the Prize. “In today’s world it is more vital than ever to support the crucial work and wisdom that writers share with us all.”

Other 2025 recipients include Anne Enright and Sigrid Nunez (fiction), Patricia J. Williams and Rana Dasgupta (nonfiction), and Anthony V. Capildeo and Tongo Eisen-Martin (poetry).

Previous British Recipients of the Prize

Williams and Ibini join a notable list of previous UK recipients including Jasmine Lee-Jones, Winsome Pinnock, Jen Hadfield, and Zaffar Kunial. The prize’s continued recognition of British theatre talent highlights the global impact of UK playwriting on the literary world.