The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust has named ten recipients for the 2021 Steinberg Playwright Awards, given annually to up-and-coming American playwrights with distinctive voices. Each of the early to mid–career writers will be granted $10,000.

The ten playwrights honored with this year's "Mimi" Award are Jeff Augustin, Clare Barron, Eboni Booth, Idris Goodwin, Ike Holter, Paola Lázaro, Haruna Lee, Mike Lew, Ife Olujobi, and Jiehae Park.

Normally, the trust would honor only two writers with a total of $100,000, but given the impact of the pandemic on playwrights and the theatre industry, the awards were temporarily restructured to assist more writers.

“The health, sanity, and sustainability of a civilization have always depended on its historians and its poets. Historians remind us where we have been to help us understand where we are standing. Poets imagine what could be, and by creating new proposals for the future, help bring it into being. These ten playwrights do both, and we need them desperately right now,” said Advisory Board Member Sarah Lunnie. “The committee is grateful for this opportunity to celebrate the depth of their artistry and the clarity of their vision.”

The 2021 Advisory Committee comprises Jeremy B. Cohen, producing artistic director of The Playwrights' Center; Snehal Desai, artistic director of East West Players; Oskar Eustis, artistic director of The Public Theater; Maria Manuela Goyanes, artistic director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co.; Sarah Lunnie, dramaturg; Neil Pepe, artistic director of Atlantic Theater Company; and Hana S. Sharif, artistic director of Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.

The Board of Trustees of The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust is made up of Carole A. Krumland, Susan C. Frunzi, James D. Steinberg, Michael A. Steinberg, Seth M. Weingarten, and William D. Zabel.