Dominic Colón has won the inaugural Write It Out! prize for playwrights living with HIV for his work The War I Know. The award, founded by one in two scribe Donja R. Love, was presented on World AIDS Day (December 1) by Love and the National Queer Theater. Check out a conversation above with the two playwrights, introduced by Hamilton star Javier Muñoz.

The award comes with $5,000, funded by Tony and Emmy winner Billy Porter (Kinky Boots, Pose), and additional support from GLAAD to hire a dramaturg in order to develop a new work.

“You don't always control what the blessing in your life will look like, but you do control what you do with it,” said Colón. “HIV is that blessing! Writing and developing The War I Know has not only been one of the greatest joys of my life, but it has also been a major part of my own healing and liberation. Healing and liberation are my prayer for everyone.”

The War I Know was developed by the Latinx Playwrights Circle, LAByrinth Theater Company, and SolFest. Colón’s other work includes Prospect Ave. or The Miseducation of Juni Rodriguez, and his short play Where’s Our Angeles was selected for the 2021 Latinx Playwrights Circle and Pregones/PRTT Greater Good Commission. He is also a staff writer on the upcoming Netflix series Pink Marine and has written a half-hour TV pilot titled Papi.

“Dominic Colón writes with such heart and imagination that his characters leap off the page. I laughed, gasped, and found myself in conversation with them over the choices they made,” said Love. “They were so alive that I felt I knew them. His stories intimately hold space for people we seldom see on stage. With his work, Colón addresses HIV/AIDS in a way that forces the conversation forward.”