The UK's oldest literary awards have turned their attention to drama, with a new £10,000 prize for the best play.
Five, chosen from more than 180 plays from around the world, have been shortlisted for the first James Tait Black Prize for Drama, based at Edinburgh University.
These include a production about Bradley Manning, the US soldier on trial for allegedly leaking military secrets and a work featuring monologues by deaf and disabled performers.
The judging panel includes representatives from Edinburgh University, National Theatre of Scotland and Edinburgh's Traverse, where the successful work will be read on August 5.
Panel member Nicola McCartney, playwright and lecturer, said: "We are thrilled by the response to the first year of our drama prize. The James Tait Black Awards are renowned for showcasing the best of literature and we are delighted to celebrate the work of playwrights this year. The shortlisted plays are of an incredibly high calibre."
The plays are In Water I'm Weightless, by Kaite O'Reilly, produced by National Theatre Wales; The Hundred Flowers Project, by Christopher Chen, originally produced with Crowded Fire Theatre and Playwrights Foundation of San Francisco; The Effect, by Lucy Prebble, co-produced by Headlong and the National Theatre in London; Foxfinder, by Dawn King, first presented at Finborough Theatre, London; and The Radicalisation Of Bradley Manning, by Tim Price, originally produced by National Theatre Wales.
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