This new award is offered in celebration of the life and career of Nathan Louis Jackson, who passed away on August 22, 2023.  His plays include Broke-ology, When I Come to Die, Sticky Traps, Brother Toad, and while an undergraduate at Kansas State University, the Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting and Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award-winners, The Mancherios and The Last Black Play. He was the Mellon Playwright-in-Residence at Kansas City Repertory Theater from 2013-2019. Nathan was a writer and/or producer on Luke Cage, S.W.A.T., Genius, 13 Reasons Why, Shameless, Resurrection, and Southland.

The First Place Award is $1000.00, memberships in the Dramatists Guild and the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, a professional development residency at either the New Harmony Project or the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, and an expense-paid residency at the Kennedy Center for the National Festival in April 2024.

The Second Place award is $500.00, memberships in the Dramatists Guild and the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, and an expense-paid residency at the Kennedy Center for the National Festival at the Kennedy Center in April 2024.