Melbourne’s The 16th Street Foundation has unveiled the finalists for the inaugural Cooper Prize, a new playwriting award open to writers worldwide designed to celebrate viewpoint diversity in dramatic writing.

After reviewing over 160 entries, the foundation selected two Australian and two international writers as finalists.

Australian playwrights Christopher Stollery and Maeve Hook, British writer Nick Maynard, and US writer Linda Pallotta will vie for the prize, with the winner announced on Monday, 9 September at the 16th Street Actors Studio in Melbourne.

The winner will receive a $10,000 prize and an opportunity for further development of their work.

Nick Maynard, Maeve Hook, Christopher Stollery and Linda Pallotta. Image supplied

A philanthropic venture by investment fund manager Peter Cooper, The Cooper Prize aims to foster diverse perspectives in contemporary playwriting. Director Iain Sinclair, who chaired the judging panel, highlighted the importance of heterodox perspectives, noting that the submissions reflected a “remarkable array of talent”. Sinclair was joined on the judging panel by Cooper, 16th Street Chair Natalie Elliot and theatre producer Andrew Henry.

Actor and writer Christopher Stollery’s The Copernican explores the complexities of truth, set in a ‘pre-truth’ age when superstition and religious...