Mary Anne Butler is the first playwright to have won Australia’s most generous literary prize, with her play ‘Broken’.

Mary Anne Butler has become the first playwright to win the Victorian Prize for Literature, Australia’s most generous literary award. She receives $100,000 prize money for her play, Broken. She was also awarded the prize for best drama, worth an additional $25,000. The Darwin playwright says she never expected to win, and that it was “absolutely surreal” to take home two awards.

Broken tells the story of Ash, a young woman trapped after a car accident, and her growing relationship with Ham, the man who comes to her aid. Meanwhile, Ham’s wife Mia is struggling at home with a miscarriage. The play won the ‘Best Script’ category of the 2014 Northern Territory Literary Awards and was shortlisted for the 2014 Griffin Award.

 Mary Anne Butler receiving one of her awards

Butler was struck with inspiration for the work after hearing of a woman who was trapped for 36 hours after her car rolled off the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory. She...