The Lillys’ Lorraine Hansberry Initiative, under the leadership and vision of Julia Jordan and Lynn Nottage, has generously developed this opportunity to honor the great Lorraine Hansberry and ensure the next generation of women and or non-binary playwrights of color is able to follow in her footsteps, regardless of their economic situation. Two Hansberry-Lilly awardees will be given stipends of $25,000 each year of their graduate education in playwriting. The award is a need-based scholarship to both acknowledge and combat the financial disparities between races and between genders. The awardees must be newly accepted to or currently enrolled in one of the designated MFA programs. The funds awarded are to be used to support cost of living expenses that are not otherwise covered by other scholarships, subsidized tuition, or fellowship monies. The Hansberry-Lilly Award was specifically created to ensure that our awardees have protected time to actually write, time to develop relationships with peer collaborators, and time to nurture relationships with mentors that will endure through their careers.