Ponder Review, in partnership with the Tennessee Williams Tribute Festival, is launching our Fifth Annual 10:4 Tenn Playwright Contest! This competition seeks to recognize and honor the Southern experience and the legacy of Columbus’s native son, Tennessee Williams, through the craft of playwriting.

The top three playwrights will receive a cash prize, a festival pass, and have their 10-minute plays produced and performed in front of a live audience at the Tennessee Williams Tribute Festival. Directors and actors will be students from the Mississippi University for Women Department of Theatre.

Each play will be read by the staff of Ponder Review for the first round, then after carefully making their selections, the finalists will be sent off to the final judge who will decide the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. Winners will be announced Spring 2025.

1st place winner will be awarded a $200 cash prize as well as and interview and publication in the Fall issue of Ponder Review.

2nd place will be awarded a $150 cash prize, and 3rd place will be awarded a $100 cash prize.

10:4 TENN 10-Minute Play Contest Submission Guidelines

• Plays must be at maximum 10 minutes long and inspired by the work of Tennessee Williams, the South, or southern experience loosely defined.
• Maximum cast of 5 characters
• Play must include character and set descriptions.
• Gratuitous language or violence are not encouraged.
• Submissions should be Times New Roman 12pt font, double-spaced, in standard playwriting format
• Limit 1 play per playwright
• Along with submission, include a bio and brief synopsis of the play
• Musicals will not be accepted
• Plays should be unpublished. Ponder Review requires first-time North American publishing rights and retains the right to reprint accepted submissions in subsequent anthologies even after publication rights have reverted back to author.
• By entering this contest, the playwright claims sole ownership of work submitted and accepts responsibility for any appropriated material. Mississippi University for Women and Ponder Review accept no liability for any work used without permission.
• Multiple and simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please contact Ponder Review if your work has been accepted for publication elsewhere.
• Manuscripts should contain no identifying information and must be submitted through Submittable only.
• Students and alumni of Mississippi University for Women may not submit to Ponder Review for at least 5 years post graduation.

Submissions will be accepted from September 16 until December 14, 2024

2026 Judge: Elyzabeth Wilder

Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder’s plays include Gee’s Bend, Fresh Kills, The Flagmaker of Market Street, The Furniture of Home, White Lightning, Provenance, and Everything That’s Beautiful.  She was a 2024 Tennessee Arts Commission Fellow, received the Osborn Award from the American Theatre Critics Association, and she won the 10:4:Tenn 10-Minute Play contest in 2023 for her play All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go. She has served as a PEN American Prison and Justice Writing fellow and worked with the Southern Writers Project, and her plays have been performed at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Royal Court (London), Denver Center, Cleveland Play House, KC Rep, Northlight, the Arden, B Street Theatre, and Hartford Stage, among others.

Contest Winners

2026

1st PLACE: The Hand You’re Dealt  by Tracey Zerwig Ford
2nd PLACE: Turn of the Tidier by Rex McGregor
3rd PLACE: Going to Meet the Man by James Bruns

2025

1st PLACE: Something Blue by Steven Satta
2nd PLACE: A Quiet Light by J. R. Stephens
3rd PLACE: Horseshoe by Sara Freedman

2024

1ST PLACE: Lunée Bin, Steven Miller
2ND PLACE: The Tea Test, Seth Freeman
3RD PLACE: Her Room, Michael Hilton

2023

1ST PLACE: All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go, Elyzabeth Wilder 
2ND PLACE: The Lead Locket, Joseph Frost 
3RD PLACE: Love is Alive in the Old Folks Home, Mary Donnet Johnson

2022

1ST PLACE: Widow’s Walk, Britton Pontoux
2ND PLACE: The Suitcase, Susan Eve Haar 
3RD PLACE: The Best Tennessee Williams Play, Straton Rushing

2021

1ST PLACE: She’s Dead to Me, Bryan Starchman
2ND PLACE: Some Woman’s Son, Jennie Franklin
3RD PLACE: Aging Out, Gerald Williams