The winners of the 2018 WhatsOnStage Awards were announced last night (25 February), with NHB author Jez Butterworth's mighty drama The Ferryman one of the night's big success stories.

Following its similar recent wins at the Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Awards, The Ferryman duly walked off with the WhatsOnStage Award for Best New Play, also winning Best Director (Sam Mendes) and Best Supporting Actor in a Play (Fra Fee). First seen at the Royal Court in April 2017, the play - a family epic set in the Northern Ireland during the Troubles - is currently enjoying a twice-extended West End run until May, before transferring to Broadway. Also nominated in the Best New Play category were NHB-published Gloria by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Oslo by J. T. Rogers.

Elsewhere, there was also a win for Lucy Kirkwood's dazzlingly ambitious drama Mosquitoes, with Olivia Colman taking home the Best Actress award. A play about family and particle physics, set in Geneva as the Large Hadron Collider starts up in 2008, Mosquitoes premiered at the National Theatre in July 2017.

To see this year's full list of winners, visit the WhatsOnStage website.

We're currently seeking a Publishing Assistant: an enthusiastic, adaptable new member of the team to contribute to all aspects of our publishing activity. This is an exciting opportunity to gain varied experience at the UK's leading specialist theatre publisher.

Applications are now open until 22 February. For more information – including the full job description, person specification and how to apply – visit our Jobs page. Thanks, and good luck!

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Acting (But Were Afraid to Ask, Dear), the hilarious first book by West End Producer – social media star, industry columnist and masked man of Theatreland – is now available as an audiobook, read by the author.

Unabridged and featuring exclusive bonus content, the audiobook is available to purchase via Audible and iTunes. You can listen to the audiobook for free by signing up to a free 30-day Audible trial.

'Don’t even consider putting your daughter on the stage, Mrs Worthington, until you’ve first consulted this wonderful book.' Paul O’Grady

'The funniest book I have read this year... nuggets of fine observation and wisdom' The Stage

West End Producer's second book, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Going to the Theatre (But Were Too Sloshed to Ask, Dear), is out now.

The winners of the 2018 Writers’ Guild Awards were announced yesterday (Monday 15 January 2018), with three NHB authors amongst those successful.

Lucy Kirkwood won Best Play for her gripping drama The Children, Praised by the Independent as 'a richly suggestive and beautifully written piece of work, provoking questions that will continue to nag and expand in your mind', it was first seen at the Royal Court, and currently playing at Manhattan Theatre Club in New York.

The Award for Best Play for Young Audiences was given to How To Be A Kid by Sarah McDonald-Hughes. A touching and funny story of family, friends and fitting in, it was premiered by Paines Plough in their pop-up theatre, Roundabout, in a co-production with Theatr Clywd and the Orange Tree Theatre, transferring to the latter this month.

Finally, the evening also saw Caryl Churchill honoured with the Outstanding Contribution to Writing Award, in recognition of her illustrious body of work and a career which has spanned over six decades. The award was presented by fellow NHB author Lucy Kirkwood.

The annual Writers Guild Awards have been celebrating the cream of British writing talent since 1961. To see the full list of winners in all categories, visit the Writers Guild website.

Please note that the NHB office is now closed for the festive period, and will open again on Tuesday 2 January.

Our website remains open for print orders, but any orders placed will not be processed until Monday 8 January. If you require your books sooner, please try an alternative retailer.

If your enquiry is urgent or if you require ebook support, please email us as this is being checked intermittently - we will do our best to help and we will get back to you as soon as we can. In the meantime, if you need help with any ebook issues, please take a look over our ebooks help page.

Thanks, and have a Merry Christmas!

We're delighted to reveal the five plays selected for publication in VAULT Festival 2018 anthology Plays from VAULT 3. They are:

• Tumulus by Christopher Adams
• Glitter Punch by Lucy Burke
• Burkas and Bacon Butties by Shamia Chalabi and Sarah Henley 
• Wind Bit Bitter, Bit Bit Bit Her by Sami Ibrahim
• The Strongbox by Stephanie Jacob

The anthology is published on 25 January, and is available to pre-order now.

VAULT Festival is London’s biggest and boldest annual arts festival. The 2018 event runs 24 January - 18 March 2018 at The Vaults, Waterloo, London. There'll be over three hundred new shows, plus new venues, new bars, new food and plenty of surprises – see more on the VAULT Festival website.

The winners of this year's Evening Standard Theatre Awards were announced yesterday (Sunday 3 December), with NHB plays and authors triumphing across a range of categories.

The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth was the night's big winner, scooping Best Play, Best Director (Sam Mendes) and the Emerging Talent Award (Tom Glynn-Carney). in this thunderous drama, set in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, in 1981, the Carney family's traditional harvest celebrations are interrupted by the arrival of a visitor, whose shocking news threatens to unravel all they've built. First seen at the Royal Court earlier this year, the play is currently running at the Gielgud Theatre, where it has recently extended until May 2018.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins was honoured with the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright for An Octoroon, his dazzlingly inventive comedy which draws on Dion Boucicault's 1859 original melodrama to explore issues about race and identity in America today. After receiving its European premiere at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, An Octoroon will transfer to the National Theatre in 2018.

Elsewhere, Andrew Garfield is shortlisted for his performance as Prior Walter in the National Theatre's acclaimed revival of Tony Kushner's epic Angels in America. The production will transfer to Broadway in February 2018.

The winners of the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2017 were announced at a ceremony at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, hosted by actor, Fleabag creator/star and NHB author Phoebe Waller-Bridge. To see the full list of winners, visit the Evening Standard website.

The Papatango New Writing Prize 2018 opened for entries today (1 December), with writers able to submit their script until midnight, 28 February 2018.

The winner of the Prize will develop their play with Papatango over several months, building towards a four week production at Southwark Playhouse in autumn 2018. The script will be published by NHB. The writer will receive a royalty of 10% of the gross box office income. Following the production, the writer will be paid a £6000 commission to create a new play with development support from Papatango.

Entries must be full-length, and an original, unperformed and unproduced piece of work. For further information, including how to submit, visit the Papatango website.

We're extremely proud to have published seven Papatango Prize-winners to date:

• 2011: Foxfinder by Dawn King
• 2012: Pack by Louise Monaghan
• 2013: Unscorched by Luke Owen
• 2014: Coolatully by Fiona Doyle
• 2015: Tomcat by James Rushbrooke
• 2016: Orca by Matt Grinter
• 2017: Trestle by Stewart Pringle

The very best of luck to all entrants, and we can't wait to see what you come up with!

We're delighted to announce that Nick Hern Books is to publish an anthology of the three winning plays in the inaugural Heretic Voices competition.

The Heretic Voices competition searched for the best new writing in monologue form – the winners, revealed today (28 November) by organisers Heretic Productions, are:

Woman Caught Unaware by Annie Fox – a searing and bleakly funny debut play which examines of the culture of body shaming

Dean McBride by Sonya Hale – a vivid and poetic story of loss and redemption set on a Croydon council estate

A Hundred Words for Snow from Tatty Hennessy – a thrilling and brave exploration of mortality, adolescence and the Arctic

The plays will be produced with leading actors and directors for performances at the Arcola Theatre from 9-13 January 2018, with all three monologues performed each evening.

Max Gill, Artistic Director of Heretic Productions: 'Our three winning plays stood out to the judges for the belief and conviction each writer showed in their own voice. Their writing is original, honest, and surprising and their handling of the monologue form highly sophisticated. Their words sing on the page but crucially the dramatic tension that thrives at the heart of each means they are begging to be performed. 

We’re thrilled that the remarkable work of these playwrights will be performed, and published by Nick Hern Books so that audiences can enjoy their work as much as we have.'

Matt Applewhite, Managing Director of Nick Hern Books: 'Writing a monologue is a unique challenge and opportunity: telling a story and holding an audience's attention with only a single performer's voice. We're delighted to collaborate with Heretic Productions in publishing these three fine, now award-winning examples of the form - and giving them a longer life in the future, on the printed page, in the audition room, and in production.'

Nick Hern Books is proud to support the first series of The Miniaturists Podcast – the new audio drama podcast from The Miniaturists, celebrated purveyors of acclaimed shortform drama since 2005.

Each season The Miniaturists will work with five exciting writers to develop a programme of short, stand-alone plays, that will embrace and celebrate shortform in the audio medium. The plays will be released weekly: Episode 1, Stanley Road by Al Smith, was released on 16 November, and is available to listen to via iTunes, SoundCloud and other podcast services.

The first series will also include plays from Camilla Whitehill, Isley Lynn, Phoebe Eclair-Powell and Vinay Patel. The Miniaturists Podcast is produced by Will Bourdillon & James Huntrods, and audio produced & edited by Andy Goddard.

Founded in 2005, The Miniaturists is a group of playwrights and other theatre workers interested in the possibilities of the short play. They stage a regular writer-led event dedicated to short but perfectly formed plays. Their next new writing night, Miniaturists 66, will be held at the Arcola Theatre on Sunday 26 November - see more and book tickets here.