The nominees for Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards 2017 were announced today (6 December), with a total of six NHB authors and plays shortlisted across various categories.

Escaped Alone by Caryl Churchill is nominated for Best Play. The hilarious and chilling play, first seen at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in January, received critical acclaim, with Time Out calling it 'a menacing, joyous, brilliant return... it's hard to imagine you'll come across a more brilliant play this year'. The play returns to the Royal Court for a short run in January 2017, before embarking on a national tour.

Also up for Best Play is All the Little Lights by Jane Upton. A play about being young, alone and trying to survive, packed with crackling dialogue, darkness and laugh-out-loud humour, it was previewed in Nottingham and Derby in 2015, with a national tour coming in 2017. Jane Upton was the Joint Winner of the 2016 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright

The Best Play for Young Audiences shortlist includes This Changes Everything by Joel Horwood. The play was commissioned and published as part of Platform, a new initiative from Tonic Theatre in partnership with NHB that aims to tackle the lack of opportunities for young women in drama by offering big-cast plays with predominantly or all-female casts, written specifically for performance by school, college and youth-theatre groups. See more about Platform here.

Elsewhere, there are also nominations for NHB authors Tom Basden (Best TV Situation Comedy, Plebs), debbie tucker green (Best Radio Drama, lament) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Best TV Situation Comedy, Fleabag).

The winners of the Writers Guild of Great Britain Awards will be announced in a ceremony hosted by writer, comedian and actress Meera Syal on Monday 23 January 2017.