We are delighted to be hosting our third annual Audio Play Competition, and we can’t wait to read all of the wonderful submissions. This year, we are especially excited to finally reveal the judges who will be selecting the winning audio play. It’s a privilege to have this wonderful selection of talented creatives on our panel, and we are confident that their expertise will ensure that the winning audio drama is truly exceptional. So, without further ado, let’s meet the judges of this year’s Pen to Print Audio Play Competition:

Chris Gregory founded Alternative Stories, an independent spoken-word production company making podcasts and radio programmes for a variety of clients. Twice representing the UK at the International Radio Drama Festival and nominated for numerous Audio Verse awards, Alternative Stories productions have been heard on BBC radio, on podcasts and on radio stations in North America and Australia. Specialising in literary productions, Chris has interviewed and worked with many of the UK’s leading writers and poets and Alternative Stories actors have appeared in films and television, in BBC radio productions and on stages in the West End and throughout the UK.

Lucy Kaufman is an award-winning scriptwriter and author.  36 of her plays have been performed professionally around the UK and Australia, to critical acclaim. As well as having a passion for theatre, Lucy has an unquenchable thirst for prose, writing for both adults and children. Her short story Pianoforte won a national competition and is published in an anthology Toast. Lucy is currently working on a novel and an exciting new audio drama series. She teaches Playwriting and Screenwriting for Pen to Print and is Lecturer in Screenwriting for Canterbury Christ Church University.

Lyndsey Croal is an Edinburgh-based author of speculative and strange fiction. She is a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awardee, a 2022 Ladies of Horror Fiction Writing Grant recipient, and her work has appeared in over fifty publications, including Dark Matter Magazine, Shoreline of Infinity, and Mslexia’s Best Women’s Short Fiction 2021. Her debut audio drama ‘Daughter of Fire and Water’ was produced by Alternative Stories & Fake Realities and was a British Fantasy Award Finalist. She was also the Editor of the two-part audio fiction anthology ‘Ghostlore’ with the same podcast.

Thank you to Chris Gregory, Lucy Kaufman and Lyndsey Croal for lending their time and talent to our competition. We are grateful for their contributions and are confident that they will make this year’s competition a success.

We hope you will consider submitting your own audio play to be considered by our judges. The deadline to enter is 31 March 2023, so be sure to submit your work by then. For more details and to enter, visit our competitions page here.

We can’t wait to see your creations!