TT reporter shortlisted for BBC international prize

Newsday reporter Julien Neaves has been selected out of 1500 entrants as a finalist in the BBC International Radio Playwriting Competition.

The finalists were announced earlier today on the BBC website.

Neaves, who submitted a script called "Tanty Get Ah Android", is a finalist to the competition which he entered in March this year.

He first heard about the competition on the BBC World Service.

The 16 short-listed plays will be considered for three main prizes.

Two first prizes – for the best radio plays by writers with either English as their first language or English as their second language.

Both winners’ plays will be broadcast on BBC World Service.

The scripts will be considered by a panel of judges.

In an interview about his selection as a finalist, Neaves said he felt honoured, humbled and excited about being selected.

"I was hoping to be selected and I was looking out for the announcement. My dream was always to be a professional writer and I thought this competition would be a good springboard to realise that dream."

List of finalists for English as their first language

Fields of Glittering Things by Iz Mazano (Zimbabwe)

Atacama by Augusto Amador (USA)

Stand Pipe by Derrick Jeffrey (Thailand)

Tanty Get Ah Android by Julien Marvin Neaves (Trinidad and Tobago)

By God’s Mercy by Colette Victor (Belgium)

An Incident Over Water by Paul Charlier (Australia)

Fire in the Head R Johns (Australia)