Other finalists for the Steinberg prize included Bruce Norris (The Pain and the Itch), Steven Tomlinson (American Fiesta), and Amy Freed (Restoration Comedy). The awards were decided by a committee of 12 critics, chaired by Elizabeth Maupin of The Orlando Sentinel.

Blessing's play, which was first produced at the Guthrie Theater and was recently seen at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, tells the story of a man and woman who wake up one morning without any recollection of their lives and histories. Wilson's Radio Golf is the last installment of his 10-play cycle about the black experience in 20th-century America. It is currently being presented in a national tour, and is scheduled to arrive on Broadway next season. Rapp's Red Light Winter focuses on two friends who enter into a love triangle with a mysterious young woman while visiting Amsterdam. It is currently playing at the Barrow Street Theater in New York.

Past winners of the ATCA New Play Award, which was first bestowed in 1977, include Lanford Wilson, Marsha Norman, Jane Martin, Arthur Miller, Mac Wellman, Adrienne Kennedy, Donald Margulies, Lynn Nottage, Horton Foote, and Craig Lucas.