Sponsored by the University of Alabama, Birmingham, the Apsey Award is given for a play about race or ethnicity that has meaty roles for student actors and new insights into the subject.

Monica Raymond's winning play, A TO Z follows the uneasy and interrupted friendship of two women, Annie (white) and Zafiya (black) through forty years of US history (1968-2008) and all of the letters of the alphabet. Raymond began and workshopped A TO Z during her tenure as a Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights' Center.