Y York is the proud recipient of the AATE Distinguished Play Award for The Forgiving Harvest and Afternoon of the Elves, the 2008 Smith Prize for …and LA is Burning, the 2006 Hawai`i Award for Literature for Nothing is the Same, a Berrilla Kerr Award for The Secret Wife, and the Charlotte Chorpenning award for her body of work in family theatre. 

Dr. Mercy Mirembe Ntangaare is an Associate Professor of Drama/Theatre, a playwright and folklorist. She teaches Drama, Theatre Marketing and Folklore (Cultural Identity studies) at the Performing Arts and Film Department, Makerere University, Kampala, where she is former Head of Department (2002-2009). She has been Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Arts (2010-2011).

Mercy is co-author of Dustbin Nations (2000) and The Chief of Shumankuzi (2002), two children’s plays that decry war and corruption in post-independent Africa. Her other plays, Lady, Will You Marry Me? (2002); The Rat Trap and Other Plays (2007), which is an anthology of five plays; Rhythms of Life (2009), which is an audio/talking play; and Semitego, The Famous Hunter (2011) discuss socio-economic and political issues.