NYCWAM presented its biennial Collaboration Award at a champagne reception at the Gershwin Hotel at 7 East 27th Street, on March 2, 2009. 

Winners of the $1000 prize were Jennifer Gibbs, author of the play, The Stranger, and director, Kristin Marting. Gibbs based her play on Henrik Ibsen's The Lady From the Sea. Marting and Gibbs plan a multi-media production including film and music.

Runners-up for the award were Elyse Singer and Ruth Margraff  for their opera, Wellsprings; Carol Todd and Catherine Eaton for their screenplay, Showers of Happiness; cabaret performers, Melanie Adelman and Ellie Dvorkin for their cabaret musical, Mel and El, This Show Rhymes; and Shirley Lauro and Alexis Greene for their anthology of plays by women: Front Lines: Political Plays by American Women.  

The awards were underwritten by Special Advisor to the Coalition, Sherry Eaker, and Past President, Elsa Rael.

The event was hosted by the Coalition Board and its Honorary Artistic Advisors and Colleagues including composer, Nancy Ford, and playwright and performer, Leslie Ayvazian.  The event also honored Women's History Month and SWAN  Day (Support Women Artists Now, a campaign initiated by the Fund for Women Artists).