Four comedy writers are in the running to win a £10,000 prize to help them work on new project.

They shortlisted name are Lynn Fergusson, Karen Laws, Lucy Montgomery and Simon Munnery.

The Arts Foundation fellowship is designed to ‘buy time’ for the winner so they can concentrate on their work without worrying about financial constraints.

Scottish actress and stand-up Ferguson has a string of acclaimed solo Edinburgh shows behind her, including  Heart and Sole– a comedy piece about falling in love with a fish – and 2001 Fringe First winner Mental.

Laws won the BBC’s hunt for northern writing talent, Northern Exposure and has woked on a number of pieces for theatre.

Montgomery, above , was recently seen in Channel 4’s The Friday Night Project and stars in BBC Three’s all-female sketch show Titty Titty Bang Bang. But she is also known to Edinburgh Fringe audiences as part of the Population:3 troupe behind Gladiatrix, The  Wicker Woman and The Elephant Woman.

And Munnery, right, has been acclaimed for pushing the boundaries of comedy with his creatins Alan Parker – Urban Warrior, Buckethead and League Against Tedium, whose short-lived BBC Two show Attention Scum became a cult hit.

The winner will be announced by Ruby Wax at a bash in London on January 26.

The fellowships – funded by a million-pound legacy from an anonymous donor in 1993 - are awarded ‘on the basis of talent and need’ to British artists.

A total of £50,000 will be awarded  this year  in comedy writing, furniture design,  jazz composition, painting and performance poetry.

This is the first year since the fellowships were established in 1993 that an award has been given for comedy writing.