2008 AWARDS
2008 Bold Ink Awards * Grammy Foundation * January 24, 2008
Pictured, top left to right: 2008 Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno); Academy Award nominated screenwriter Robin Swicord (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button); WriteGirl Executive Director Keren Taylor; Writer/Producer Sarah Fain (Dollhouse); 2009 California Poet Laureate Carol Muske-Dukes (Channeling Mark Twain); Liz Craft (Dollhouse); Mona Simpson (Anywhere But Here) Bottom row: WriteGirl teen authors. Not pictured: Calle Khourie (Thelma & Louise); LA Times Columnist & NPR commentator Patt Morrison.
About the 2008 Bold Ink Award Honorees:
DIABLO CODY
One of the newest stars in Hollywood, screenwriter Diablo Cody has elevated the issue of teen pregnancy out of Afternoon Specials and into the mouths of real girls and women with her Golden Globe nominated screenplay, Juno. Seeking to create witty, wise and strong female characters, she is poised to change the way women are portrayed in film and TV. Go, Diablo.
LIZ CRAFT AND SARAH FAIN
Liz Craft and Sarah Fain have written their way together from Kansas City to Hollywood. Cutting their teeth on award-winning shows Angel and The Shield, they are now creators, executive producers and writers of Fox’s hugely popular Women’s Murder Club. As a break from the blood and gore, they’ve also co-written the young adult novels “Bass Ackwards and Belly Up” and “Footfree and Fancyloose”, about four teenage friends who, just like Sarah and Liz, band together to make their dreams come true.
CALLIE KHOURI
Screenwriter, director and producer Callie Khouri speaks to generations of women through film: she has directed the recently released Mad Money, adapted and directed The Diving Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, and written the Golden Globe nominated Something to Talk About. In 1992, her Oscar-winning screenplay forged a road where there was no road before, traveled by two of the most iconic female characters in cinema, Thelma & Louise.
CAROL MUSKE-DUKES
“Channeling Mark Twain” author and National Book Award Nominee Carol Muske-Dukes draws on her experiences teaching poetry at the Women’s House of Detention on Riker’s Island. She is a nationally recognized poet with fellowships and awards from The Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Ingram-Merrill, the Library of Congress, the Poetry Society of America and several Pushcart Prizes, and is professor of English and Creative Writing and founding Director of the new PhD Program in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California.
MONA SIMPSON
Mona Simpson’s novels have been called “unsentimental versions of contemporary womanhood,” and include the bestselling “Anywhere But Here”, “The Lost Father,” “A Regular Guy” and “Off Keck Road,” which was nominated for a PEN/Faulkner Award. She has been named one of Granta’s 20 Best American Writers Under 40 and is the receipt of the Guggenheim award, the Whiting prize, the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest award, and Princeton University’s Hadder Prize.
ROBIN SWICORD
Screenwriter, producer and director Robin Swicord first experienced success with her Off-Broadway play “Last Days at the Dixie Girl Café”. Her first screen adaptation, Louisa May Alcott’s beloved Little Women, won her a WGA Award nomination for best adapted screenplay. Among her other work, she has adapted for screen The Perez Family, Matilda, Practical Magic and the Oscar-winning Memoirs of A Geisha. Having written for Hollywood for over 20 years, she is among Hollywood’s top tier of women writers.
PATT MORRISON
Reporter, columnist, commentator and media personality Patt Morrison never stops breaking new ground for women in journalism. Winner of five Emmys, four Golden Mike awards and a Pulitzer, she is also the first woman in 25 years to receive the Joseph M. Quinn award from the Los Angeles Press Club for lifetime achievement. Her eponymous radio program can be heard weekdays on KPCC, and she is a regular commentator for NPR’s Morning Edition and the Huffington Post, as well as a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times.
