Monica Drake | |
---|---|
Born | 1967 (age 56–57) Lansing, Michigan, U.S. |
Occupation | Writer |
Nationality | American |
Education | University of Arizona (MFA) |
Genre | Fiction |
Children | 1 |
Website | |
www |
Monica Drake (born 1967 in Lansing, Michigan) is an American fiction writer known for her novels, Clown Girl and The Stud Book. Clown Girl was a finalist for the 2007 Ken Kesey Award for the Novel through the Oregon Book Awards. It was named Best Book of 2007 by Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk in the December 2007 issue of Playboy Magazine. [1]
Actress and comedian Kristen Wiig optioned the film rights for Clown Girl. [2]
The Stud Book gained attention for its "dead girl shots game" and the author's commentary "about the way the dead bodies of women have become such a popular television trope." [3] The Oregonian characterized the novel as "mesmerizing" despite "off-putting" qualities and a slow start. [4]
Drake lives in Portland, Oregon with her daughter. She is among the faculty in the writing program at Pacific Northwest College of Art and a graduate of the University of Arizona's MFA program in creative writing.
In 2018, Drake appeared on Storytellers Telling Stories, reading from her newest book, The Folly of Loving Life, accompanied by singer-songwriter, Katelyn Convery. [5]
Judith Blume is an American writer of children's, young adult, and adult fiction. Blume began writing in 1959 and has published more than 25 novels. Among her best-known works are Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (1970), Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (1972), Deenie (1973), and Blubber (1974). Blume's books have significantly contributed to children's and young adult literature. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.
Ruth Sawyer was an American storyteller and a writer of fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. She may be best known as the author of Roller Skates, which won the 1937 Newbery Medal. She received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in 1965 for her lifetime achievement in children's literature.
Jacqueline Jill Collins was an English romance novelist and actress. She moved to Los Angeles in 1985 and spent most of her career there. She wrote 32 novels, all of which appeared on The New York Times bestsellers list. Her books have sold more than 500 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages. Eight of her novels have been adapted for the screen, either as films or television miniseries. She was the younger sister of Dame Joan Collins.
Thea Beatrice May Astley was an Australian novelist and short story writer. She was a prolific writer who was published for over 40 years from 1958. At the time of her death, she had won more Miles Franklin Awards, Australia's major literary award, than any other writer. As well as being a writer, she taught at all levels of education – primary, secondary and tertiary.
Monica Ali FRSL is a British writer of Bangladeshi and English descent. In 2003, she was selected as one of the "Best of Young British Novelists" by Granta magazine based on her unpublished manuscript; her debut novel, Brick Lane, was published later that year. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. It was adapted as a 2007 film of the same name. She has also published four other novels. Her fifth novel, Love Marriage, was published by Virago Press in February 2022 and became an instant Sunday Times bestseller.
Leila Berg was an English children's author, editor and play specialist. She was well known as a journalist and a writer on education and children's rights. Berg was a recipient of the Eleanor Farjeon Award.
Kristen Carroll Wiig is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter and producer. First breaking through as a performer with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, Wiig achieved nationwide stardom during her seven-season tenure on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2005 to 2012.
Stephenie Meyer is an American novelist and film producer. She is best known for writing the vampire romance series Twilight, which has sold over 160 million copies, with translations into 37 different languages. Meyer was the bestselling author of 2008 and 2009 in the U.S., having sold over 29 million books in 2008 and 26.5 million in 2009. Meyer received the 2009 Children's Book of the Year award from the British Book Awards for Breaking Dawn, the Twilight series finale.
The Clique is a young adult novel series written by Canadian author Lisi Harrison and originally published by Little, Brown and Company, a subsidiary of the Hachette Group. The series was reprinted by Poppy books. The series revolves around five girls: Massie Block, Alicia Rivera, Dylan Marvil, Kristen Gregory, and Claire Lyons, who are known as The Pretty Committee. The Pretty Committee is a popular clique at the fictional, all-girls middle school, Octavian Country Day (OCD). Claire and her family move from Orlando, Florida to Westchester, New York, where they live in the Blocks' guesthouse. Claire is initially considered an outcast due to her financial and fashion status. As the series progresses, Claire slowly develops a friendship with Massie, realizing that she must earn her friendship, and eventually becomes a member of the group.
Ann Ulrey, known professionally as Roxanne Beck is an American screenwriter, children's book author and voice actress. Her writing credits include the screenplay for the short film "Miss Famous" (2015) starring Kristen Wiig and the children's book "Caterpillarland". Beck earned her MFA in Screenwriting at UCLA, where her awards included a Humanitas Drama Fellowship nomination. Her jazz/blues release "Comes Love", produced by Grammy nominee Bud Harner, received national radio airplay in 2008; her first album, Garden of Love, was released in 1997. She is also an internationally known voice actress who voiced characters on anime films released in the U.S. by Central Park Media, 4kids Entertainment and Right Stuf Inc. Originally from Searcy, Arkansas, she now lives in Los Angeles.
Hawthorne Books is an independent publisher founded in 2001 in Portland, Oregon, U.S., specializing in literary fiction and creative nonfiction original trade paperbacks.
Gina Ochsner is an American author best known for her story collection The Necessary Grace to Fall, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award in 2001, and her novel The Russian Dream Book of Colour and Flight (2009).
Kathleen Karr was an American author of historical novels for children and young adults. She is the winner of the Golden Kite Award for her book, The Boxer.
Kevin Sampsell is an American writer living in Portland, Oregon. He has worked at Powell's Book Store since 1998 as an events coordinator and the head of the small press section. His memoir, A Common Pornography, was published by Harper Perennial in January 2010. Tin House published his novel, This Is Between Us (2013), about a man and woman, both divorced, trying to start a life together. His collection of collage art and poems, I Made an Accident, will be published by Clash Books in summer of 2022. Sampsell also started and co-produced Lit Hop, a one-night, multiple-venue reading event in Portland, Oregon. It happened from 2013 to 2016. He curates and hosts another event promoting small publishers and small press writers, Smallpressapalooza, every March at Powell's Bookstore in Portland, Oregon.
A Scattered Life is a 2010 novel written by American author Karen McQuestion and published by AmazonEncore a division of Amazon Publishing. Originally released solely as an e-book for Amazon's Kindle, the novel is notable for being the first self-published Kindle book optioned for film. Producer Eric Lake optioned the rights for the L.A.-based production company, Hiding In Bed, in November 2009.
Girl Most Likely is a 2012 American comedy film directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini. Based on a screenplay by Michelle Morgan, the film stars Kristen Wiig as a playwright who stages a suicide in an attempt to win back her ex, only to wind up in the custody of her gambling-addict mother, played by Annette Bening. Matt Dillon, Christopher Fitzgerald, Natasha Lyonne, and Darren Criss co-star.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl is a 2015 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Marielle Heller, based on the hybrid novel of the same name by Phoebe Gloeckner. It stars Bel Powley as a 15-year-old girl who becomes sexually active by starting a relationship with her mother's boyfriend. It also stars Kristen Wiig, Alexander Skarsgård, Christopher Meloni, Quinn Nagle, and Austin Lyon. It premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and had a limited release on August 7, 2015 by Sony Pictures Classics.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures is a diaristic graphic novel by author and artist Phoebe Gloeckner. It is notable for its hybrid form, composed of both prose and "comics" passages, each contributing to the narrative.
Lidia Yuknavitch is an American writer, teacher and editor based in Oregon. She is the author of the memoir The Chronology of Water, and the novels The Small Backs of Children,Dora: A Headcase, and The Book of Joan. She is also known for her TED talk "The Beauty of Being a Misfit", which has been viewed over 3.2 million times, and her follow-up book The Misfit's Manifesto.
Storytellers Telling Stories is an episodic podcast created and hosted by writer and showrunner Jude Brewer, harkening back to the Golden Age of Radio as a "theatre of the mind" experience with writers, actors, and musicians. Consolidated into seasons and released weekly, the episodes range from just a few minutes to about an hour, with most hovering around the 30-minute mark, beginning with Brewer introducing the title of the story and that episode's featured author. The stories are either fiction or nonfiction, exploring a wide array of storytelling genres, from literary fiction to science fiction to magical realism, and noir fiction.