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On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch
Writing, Film, Television and More!
It’s always exciting when a new box of books arrives on our doorstep. I’m proud to say I’ve been working on so many projects that I sometimes don’t know which book will be in the box during my unboxing.
That was the case this week when a new box arrived and I expected it to be Sally Ride: Breaking Barriers and Defying Gravity, written by Jackie Perez, an alum of our Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting program. That’s because I edited her book as part of the ‘Women Making History’ series by Bloomsbury which I co-edit with my friend and colleague Dr. Peg Lamphier.
So far, we’ve edited and published new biographies of everyone from
Eleanor Roosevelt (by our good friend Keri Dearborn)
AND
Dolores Huerta (by our Mt. San Antonio College colleague April Tellez)
WITH the next in line to publish in April 2026 being:
Sandra Day O’Connor: How an Arizona Cowgirl Became the First Woman Supreme Court Justice By Nancy Hendricks (who we met when she wrote entries in our first encyclopedia Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection
All the biographies come out in hardback first for a higher fee and in 18 months will be released in paperback for lower fees.
So what’s the new book that did arrive? It was Shaping Global Cultures through Screenwriting: Women Who Write Our Worlds which I edited with my friend and Screenwriting Research Network colleague Rose Ferrell.
What’s it about? I think the back of the book says it all:
Shaping Global Cultures through Screenwriting: Women Who Write Our Worlds is a powerful testament to the undeniable impact of an international collection of female screenwriters. Spanning film, television, virtual reality, games, and digital media, these case studies showcase instances when women have used screenwriting to challenge injustice and give voice to communities across the globe. Acknowledging global disparities in wealth and power, the book exposes screenwriting as activism, which shifts attitudes and alters lived experiences. Whether about gender and race or war and colonization, or other serious issues, each chapter reveals the deep connections between storytelling and social change. More than just a study of the craft, this is a celebration of the women writers who use their artistic lens to educate and empower others.
It’s a collection of chapters on how female screenwriters have used writing as activism. We read ‘screenwriting’ as any writing that creates something on a screen so that includes an chapter on a Samoan performance artist who has a Malu tatau/tatoo (we had many discussions about using indigenous language without italicizing it to make it not the norm) and did a video called “Walking the Wall” where she showcased her tatua – and I had the chance to write (and therefore learn about) a lawyer in the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change who created a music video urging the advocating for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to create a Resolution asking for an advisory opinion on Climate Change as it’s destroying their Pasifika island homes. Something I knew NOTHING about before. But there are also chapters on Miranda July’s Kajillionaire and queer utopias and Bluey (for children’s TV courses). Anyway, it will be expensive so we can’t use it as a text but I’m hoping enough college libraries buy copies that it’s available to professors and students – and Intellect sells individual chapters suited to particular courses.
If you’re connected to a university or local library, ask them to carry a copy so you – and all others with an interest – can read about everything from myself and my co-writers/co-editors.
Here’s me wishing you a creative weekend!
Unapologetically Herself: Writing Bold and Complex Young Women
During every MFA Residency Workshop I moderate a panel of writers – often proudly including one of our MFA alums – and this August we’re doing it again. Join us on Friday, August 8, 2025 from 7:00 PM 8:30 PM at the Writers Guild Foundation (7000 West 3rd Street Los Angeles, CA, 90048) for:
We’ll explore how writers develop these strong characters, how to approach sensitive scenes intentionally, and how they navigate nuances of character personalities, behaviors, and motivations.
Panelists include:
Get tickts for this WGA Panel Discussion
And if you’d like to see some of our previous WGA panels you can find them on our MFA Website
Women Making History Series now in Paperback!
I’m excited to announce that the book series I co-edit with my dear friend and colleague Peg Lamphier – Women Making History – are now available in paperback which makes the books more affordable for birthday and holiday gift-buying!
Our original publisher – ABC-Clio – (who published our award-winning Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection [4 volumes]) mostly sold to libraries, so hardbacks were the way to go, but Bloomsbury recently purchased them. That means ALL our previous biographies are now in paperback. That makes them much more affordable to our friends and colleagues.
The even cooler first news is that in the last few weeks 2 more of the biographies we shepherded saw publication – one on Dolores Huerta and the other on Sally Ride — so congratulations to authors April Tellez and Jackie Perez! And these 2 new ones will be in paperback about 18-24 months after release.
Here is the email blast Bloomsbury sent out to their list of 20,000 School librarians, 10,000 Academic librarians, and 9,000 public librarians for Women’s History Month:
That means our earlier co-written books: American Women’s History on Film and The Civil War on Film are also in paperback!
But never forget even in hardback it’s worth reminding folks to ask their local libraries to stock a copy so everyone in the neighborhood can read about these accomplished women.
Finally, we have 3 more books in the works right now on Bessie Coleman, Maria Tallchief, and Frida Kahlo with a few more in the works.
Born just 4 years after the end of the Civil War in Boonville, Missouri, the scripts Julia Crawford Ivers wrote (and sometimes directed) often tackled issues of prejudice. After the war, her family emigrated to Los Angeles. As with many female creatives in this era, Ivers used her screenplays to highlight women’s issues from forced marriage to domestic abuse to prejudice.
Read Julia Crawford Ivers: From Rich Widow to Writer-Director
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Born on Christmas Day in 1876 in Massachusetts, Dix and her family lived in various cities around the historic state until she moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to study English and History at Radcliffe College. There she became the first female to be granted the Sohier Literary Prize, for the best thesis of a Harvard or Radcliffe student. From there it seemed a quick move into the world of writing.
Dix began with books about her favorite subject – the history that surrounded her in Massachusetts. In 1899, at the age of 23, she published Soldier Rigdale: How He Sailed in the Mayflower and How He Served Miles Standish. Her first play, A Rose of Plymouth Town ran for a month in 1902, followed by The Road to Yesterday, which ran for 8 months in 1907. Altogether Dix wrote 18 books and 5 plays before moving into the new world of film.
Read Meet Beulah Marie Dix: Award-Winning Scholar and Anti-War Novelist Turned Screenwriter
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