Success Stories
Announcing the 2022 James Kirkwood Award Winners
2022 marked the 30th anniversary of the James Kirkwood Literary Prize. As in many years past, a celebratory luncheon was held in December for this year’s winners. Additionally, to mark the momentous occasion of having thirty years of this prize, there was also an...
Success: WP Staffer Jeff Bonnett’s Netflix Holiday Movie
We're thrilled to close out 2022's success stories with one of our own: Jeff Bonnett wrote Falling for Christmas, a holiday movie featuring Lindsay Lohan now streaming on Netflix. The script was started in a Writers' Program course, and helped along in early drafts...
The Barbara Abercrombie Scholarship in Creative Writing
Barbara Abercrombie taught with the Writers’ Program for over thirty years. She was a dedicated instructor who devoted her energy, time, and wisdom to students – being awarded both the UCLA Extension Distinguished Instructor Award and the UCLA Extension Outstanding...
Success: Joseph Dabby’s Debut Memoir
Former student Joseph Dabby recently published his memoir. He says of the experience, “My book No Looking Back was published recently. It's a memoir about my growing up as a Jew in Iraq, my childhood, adolescence, imprisonment, marriage to my sweetheart, and our...
Success: Stephanie Bast’s Multiple Placements
Current screenwriting student Stephanie Bast has had success with two of her scripts in competitions recently. Stephanie continues to have success with her script, FrankenFamily, while her new script Wash Your Birdie: 101 Things That Can Crawl up Your Vagina and Kill...
Success: Denise Cruz-Castino’s Film Projects
Former student Denise Cruz-Castino has had multiple successes since taking classes with the Writers’ Program. Her first produced movie, 5 Weddings premiered at Cannes in 2018, starred Rajkummar Rao who starred in the Oscar nominated film The White Tiger, with co-stars...
Announcing the 2022-2023 Phyllis Gebauer Scholarship Recipients
Announcing the 2022-2023 Phyllis Gebauer Scholarship Recipients The Writers’ Program joyfully announces the latest recipients of the Phyllis Gebauer Scholarship in Writing. We had many qualified applicants this year, resulting in more grantees than traditionally...
Success: Annie O’Neill Stein’s Debut Novel
Former student Annie O’Neill Stein recently had her debut novel, started in our courses, published. Regrettably, Annie passed away a few months ago. However, her former classmate was kind enough to reach out and offer this success story and tribute to Annie’s work....
Feature Articles
Success: Instructor Matt Witten’s New Novel
Screenwriting instructor Matt Witten recently had a new novel published. Matt says, "My thriller Killer Story came out this month from Oceanview Publishing. Killer Story is inspired by all the true-crime podcasts I love listening to during my commutes to UCLA. It's...
Announcing the 2022 James Kirkwood Award Winners
2022 marked the 30th anniversary of the James Kirkwood Literary Prize. As in many years past, a celebratory luncheon was held in December for this year’s winners. Additionally, to mark the momentous occasion of having thirty years of this prize, there was also an...
2022 Year in Review
As another year nears its end, the Writers’ Program reflects on how the world, and our program continue evolving. We know this continues to be a difficult time for many, and for others they have experienced personal and professional growth this past year that deserves...
NEW Courses for Winter 2023
We’re constantly looking ahead in our program given the nature of course planning, but it still comes as a shock when another year’s end approaches. We’ve had another successful year with many, many changes (more on that in our next blog post). As we look to 2023 and...
Instructor Interview: Lin Oliver
Welcome new Writers’ Program instructor Lin Oliver! Lin is teaching a new course, Writing Humor for Young Readers (Reg# 389704) this Winter. Lin is teaching in person near UCLA on Tuesdays, 7-10pm PT starting January 17. She sat down with us to offer some insight into...
Holiday Gifts for Writers
Most folks know that writers are suckers for books, pens, and notebooks (oh, the notebooks). And gift cards to local bookstores or coffee shops to fuel those writing sprees are also nice. But what else can you get a writer during the holidays (or anytime)? We asked...
Instructor Interviews: Tomás Romero and Yared Zeleke
Welcome new Writers’ Program instructors Tomás Romero and Yared Zeleke! Tomás and Yared are both teaching sections of Feature Film I this Winter. Tomás is teaching in our Remote Instruction format, with live Zoom class meetings, Tuesdays from 5pm-8pm PT (Reg# 389258)...
The Barbara Abercrombie Scholarship in Creative Writing
Barbara Abercrombie taught with the Writers’ Program for over thirty years. She was a dedicated instructor who devoted her energy, time, and wisdom to students – being awarded both the UCLA Extension Distinguished Instructor Award and the UCLA Extension Outstanding...