Candidate for Council, Film/TV/Streaming Sector
As an incumbent Council member, I am pleased to be running for another term on Writers Guild of America, East Council.
It has been period of great change within the industry and the WGAE. I want to continue to serve in order to provide context and institutional memory and to provide a bridge across the various sectors of our membership. I will support ongoing advocacy for new and under-represented voices as well as working to increase opportunity for all WGAE members.
As many of you know, this year we welcomed a new executive director, Sam Wheeler, who is off to a great start. And importantly, in recent years the structure of the guild was changed to better meet the needs of the membership. There are now three work sectors Film/TV/Streaming, Online Media and Broadcast/Cable/Streaming News. I was part of the Council that worked to develop and implement this new structure and am pleased to report that the system is working well.
I want to continue serving members of the Film/TV/Streaming sector while recognizing and supporting the needs of the membership overall. The WGAE works best when we come together to build consensus—this is all the more important given where we are currently as an industry.
The post-strike contraction has affected Film/TV writers profoundly. There are fewer pitches being bought, fewer pilots ordered, fewer staffing jobs, and shorter seasons. This affects writers at every level and it has without a doubt become more difficult to earn a living as a writer. Similar contractions are happening in Online Media and Broadcast News. And looming just beneath the surface in all areas is the complex issue of AI and how it will impact our future work as writers.
This is not all gloom and doom –, there will be progress, if not an actual turn around. The markets for film and television will pick up. Whether things are up or down the WGAE will always actively represent its members and advocate for job protections and contracts that enable members to earn enough to quality for health insurance and for pension contributions to continue. Importantly, the Guild is here for its members when they are between jobs, offering pitch practice sessions and job coaching along with many other opportunities for career development and financial education. The Guild builds community through regular gatherings of the membership and its affinity groups, such as The Women’s Salon, The LGBTQIA Salon and a range of caucuses.
Activism is the fabric of my life, beginning with my early years in Washington D.C.. When I moved to N.Y.C in 1985, I became active in the fight for Gay Rights and responding to the AIDS Crisis. At PEN, I served on the Board and Executive Committee and was Vice-President. I chaired the Writers Fund from 2005-2015 and remain active there. I’ve also served on the boards of The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and The New York Foundation for the Arts/Board and Executive Committee and the Advisory Council. From 2015-2020, I served as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of Yaddo and remain active on theBoard as well as on the boards of Poets and Writers and The Elizabeth Dance Company.
Currently I am Professor of The Practice at Princeton University where I teach a range of of courses including; Screenwriting, Writing Political Fiction and Experimental Opera. I am active in mentoring first generation and low-income students and sit on several committees dealing with issues of race/gender in the arts as well as LGBTQ concerns.
Writing/Credits
I am the author of 13 books including most recently the novel, The Unfolding. My novel, May We Be Forgiven, won the 2013 Bailey’s/Orange Prize), and other books include This Book Will Save Your Life, Music For Torching, The End of Alice, In A Country of Mothers, the story collections, Days of Awe, The Safety of Objects and Things You Should Know, the memoirs, The Mistress’s Daughter and California: People, Places and The Castle On The Hill. My books are published in 22 languages, which puts me in contact with writers of all kinds around the world. This exchange is enormously helpful in adding global perspective and context to my understanding of issues facing writers. In addition to my books, I am a Contributing Editor to Vanity Fair, Bomb and Blind Spot. Several times a year I collaborate on book projects with artists, among them Eric Fischl, Rachel Whiteread, Cecily Brown, Bill Owens, Petah Coyne, Carroll Dunham, Catherine Opie and Todd Hido.
I’ve been a WGAE member for more than 20 years and am currently developing original projects as well as collaborating on two adaptations of own books. My writing credits include Co-Executive Producer on David E. Kelly and Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes, Co-Executive Producer on Falling Water, Producer on The L Word and pilots for ABC, NBC, CBS, FX, SHOWTIME, and HBO.
Finally, and most importantly, the WGAE is a creative community, and I am committed to supporting and growing our membership into one that is open and inclusive and reflective of who we are as a society.
Endorsements
Nina Beeber, Monica Lee Bellais, Brooke Berman, Larry J Cohen, T Cooper, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, Hussein Darwish, Bonnie Datt, Sara David, Nicholas Davis, Justin DiLauro, Griffin Dunne, Ashley Feinberg, Tom Fontana, Kaitlin Fontana, Gina Gionfriddo, Allison Glock, Elizabeth Godvik, Tian Jun Gu, Jim Hart, Peter Hedges, Soo Hugh, Liz Hynes, Christopher Kyle, James Lapine, Christina Lazaridi, Gail Lee, Michael Maren, Kathy McGee, Sarah Montana, Marygrace O’Shea, Anna Park, Philip Pilato, Ira Sachs, Erica Saleh, Stephen Schiff, Bob Schneider, Ariel Schrag, Dani Shapiro, Sydney Sidner, David Simon, Scott Spencer, Sasha E Stewart, Susanna Styron, Louis Venosta, Suzanne Weber, Tracey Scott Wilson
Note: WGAW members who wish to endorse a candidate may follow the process outlined in section G.1.B of the 2024 Election Policy.
