PWN Success Stories

We are thrilled to share the recent success stories of our writers and instructors!

Congratulations to Mike Farragher, a member of the PWN Screen Academy, whose short film LoveLetters Profiles will screen at the 2022 Garden State Film Festival. Based on an actual dating profile business and its true stories, the film follows “The Catholic Cougar” as a first date goes sideways.

Relative Distance, an original drama written by PWN Screen Academy director Lizzie Finn and her writing partner Sandra Longo has won Best Feature Script in Paris Film Awards, London Movie Awards, 1st Monthly Film Festival, and the Hollywood Gold Awards.  

Reflecting on her awards, Lizzie said: “Every craft tool or technique I share with my students at the Screen Academy I acquired through trial and error over the past 15 years. To prove my techniques are effective, I’ve begun applying them to my older scripts that I wrote when I was still fumbling around and learning. After recently revising Relative Distance and submitting to contests, I am happy to say the results speak for themselves.”

Jennifer Shields, a PWN outreach instructor and memoir student, will have her essay “Sweet Spot” published in Schuykill Valley Journal Online in April. The essay details a difficult time in her teen years. Jennifer shared: “I worked on this piece in Jen Gaites’s Memoir class. I’m so grateful she encouraged me to submit it!”  

Lou Storey, a participant in PWN’s Fresh Reader program, Laura Cypher’s Poetry class, and Jennifer Gaites’s memoir class, has had several recent publications including “Unwinding the Clock” in 3rd Act Magazine and “Culinary Coercion” in (Re) An Ideas Journal. His poem, “Fifty Men Race” written in Laura Cypher’s Poetry class, will be included in Beyond Words dating-themed anthology in Spring 2022. Lou says, “Two of the Creative Nonfiction pieces were written in Project Write Now classes, and the others were a direct inspiration from PWN. As always, thanks so much to you and all PWN staff and teachers.”