Last Thursday, January 24th, WriteGirl volunteers, supporters, and honorees gathered at the Grammy Foundation in Santa Monica to celebrate the 2008 Bold Ink Awards. Despite some rare heavy Los Angeles rain, the festivities went on fabulously!
This year, WriteGirl honored eight female writers for their accomplishments.
Diablo Cody: Screenwriter, Juno. Author of “Candy Girl”.<P.Liz Craft and Sarah Fain: Executive Producers and Writers, The Shield and Women’s Murder Club. Authors of “Bass Ackwards and Belly Up” and “Footfree and Fancyloose”.
Callie Khouri: Directed Mad Money. Adapted and directed The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, and written the Golden Globe nominated Something to Talk About. In 1992, she won an Oscar for her screenplay Thelma and Louise.
Carol Muske-Dukes: Author of “Channeling Mark Twain”. She is the recipient of several awards including The Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Mona Simpson: Author of “Anywhere But Here”, “The Lost Father”, “A Regular Guy”, and “Off Keck Road”.
Robin Swicord: Playwright, “Last Days at the Dixie Girl Cafe”. Screen adaptations of Little Women, The Perez Family, Matilda, Practical Magic and the Oscar-winning Memoirs of a Geisha.
Patt Morrison: Reporter, columnist, commentator and media personality. Ms. Morrison has won five Emmys, four Golden Mike Awards, and a Pulitzer.
Our 2008 honorees from left to right: (middle row) Diablo Cody, Robin Swicord, Keren Taylor, Carol Muskie Dukes, Mona Simpson (back row) Sarah Fain, Liz Craft. (bottom row) Melissa Castillo, Nadine Levyfield, Corie Coleman and Allie List
With all the wisdom these Bold Ink honorees have gathered through their experiences, we asked them to tell us what advice they have for aspiring young writers. Here is what they had to impart:
“It doesn’t matter what you write, just keep writing.” - Diablo Cody
“Be fearless. You know your own mind.” - Carol Muske-Dukes”
We feel riddled with self-decrimation. But that’s where the ‘bold’ comes from. It’s okay to be scared. It’s necessary.” - Liz Craft and Sarah Fain
“When I was young, people asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up. I said, ‘I am a writer’. They asked again, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ I said, ‘I am a writer’.” - Robin Swicord
“Stop making noise and say something!” - Callie Khouri
We are proud to announce that during the ceremony, Norma Vega, on behalf of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, presented an award to WriteGirl commending the accomplishments made in work with Los Angeles youth. Including the astouding accomplishment of sending 100% of WriteGirl mentees to college.
Thank you to everyone who made the 2008 Bold Ink Awards possible!
March 7, 2008 at 12:36 am
This was a terrific event, elegant and illuminating, and how fun that we beat the Academy of Motion Pictures to the punch in honoring Diablo!
December 18, 2008 at 11:23 pm
[...] In addition to her teaching positions and numerous books, Muske-Dukes has also been anthologized widely, including credits in Best American Poems, 100 Great Poems by Women, MotherSongs and others. Her list of awards and accomplishments includes a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, the Ingram-Merrill Fellowship, the Witter Bynner Award from the Library of Congress, the Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, five Pushcart prizes and the WriteGirl Bold Ink Award. [...]