EXCLUSIVE: The Writers Guild Basis has teamed with the Northwestern Jail Training Program (NPEP) on the Justice-Impacted Writers Venture (JIWP), a fellowship for aspiring writers at the moment incarcerated at Sheridan Correctional Heart in Sheridan, Illinois. The beginning date is Jan. 9.
The venture is spearheaded by writing companions Sammy Horowitz and Adam Pasen (Energy Guide IV: Drive). Horowitz, now a profitable screenwriter, is a former Chicago gang member who was imprisoned for practically a decade and spent a number of years incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Heart, in Crest Hill, Illinois.
The thought for the fellowship got here after Horowitz and Pasen taught a screenwriting workshop final 12 months at Stateville for NPEP. College students realized the six plot factors of a characteristic and developed their very own story markers together with a logline.
“It was surreal strolling again into Stateville as a free man after being locked up there…and particularly to show. It was actually a flood of feelings,” Horowitz stated. “I informed everybody in that room…it’s attainable. You may get out and succeed. Me standing right here is the proof.” Pasen added, “What amazed me essentially the most was the eagerness as storytellers and the variety of concepts.”
After he and Pasen outlined a fellowship proposal, Horowitz contacted Jennifer Lackey, Founding Director of NPEP, and Kira VandenBrande, Director of Neighborhood Packages on the Writers Guild Basis,. to collaborate. The three way partnership finally developed into JIWP.
Underneath the fellowship, JIWP will work with the Illinois Division of Corrections to pick out ten at the moment incarcerated writers instantly from the NPEP program, specializing in these with lower than two years remaining on their sentences. They’ll then participate in a six-month program led by Horowitz and Pasen.
The fellowship will include weekly workshops (held in particular person or by way of Zoom) with the aim of guiding members to write down an unique pilot as a pattern and pitch their tasks to trade leaders upon completion. Workshops shall be led by Horowitz and Pasen, with further assist from NPEP employees. As well as, every month will characteristic a lecture from established showrunners comparable to Barbie Kligman (Doc), Gary Lennon (Hightown), Matt Lopez (Sheriff Nation), Robert Munic (The Cleaner), Christopher Silber (NCIS: Hawaii), and Craig Sweeny (Elementary). They’ll serve on the JIWP Advisory Board together with high trade executives, expertise brokers, and producers.
Horowitz and Pasen have written on the second and third seasons of the hit Starz Chicago crime drama Energy Guide IV: Drive and lately offered a characteristic to AGC Studios. Whereas a lot of their work entails crime and motion, they’re additionally captivated with carceral justice and sometimes embody themes of reform and preventing recidivism.
Horowitz is a 2024 NPEP Justice Fellow, a program which brings collectively the most effective voices and initiatives reworking how we take into consideration crime and punishment within the U.S. Pasen is an alumnus of Northwestern and accomplished his MA in Artistic Writing in 2008.
JIWP joins the Writers Guild Basis’s group applications, such because the Veterans Writing Venture C Fellowship and the Writers’ Entry Help Employees Coaching Program, which intention to create pathways for underserved communities to meaningfully join with Writers Guild of America West membership and make use of their instructional sources.
Finally, Horowitz and Pasen hope to supply the fellowship yearly with a twofold intention: utilizing artwork to help in reentry for inmates about to be paroled and offering entry for distinctive writers throughout the penal system. “Authenticity and lived expertise are phrases that we use loads within the trade,” Horowitz stated, “and with the variety of reveals that contain or happen in jail that is one technique to create pathways to careers and make main strides towards genuine illustration.” Provides Pasen, “we hope to vary lives, and in flip the TV and movie panorama as nicely.”
Horowitz and Pasen are repped by Elizabeth Newman at Literate for literary and Erez Rosenberg at Jackoway, Austen, Tyerman, Wertheimer, Mandelbaum, Morris, Bernstein Trattner, Auerbach, Hynick, Jaime, LeVine, Pattern C Klein for authorized.