Melody Cooper

New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) and IRIS , a collective of women filmmakers, have announced the selected screenwriters who will participate in the second year of The Writers Lab – the only lab in the world dedicated to providing script development for women writers over the age of 40.

It is funded by Meryl Streep.

The 12 participants for The Writers Lab 2016 are:

— Melody Cooper, “The Sound of Darkness”
— Carol Carpenter, “The Guadalupe”
— Meredith DePaolo, “Devil’s Eye”
— Nancy Duff, “Dead Drop”
— Kate Erickson, “Roll With It”
–Tina Field Howe, “Drone War”
— Christina Hulen, “A Gentleman of Good Hope”
— Christine Toy Johnson, “Jumping the Third Rail”
— Nanci Katz-Ellis, “Blink”
— Leslie Longworth, “One Bad Astronaut”
— Barbara Nunberg, “Willful Blindness”
— Stephanie Stanley, “The Radical”

The mentors attached to the Lab, slated for September 22-25, 2016, include: Alexis Alexanian (“Maggie’s Plan”), Jessica Bendinger (“Bring It On,” “Aquamarine”), Susan Cartsonis (“What Women Want,” “The Duff”), Lisa Cortes (“Precious,” “Shadowboxer”), Caroline Kaplan (“Time Out of Mind,” “Me and You and Everyone We Know” ), Mary Jane Skalski (“Win Win,” “The Station Agent”), and Kirsten Smith (“Legally Blond,” “Ten Things I Hate About You”).

The Writers Lab will take place in the Connecticut River Valley, where the 12 selected writers and eight mentors will meet for intensive one-on-one discussions to develop and refine their scripts. In addition, they will participate in group panel discussions to explore universal themes and concepts.

For more information, visit thewriterslab.nyc.