Biography
Stacia Saint Owens grew up in Leavenworth, Kansas. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Brown University, and a BFA in Theatre with a Playwriting concentration from Southern Methodist University. While at Brown, she was awarded the university’s Weston Prize in Writing and a full Graduate School Fellowship. She studied under Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights Paula Vogel and Nilo Cruz; acclaimed experimental playwrights Mac Wellman and Aishah Rahman; award-winning dramaturg/directors Paul Walsh, Lou Salerni, Dale Moffett and John Emigh; and acclaimed fiction writers Mary Gaitskill, Carole Maso and Robert Coover.
Her writing awards include The Princess Grace Foundation Award in Film, George Burns and Gracie Allan Comedy Writing Award, Slamdance Film Festival/ Sci-Fi Channel Horror Writing Award, Independent Feature Project Screenwriters Lab, American Film Institute Television Writers Workshop, Rosenfeld Playwriting Award, CineStory Foundation Screenwriting Fellowship (semi-finalist), Eugene O'Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference (finalist), Paramount Pictures Chesterfield Writer's Film Project (finalist), Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Scriptwriting Internship (finalist), and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting (quarter-finalist).
Ms. Saint Owens’ plays have appeared at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, The Working Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, New Dramatists, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, South Carolina Repertory Company, Theatre of NOTE and regional theatres in Dallas, Chicago, Providence, and Los Angeles.
She has co-written two short films, “OUT OF HABIT” and “PELEA DE GALLOS” (“THE ROOSTER FIGHT”), which have been selected by an extensive list of film festivals, such as Tribeca, Austin, LA Shorts Fest, Santa Monica, and Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival at Sundance. Both films have been honored with several awards, including the Director’s Guild of America Student Film Award and Best Short at four festivals. “OUT OF HABIT” was broadcast on PBS and CBC Canada. “PELEA DE GALLOS” ran on Showtime Network and syndicated network television.
Ms. Saint Owens' fiction has appeared in Southern California Review, Willow Springs, Wisconsin Review, Dos Passos Review, NIGHT, Smoke Signals, Quarterly West, Confrontation, Yuan Yang (Hong Kong), and The Massachusetts Review. Her creative nonfiction essay, "Temporary Classroom" (Willow Springs), was awarded Special Mention in the Pushcart Prize Anthology.
Her short story collection, Auto-Erotica (Livingston Press), is the winner of the Tartt First Fiction Award, finalist for the Hollywood Book Pipeline Competition, and was shortlisted for the Saroyan International Prize in Writing.
Ms. Saint Owens co-founded The Pig Latin Embassy--- An Artists’ ColLaboratory (with producer Houston Curtis). Located in Hollywood, the resident company mounted interdisciplinary, experimental premieres by West Coast writers and artists. Ms. Saint Owens served as Artistic Director and produced three seasons of performance events, including plays, musicals, improv comedy, performance art, and a short film festival. Utilizing guerrilla marketing and affordable ticket prices, The Pig Latin Embassy was able to attract audiences containing approximately 75% first-time theatre-goers.
In addition to writing, Ms. Saint Owens is an instructor of English, Literature, and Drama. She has taught a broad range of students, from undergraduates at an Ivy League university to inmates at a women’s prison. She is a former Lecturer in English Literature at Harrow College in London, England. She conducts creative writing and theatre arts workshops for under-served communities in both the US and UK.
Stacia Saint Owens lives in London, where she is writing a novel. Her political thriller/sci-fi screenplay, "49 BELGRAVE SQUARE" (with visual artist and UK Parliamentary candidate Gordon Shrigley and director Luciano Zubillaga) is currently shooting in London, Berlin, Athens, Seoul, and Buenos Aires. The film will premiere at art gallery Spruth Magers Berlin's Image Movement series.