Debra Di Blasi
Debra Di Blasi (born May 27, 1957) is an American author, screenwriter and former publisher. Biography. Debra Di Blasi was born May 27, 1957, in Kirksville, Missouri). "The New York Times Book Review" praised her story collection "Prayers of an Accidental Nature" for its "clear, resonant prose, laced with bittersweet humor." Likewise "Publishers Weekly" wrote that "Di Blasi's style and her objective distance and comprehension of her chosen subject mark her as a very psychologically driven, very talented writer." Her writing is frequently included in related literary anthologies, and has appeared in the journals "The Los  Angeles Review", "TriQuarterly", "New Letters", "The Iowa Review", "Chelsea", "Boulevard", "Notre Dame Review", and many others. Her stories have been adapted to radio, film, theatre and audio CD in the U.S. and abroad. Her screenwriting credits include "The Walking Wounded", finalist in the 1996 Austin Screenwriters Competition, and "Drought", for which she won the 1999 Cinovation Screenwriting Award. "Drought" was directed by Lisa Moncure won a host of national and international awards. It was one of only six U.S. films included in the Universe Elle special section of the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. She was the art columnist for "The  Pitch" magazine, and taught experimental writing, hyperfiction, mixed media fiction, and other writing courses at Kansas City Art Institute for seven years. She has taught and lectured on 21st Century narrative forms at universities and conferences including &NOW Conference and Associated Writing Programs Conference. From 2008 to January 2016, she was founding publisher of the multimedia company Jaded Ibis Productions, LLC, and managing editor of its book imprint Jaded Ibis Press. In January 2016, she sold the company's assets to newly formed Jaded Ibis Press, LLC. Di Blasi received an &NOW award in 2009 for her stories “The Incomplete  But Real History of The Jiri Chronicles Illustrated by The Real Jiri Cech” and “Products” published in The &NOW Awards: The Best Innovative Writing in 2009. Di Blasi has been a regular participant in the biennial &NOW Festival. Awards. She received the 2019 C&R Press Nonfiction Award for "Selling the Farm: Descants from a Recollected Past" (September 2020), 2003 James C. McCormick Fellowship in Fiction from the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, 1991 Diagram Innovative Fiction Award, 2008 Inspiration Grant from Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City, and three Pushcart Prize nominations, among other awards. She was a finalist in the Heekin  Foundation's Novel-in-Progress. "Drought & Say What You Like" won the 1998 Thorpe Menn Literary Excellence Award. An early version of her manuscript, Selling the Farm: Descants from a Recollected Past, was a 2017 finalist in Four Way Books Levis Prize in Poetry, and semifinalist in Seneca Review's Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Book Award.