Stacia Saint Owens

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 studied under Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights Paula Vogel and Nilo Cruz, and acclaimed fiction writers Mary Gaitskill and Robert Coover.

In the late 1990s, Ms. Saint Owens co-founded The Pig Latin Embassy--- An Artists’ ColLaboratory. 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.

Ms. Saint Owens’ plays have appeared at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, The Working Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, New Dramatists, and regional theatres in Dallas, Chicago, Providence, and Los Angeles. Her writing awards include The Princess Grace Foundation Award in Film, George Burns and Gracie Allan Comedy Writing Award, and Slamdance Film Festival/​ Sci-Fi Channel Horror Writing Award. 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 CBC Canada, and “PELEA DE GALLOS” ran on Showtime Network and syndicated network television.

Ms. Saint Owens' fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Southern California Review, Willow Springs, Wisconsin Review, Dos Passos Review, NIGHT, Smoke Signals, Quarterly West, Confrontation and The Massachusetts Review. Her creative nonfiction essay, "Temporary Classroom" (Willow Springs), was awarded Special Mention in the 2010 Pushcart Prize Anthology.

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 conducts creative writing and theatre arts workshops for under-served communities in both the U.S. and England.

Stacia Saint Owens lived in London, England, for the past four years, where she served as Lecturer in English Literature at Harrow College. She now resides in Los Angeles, where she is writing a novel. Her short story collection, Auto-Erotica, is the winner of the Tartt First Fiction Award and was published by Livingston Press in July 2009.