Hello! I’m Kelly A. Atkins, a writer living in Austin, Texas. My feature-length screenplay, My Marina, formerly entitled Departure Point, Texas, made the top 15 percent in the 2010 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Competition sponsored by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the folks who award the Oscars. The same script also just made the quarterfinals in the 2012 Scriptapalooza Screenwriting Competition.
- Photo by Donna Grayson on Flickr
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Past Incarnations & Present Day
At various times I’ve been an athlete, house painter, yard person, nanny, waitress, bartender, teacher, tutor, house concert music promoter, massage therapist, blogger, writer. My life is filled with writing, friends, family, my day job, and my four canine children, Ginger – 15, Lucy – 10, Frieda and Annie – 8.
- Kelly, Ginger, Frieda (photo by NELL CARROLL)
Over time I’m making the switch from Licensed Massage Therapist to Writer. To that end, I write stories, scripts, and memoirs. I blog, tweet, and attend a writers critique group as I continue my 17-year massage therapy practice. Between appointments, late at night, and on the weekends I wrote the script mentioned above, My Marina, a drama, and another feature-length drama called The Empty Apartment, plus several short stories and creative non-fiction stories toward book-length collections. I’m creating an original 1-hour TV drama set in Austin, tentatively entitled Art and Commerce, and I just started another feature-length screenplay, a comedy or maybe a quirky drama – it remains to be seen, working title, Age of Aquarius. I’m planning to publish my stories and possibly my comic strip in a zine. I’ll include the work of some wonderful writers and artists I know if they’ll let me!
Education & Memberships
English: University of Texas at Austin wordmark. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I’m a self-taught creative writer, though I am formally educated in literature, scholastic writing, and teaching. I received a BA in Liberal Arts from the University Of Texas at Austin, major English, minor Anthropology, and a Texas Teacher Certification, secondary English, grade 6 – 12, also from UT.
I’m a member of a lively, helpful, fun, interesting, writers critique group. We’re comprised of working writers, editors, an award-winning filmmaker, and folks trying to break into the business writing young adult novels and series, memoirs, novels, short stories, and screenplays. We’re working on craft and trying to find publishers and representation.
I’ve tutored peers and students in reading and writing my entire life. Recently, I taught story structure to adults in my writers group, and to one smart wonderful teenager whom I tutored.
Inspiration
I’m grateful for and inspired by my mother’s beauty and tolerance, her love of the English language, and all the arts, and by my father’s beauty and tolerance, his passion for social justice, education, and the empowering qualities of athletics.
My mom, Linda Allen, in high school
My dad, Bill Atkins, coach, teacher, and administrator.
I love all the arts, especially music, movies, and literature. I’m humbled by the work ethic, the personal risk, and creative output of touring writer-performers, particularly musicians and stand-up comedians.
Recently I was deeply inspired by the panelists at the 2011 Austin Film Festival Screenwriters and Filmmakers Conference.
I’ve read all Anne Tyler’s novels at least four or five times each. I especially love Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Morgan’s Passing, and A Patchwork Planet. I’m in love with Eudora Welty’s short stories and spend a good amount of time trying to figure out how she does it. I’m moved by her photographs almost as much as her writing.
- Eudora Welty Writing
- Anne Tyler’s Masterpiece
Goals
Hey awesome movie producer, I’d love to sell you my script or write one for you!
Hey awesome agent, I’d love you to represent me!
I hope my scripts get made into movies (while I’m alive and can go see them)!
I want to try publishing my short stories, memoir stories, and comics in a zine and on other self-publishing platforms, like Nook, Smashwords, Kindle, and Expresso Book Machine. Exciting world opening up out there! I’ll keep you posted on this website when I publish.
I plan to promote independent artists by producing house concerts again, but expand the model to include literary readings and art exhibition, all in one place, hopefully my huge backyard. Look on this blog for posts profiling artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, poets, etc… starting with the ones I have the privilege and joy of knowing.
Thank you so much.
Contact
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Related articles
- Austin Film Festival Panelists Say “Keep Writing!” (kellyaatkins.com)
Comments left on my former “About” page are archived but not showing. There’s a glitch in the page which won’t let me update it. I had to create a completely new page called “Bio.” Thank you so much for the comments, and maybe I can get them back up at some point.