Congrats to Charlestown’s Natalie C. Anderson, who’s parlayed an improbable stint in the Boston Public Library’s Writer-in-Residence program into a movie deal. That’s right. Despite having never published anything, or even taken a college writing course, Anderson was accepted into the BPL’s writer-in-residence program and what she wrote has now been optioned by Universal Pictures and actress Kerry Washington.
Not bad, right?
Anderson’s novel, published in late January, is called “City of Saints & Thieves” and tells the story of a
Kenyan girl whose mother was murdered by a ruthless criminal and who survives by becoming a thief. It’s based in part on experiences Anderson had as an NGO and United Nations aid worker assisting refugees in Africa.
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Applications for the Boston Public Library 2017-2018 Writer-in-Residence program will be online soon at www.writer-in-residence.org. The writing fellowship is funded, run, and overseen by the Associates of the Boston Public Library, an independent non-profit entity that works with the BPL.