Not just plays for UTA playwright-in-residence. It’s novels and screenplays, too.
Inspiration struck Seraphina Nova Glass, assistant professor of instruction and playwright-in-residence, on a drive home from rehearsal for a play she was directing at UTA. An avid fan of thrillers and crime fiction, she was listening to one on audiobook when it occurred to her: “I could write one of these.”
As soon as the play closed in October, Glass got to work; by Christmas, she had finished her first novel, “Someone’s Listening.” By New Year’s, she had landed an agent, and just a few weeks later, she had secured a multibook deal with HarperCollins.
“It was a whirlwind,” Glass said. “I still can’t believe it worked out that way.”
“Someone’s Listening” was published in 2020, and she has released a book per year since: “Such a Good Wife” came out in 2021, and “On a Quiet Street” followed in 2022. The latter was nominated for an Edgar Award, presented by the Mystery Writers of America and honoring the best in mystery fiction from the previous year.Glass is currently developing a screenplay for “On a Quiet Street” for Marvista Entertainment. Her fourth book, “The Vanishing Hour,” will be released this May.
It’s a staggeringly prolific pace, but Glass said it feels much slower to her in practice.
“I have to write and get the idea out of my head. I don’t want to leave it and come back to it, because then I’ll lose track of the world and the characters,” she said. “I need to stay in it throughout the process, and I do that until I’m done. After that it’s really a lot of waiting. I write hard for three months, and then it’s sort of a lot of waiting after that.”
Glass has plenty to keep her busy whether she’s working on a new novel or not. As an award-winning playwright, an established screenwriter, and a UTA professor, she has a lot going on at any one time. At UTA, she teaches classes on topics such as script analysis, playwriting and film studies.
“Seraphina is amazing,” said Erin Malone Turner (’17 BFA, Theatre Arts), a former student and accomplished local playwright. “When critiquing our plays, she would always get right to the point, but never in a way that would make us doubt ourselves. She made us all feel so comfortable and so capable.”
Now, Glass is also sharing her publishing and film experience with her students.
“It’s a unique position to be actively working in the industry like that,” she said. “I’m going back and forth to Los Angeles, working with a film agent, a literary agent and industry professionals. That’s all current, real-time experience that I’m bringing back to the classroom.”
-Written by Amber Scott – Office of Marketing, Messaging and Engagement