KSU Alum Named A Top Screenwriter To Watch In 2021

Press release from Kennesaw State University:

Apr 8, 2021

KSU alum named a top screenwriter to watch in 2021

Michael Lipoma

KENNESAW, Ga.
(Apr 8, 2021) — While he was vice president of research and development at a Marietta medical device
company, Michael Lipoma was rewriting his life’s script when he enrolled in Kennesaw
State University’s Master of Arts in Professional Writing (MAPW) program in 2005.

“I’d been in engineering for 20 years or so — engineering design — and screenwriting
was something I had always wanted to do and aspired to do. I made a couple of feeble
attempts at a screenplay. But I realized I needed an education,” Lipoma said. After
graduating in 2008 from KSU, he left Georgia after 17 years to move back to his native
Southern California prepared to chase his dream.

The KSU education, along with experience he gained as both a writer and producer since
graduation has paid off for Lipoma. The International Screenwriters Association named
him to its “Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2021” list.

It was a drama-comedy pilot script that includes much of his own life experience that
put him on the ISA’s radar, Lipoma said. “F-You! I’m a Teacher,” is about a California
native with Tourette syndrome who moves to Georgia to teach at a rural school. While
in Georgia, Lipoma took a four-year break from engineering to teach at a small country
school. In the script, because of having Tourette syndrome, the teacher cannot be
fired if he yells an obscenity in class. He’s popular with students, but a concern
for most of the adults in the community.

“For years everybody has been bugging me to write about Tourette syndrome. I’ve always
said I don’t want to be the guy who writes about Tourette, because I’ve got Tourette.
But a year ago I decided to do it,” Lipoma said. The main character in the screenplay
“has to learn about his own prejudices and his own privilege … and navigates the world
of Tourette syndrome in a small community,” he said.

The ISA honor comes after Lipoma and co-writer Tamra Teig won both Best Feature and
the overall grand prize at the 2019 Slamdance Film Festival, where more than 4,200
screenplays were entered. Variety described the screenplay as “a historical drama
set in East Berlin in 1989, where a single mother is forced to become a spy to save
her son after he’s framed for murder. Her act of revenge, woven into historic events,
leads to the fall of the Berlin Wall.”

Lipoma said the education he received at KSU provided a foundation for his success.

Professor of creative writing Tony Grooms, who is director of the MAPW program, remembers
Lipoma as a serious, focused student, who sought out advice on his work to make it
better. He also gave feedback to other students to help them become better writers.

Associate professor of English Aaron Levy said Lipoma was eager to learn all he could
to develop his craft.

“He had some life behind him when he came in,” Levy said of Lipoma, who was 54 when
he completed the MAPW program. “He was not just going through the motions. He was
working hard, so he came every week with pages. He had the work ethic that a writer
needs to have.”

Lipoma credits the creative atmosphere nurtured by Grooms, Levy and others for the
quality of the education he received in the MAPW program, which made him ready for
his new career.

“After a couple of screenwriting classes ... I realized I needed to get as much out
of every syllable as I possibly could in screenwriting and so I took a couple of poetry
classes,” Lipoma said. “And I figured that would allow me to do just that — to distill
my words. And I still look back on those classes as important in my development as
a screenwriter.”

– Gary Tanner

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A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers more than 150 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees to its more than 41,000 students. With 11 colleges on two metro Atlanta campuses, Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia and the second-largest university in the state. The university’s vibrant campus culture, diverse population, strong global ties and entrepreneurial spirit draw students from throughout the region and from 126 countries across the globe. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral research institution (R2), placing it among an elite group of only 6 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with an R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu.

This press release was produced by Kennesaw State University. The views expressed here are the author’s own.