EXCLUSIVE: The Black List has named the six projects chosen for the 2024 Writers Lab. Now in its 11th year, the project provides creative mentorship and professional support to up-and-coming feature writers as they further develop their works during a weeklong workshop in Ojai, Calif.
The participating writers and their projects are: Jade Song (Chlorine), Colton Childs (Fake-A-Wish), Caitlin Gallo and Brittany Harris (Last Refrain), Emily Adams (Margot), Danny Hogan (The Preserve) and Theo Wanderydz (Wetiko).
The Black List received more than 1,700 script submissions for the program.
During the Lab, each writer will develop their screenplay through peer workshops and one-on-one sessions with working professional screenwriting mentors, including David Coggeshall (The Deliverance), Kiwi Smith (Legally Blonde), Jonathan Stokes (El Gringo), Victoria Strouse (Family Switch), Michael Vukadinovich (Greedy People) and Scott Myers of the website Go Into The Story.
Below are the 2024 Writers Lab projects and bios of their respective writers:
Chlorine: A competitive swimmer becomes determined to transcend into a mermaid, no matter the blood she must spill.
Jade Song is a writer, art director and artist whose award-winning debut novel Chlorine was selected as a New York Times Editor’s Choice, lauded as “visionary and disturbing,” and will be translated into Italian, Chinese and other languages. Her second novel, I Love You Don’t Die, and her short story collection, Ox Ghost Snake Demon, are forthcoming from William Morrow in spring 2026 and 2027. She’s currently at work on a novel about lovers under surveillance, a short film about a lonely creature in a cemetery, and a slasher screenplay featuring Asian American ravers.
Fake-A-Wish: Despite their 40-year age gap, and the cancer treatment confining them to their small Texas town, two gay men embark on a road trip to San Francisco to grant themselves the Make-A-Wish they’re too old to receive.
Colton Childs is a queer writer and cancer survivor who has often been mistaken for a Bed Bath & Beyond employee. He originally hails from a cattle ranch in South Texas and is a graduate of the drama program at Pace University in New York City. His pilot and feature scripts have placed in competitions such as Austin Film Festival, Launch Pad Feature Competition and Final Draft’s Big Break Screenwriting Contest. He received the 2024 Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting for his feature Fake-A-Wish.
Last Refrain: Three dysfunctional adult siblings take their music-obsessed father with early-onset Alzheimer’s on one last road trip to Woodstock 50.
Caitlin Gallo and Brittany Harris met at a NYC theater conservatory fresh out of high school and have been inseparable since. Although perhaps an unlikely duo (Caitlin is a NY-born and LA-bred child of a music executive; Brittany is a good ol’ southern girl and descendant of Mary Todd Lincoln), their alchemy is undeniable. Together, their writing champions female-driven stories centered on coming of age, grief, friendship and music.
Margot: Know-it-all high school senior Annie Mills has always had a plan: to become the female Neil Armstrong and to be Margot Ellison’s best friend forever. But when Margot decides the perfectly pious Mormon life isn’t for her, it’s not God Margot’s running away from; it’s Annie.
Emily Adams is a writer and actor based in Brooklyn, New York. Despite her best efforts, Emily specializes in unlikely love stories. Her coming-of-age comedy Margot was featured on the 2020 Black List. Adams most recently served as the writer’s assistant for Mike Makowsky’s Netflix limited series Death by Lightning, produced by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss of Game of Thrones, soon to star Michael Shannon and Matthew Macfadyen. She stayed on as Emmy award-winning Makowsky’s writer’s assistant, developing TV and film projects with Makowsky for FX, Netflix and HBO. When Emily isn’t writing about sex, Jesus or angry women, she can be found photographing her cat, Robert De Niro, and/or fretting about cancerous moles.
The Preserve: An AWOL soldier is hired to guide a conservation expedition deep into the treacherous post-war jungles of Cambodia in search of its last remaining tiger, but they encounter a vicious animal trafficking operation that is after the same prize.
Danny Hogan (they/them) is a scientist turned screenwriter who specializes in high-octane genre fare with a social conscience. Danny worked for National Geographic before moving into scripted, and now works on the upcoming medical drama, The Pitt. They are currently developing original projects for Zero Gravity, Futurific and AWA studios.
Wetiko: 1902; On a train to Wyoming, a world-weary, newly-appointed U.S. Marshal named Eleanor escorts an Arapahoe orphan to her home when an ancient cannibalistic spirit boards the train.
Theo Wanderydz is a Swedish writer who puts entertainment and heart at the forefront of his work. With a passion for horror, thrillers and adventure, he focuses on crafting emotional, thought-provoking stories that linger long after the credits roll. Theo has worked in development for nearly five years and currently works at the production company Nexiko in Stockholm.
