Out of Office

Brief News and Updates in Lieu of a Proper Post

I’m wrapping up not just the Spring semester but the entire 2024-2025 academic year - my first as a tenure-track faculty member - and so even though I’m currently enjoying a mild breeze from the window that usually opens between the end of classes and the submission of final projects and exams, things have been a bit crazy right now. This past week has been an incredible one, but it has also been jammed-packed, and so I’m going to give myself a little bit of a well-earned break this week.

That said, I do have some exciting personal and professional updates I wanted to share. This past Friday, my co-writer and I submitted the final chapters of the first draft of our textbook on screenwriting. The book now heads to formatting before going to press for what will be a year-long initial run that will only be used in our classrooms. This gives us time to test out the effectiveness of the text and make any changes we see fit before the book is released to the general public in Fall of 2026.

It’s an incredibly exciting thing that I’m only now starting to wrap my head around - my first book is going to print.

I also wrote a brief piece on A Different Man for the longer Notable Films of 2025 article at Day for Night, the online film journal at UNG. Mine is near the bottom, but you should absolutely read all of the other entries, written by both students and faculty. It paints a rich and meaningful picture of a film year that has been characterized by some as rather tepid.

In more personal accomplishments, I saw Pearl Jam twice this past week. You know if you’ve been a reader for any amount of time why that’s so meaningful to me, so I won’t belabor the point any further here. Suffice to say the shows were incredible - some of the best I’ve been to - and I was even able to hop on Instagram after the second night and share a live post show reaction with Jason from the State of Love and Trust podcast. The YouTube edit of our conversation is embedded below if you’re curious:

It’s been a week that has felt incredibly rich in community and fulfillment. I wrapped up the semester proper with a hard-earned dinner and drinks with colleagues who had sat with me through 8 hours of capstone presentations, and with students who even more impressively had stood in front of their peers and their teachers and presented work that represented a culmination of their years of study, training, and practice. What struck me so particularly about their work is how all of it either grappled head-on with our current moment in an immediate way, or plumbed the depths of their own souls in a courageously unflinching manner.

I’m at a point where, for the first time, I am starting to see the graduation of students who started a program with me; I’ve always had to leave previous universities before that point. It has been bittersweet for the last couple of years (and will continue to be going forward) to have to see them go, while also richly rewarding to see the degree to which they have developed as artists within just a few short years.

All told, it was one of those weeks that makes you feel incredibly lucky to be around in the time and place that you are, but more acutely a week that has felt like a return on my recent commitment to living the kind of life I want to live. I’ve been making a conscious effort to take advantage of an receive every opportunity the universe has presented me with, to put myself out there and connect with people and the world as much as possible, and I’m very glad I have because it has me feeling as good as I’ve felt in a long time.

Here’s to more.

But first, some rest.

-cs