Poetry Made Leah Saint Marie, MFACW ’06, a Better Screenwriter
Leah Saint Marie, MFACW ’06, poses for a photo at Fantastic Fest for the premier of “Spoonful of Sugar,” which she wrote. (Courtesy of Leah Saint Marie)
Leah Saint Marie, MFACW ’06, says studying poetry at Chatham University helped her find her voice.
“I think a lot of writers struggle finding their voice, and it’s something that I’m still gaining,” says Saint Marie, speaking over the phone in Los Angeles.
But at Chatham, she was able to get feedback from fellow writers and see her work through their eyes. “Going to those workshops allows you to look at your work through that editorial perspective,” she says.
When she came to Chatham for its Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, Saint Marie had already worked a number of “odd jobs.” She learned to be a movie projectionist at her local multiplex in Zanesville, OH, after spending countless hours there as a kid. She was sports photographer for her local newspaper. And she worked as a substitute teacher during the two years she spent at Chatham.
“I liked what Chatham stood for,” she says, referencing the legacy of environmentalist writer Rachel Carson ’29 and the beauty of the Shadyside Campus. Those workshops she mentions, as well as her work on the Fourth River literary magazine, were some of her favorite parts of the curriculum.
“It was so interesting to sit at a table and be completely quiet while people dissect your work, the merits of it, through completely subjective practices—but it was great because of that,” she says. “You have no part in it. You have to sit. You have to listen to what the audience has to say about what you’re putting out there.”
Among the faculty she remembered most fondly was Marc Nieson, associate professor of English and an editor of the Fourth River. “I just remember, when he walked into the room, it was a presence.”
After Chatham, Saint Marie pursued her MA in journalism at Point Park University. Her goal wasn’t to become a newspaper reporter or magazine columnist but a screenwriter.
“If I wanted my writing to have a purpose,” she thought at the time, “if I wanted to have a career as a writer, I should follow in the footsteps of one of my favorite screenwriters, Ben Hecht,” who wrote the Alfred Hitchcock feature “Notorious” and other hits. “A bunch of my favorite screenwriters had journalistic backgrounds.”
She’s been screenwriting now for over 10 years. In that time, she says, she’s written more screenplays than she can count. One of them, “Spoonful of Sugar,” was produced and released on the horror streamer Shudder.
“Writing transitions was something that I had to teach myself,” she says. “What was great about having a poetry background and then writing screenplays is my action lines are more terse.” It also gave her an interest in incorporating motifs and other literary elements in her scripts.
“I like to think that being a poet first made me a better screenwriter,” she says.
And, 20 years after she came to Chatham, she published her first book of poetry, “The Eaten.” “I’ve been published in journals here and there, small presses, and I was thinking, why not focus on my book? Why not put my collection out there and let my audience find me?” So, in 2023, she set a goal to email 100 people—publishers, agents, and anyone else who might be able to help her release this book. That led her to a small press in Tennessee called April Gloaming, who published it last year.
Meanwhile, she still stays busy as a projectionist, currently at the theater in the American Legion post in Hollywood, and she hosts the “Pitch!” podcast. She’s also getting ready to direct an original screenplay about a projectionist who develops an imaginary relationship with the iconic Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni. She plans to shoot that movie in Italy this year.
Learn more about the MFACW program at Chatham University, where writing is viewed as an act with the power to affect meaningful change, at chatham.edu.