Writer. Reader. Storyteller.
Portia B. Pennington
Portia B. Pennington finds the drama and the humor in the salt-and-pepper, we-need-milk, life and death, of daily living. She writes for children, for old folks, and for everyone in between.
Portia believes that stories linger in the crooks and crannies of every single life, no matter where, no matter the age. Real or fantastic, poetic or dramatic, Pennington finds the heart of the story and tells it.
About Portia
Hi! I’m so glad you’re here. If we were together in the real world I would buy you a scoop of ice cream (mine would be mint chocolate chip), or a Diet Coke with ice and a straw, or maybe some warm and cozy queso and chips.
You probably love to read and write and watch movies and go to plays as much as I do, which means we could very easily be friends. I’ve been doing all of those things forever, and I will keep doing them forever, even if I run out of bookcases. That’s what the floor is for.
I love going to school. Some of my happiest (and, if I’m being really honest, worst) days have been in school. I love classrooms, and chalkboards, and notebooks, and pencils, and desks, and staplers. I love teachers and learning what makes them tick, and finding out, sometimes, it makes me tick, too.
I have a M.A. in writing from Western Kentucky University, and my M.F.A. in Screenwriting/Playwriting from Spalding University. Some of my favorite people are the folks I met when I was studying at both.
I love stories about real people trying to make life work. Language, and poetry, and rhythm, and the ebb and flow of storytelling is what I do, and what I am about.
I live and work in Kentucky, with a great big P Squad of folks I love (my husband, our five kids, a bonus boy, and their partners, and ten grandkids). And don’t forget my four-legged buddy, D.J. We are loud and crazy, and I can’t imagine it any other way.
Latest writings
New blog entries, creative projects, and portfolio updates are published regularly on Substack.
Works
Books & Essays
Poetry & Literary Publications
Simple Gifts Poetry Project, Founder and Principal Poet
Watching George Ella Teach, National Council of Teachers of English English Journal
Feature Length Screenplays
Written By Elodia Jane Wilder
Top 15% — Nicholl Fellowships
Finalist — Table Read My Screenplay (Austin)
Selected Project — Stowe Story Labs
Finalist — PAGE Fellowship at Stowe Story Labs
Quarterfinalist — PAGE International Screenwriting Awards
Route Pack Six
Selected Project — Stowe Story Labs
Fighting Words
Scriptapalooza Quarterfinalist
Plays
Talley Road (Winner — Kentucky New Voices; staged production at Public Theatre of Kentucky)
Stories We Do Not Tell
The Workshop
Film Projects
Disturbance| Feature length documentary
Free Range| Best of Genre — Nashville 48 Hour Film Festival
It Depends| Student short film
Residencies & Creative Development
Residency Fellow — Milkwood
Whole Novel Workshop - Highlights Foundation
Residency Fellow — Oak Ledge at Hindman
Development work completed through Stowe Story Labs, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Stony Brook Southampton Playwriting Conference
Appalachian Writers Workshop
Our Milkwood residency gang!
“One day a girl, who was no longer a girl but felt like one still, flew away from her real life to a place she had only dreamed about.”
— Excerpt from my short piece about Milkwood
