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Lori Pieper
Freelance Writer
Personal Details
Name: Lori Pieper
Last visit: Sep 22, 2008
Location: Bronx, NY, United States
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Web site: Click here
Interests
Music (classical and musical theater, mostly), moviegoing with or without good friends, reading, travel. Have visited Paris, Rome, Venice, Montreal and Assisi.
Books
The whole oeuvre of C. S. Lewis (of course). My favorite book of his: Till We Have Faces. Tolkien, too. I am a fan of great European and American literature: from Dante to Dostoyevsky, from Mark Twain to Jane Austen. A recent acquisition: George Sand - far too little read.
Movies
Some Favorites: (No particular Order), Amadeus, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Man for All Seasons, Rebecca, West Side Story, Chicago (and basically ALL musicals), It's a Wonderful Life, In America, Lord of the Rings trilogy, Chronicles of Narnia (even though in both cases, the books are much better), All About Eve, the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Zefirelli's Romeo and Juliet.
Sweeping historical epics: Gone with the Wind, Doctor Zhivago. Nothing produced recently even comes close close. Troy? Kingdom of Heaven? Didn't think so. Hollywood has lost the art of epic storytelling.
Foreign films: Rashomon, Babette's Feast, The Bicycle Thief, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Roma: citta aperta, Francesco, Giullare di Dio.
This year's films: The Queen, World Trade Center, United 93, The Devil Wears Prada. VERY DISAPPOINTED in: Superman Returns, Pirates of the Caribbean II.
Television
Not much time to watch television! But I love the History Channel, PBS and like things. Also reruns of the best comedy show of all time, M*A*S*H.
About Me
I was born in Boone, Iowa. Because my father was in the Air Force, I grew up all around the U.S. Stemming from that and my historical studies, I love travel and learning about other places and cultures.
I graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a B.A. in the Humanities and M.A. in History. I received my Ph.D. in History from Fordham University in 2002. Since then I've lived and worked in New York as a freelance writer, translater, editor and screenwriter. Languages I translate: Latin, Italian, French, German and Spanish.
Publications: Numerous articles in national Catholic periodicals, translations published in the Greyfriars Review and other journals; my translation from the Italian of the works of Pope John Paul I, The Smiling Pope, was published by Our Sunday Visitor Press in 2004. I just self-published a book on St. Elizabeth of Hungary for the 800th anniversary of her birth (www.taucrossbooks.com)
I studied screenwriting 1999-2000 at the Gotham Writers Workshop. I am also a graduate of the 2001 New York class of Act One: Writing for Hollwood, a wonderful group that trains Christian writers for film and TV.
I am happy to finally be gaining some actual film experience: in 2004, I was a production assistant on a short film produced and directed by an Act One classmate, Cornelia Moore, called "Dancing With You," which won prizes at a couple of obscure festivals.
I'm now involved in writing, producing and directing a documentary on St. Elizabeth of Hungary (the subject of my doctoral dissertation), and a fascinating woman. My brother, a professional videographer and I shot some interviews in Rome in February 2007, during a historical conference on Elizabeth. In November 2007, I returned to Italy, this time Assisi, to videotape the Franciscan celebrations for Elizabeth there; next stop, Hungary this fall (possibly) to fill out the picture. I am now raising money, transcribing interviews, writing a script, and trying to come up with some way to shoot some historical re-creations that won't cost too much.
I am a member of the Catholic Third Order Secular of St. Francis, and a long-time member of the New York C.S. Lewis Society.
You can read more at my blog at www.pilgrimage.subcreators.com
Goal
To write and if possible, produce, my own feature films and historical documentaries in addition to publishing works of history. Overall, to make as much of a difference as I can in the world.
Professional Experience
Researcher and Translator
Conjuring Arts Research Center, New York Cty
June 2004 - Present
The Center is a library, publishing house and networking tool for scholars. It has one of the world's largest collections of books, journals and other media devoted to the history and practice of magic as a performing art. This is the place that helps keep me fed, clothed and sheltered so I can work on other freelance projects.
As a freelance consultant, I do various kinds of work for the library including searching for rare manuscript material (original or microform) from libraries around the world to add to the collection and other library-related tasks. Most of my working time, however, is taken with translating source materials and historical works from various languages for publication by the center. Presently I am translating one of the very earliest books on magic in Italian (and Latin): "De Viribus quantitatis" written around 1500 by a Franciscan friar, Luca Pacioli, a humanist, mathematician and friend of Leonardo da Vinci. I also translate articles for the Center's journal, Gibeciere, and also do much of the copyediting.
Screenwriter
1991 - Present
I have written several screenplays, the one closest to being ready for production (in terms of writing, but alas, not producer interest) is "The Marquise," based on a short story by George Sand. It was read onstage in New York in 2004 to celebrate the centenary of Sand's birth (you can read about it at www.sandthemarquise.com). The script was also in Top Ten on Triggerstreet.com -- and still in the Top 100.
I'm also currently writing a script with another writer called "Aurora," a live action version of Sleeping Beauty; the time traveling heroine goes from Anglo-Saxon England to Victorian times.
Genres: I am interested in writing historical pieces, literary adaptations, drama, fantasy and romance. I like things that are imaginative and just a little bit out of the ordinary.
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