Join Richard Walter and Julie Ann Sipos at AWP26: The Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference & Bookfair, the largest literary event in the U.S., happening March 4-7, 2026, in Baltimore, MD. Walter and Sipos came together for two speaker sessions that will be part of this year's virtual program.

 

• Learn more by visiting: https://conference.awpwriter.org/virtual_events.cfm

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• Register to join the AWP26 in Baltimore, or attend sessions online: https://conference.awpwriter.org/index.cfm

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SESSION 1: No, Cyrano: How to Break Out, Break In and Yuk It Up Like It’s Your Job

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You already write sharp, clever copy for clients, campaigns, or classrooms—but maybe it’s time your own voice took the lead. In this candid conversation, screenwriting legend Richard Walter and satirical novelist Julie Ann Sipos pull back the curtain on how to stop punching up someone else’s story and start writing your own. Whether you’re a brand whisperer, faculty workhorse, or finally ready to lead with your real voice, this session shows how to turn wit into a writing career worth laughing about.

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Walter ran UCLA’s storied MFA Screenwriting Program for over 30 years. More than a dozen films produced and/or directed by Steven Spielberg were written by former students in the program Walter led. Sipos, a grateful protégé turned creative executive, developed award-winning content for Disney, Mattel, and Universal before her voice-driven debut novel — Horrible Women, Wonderful Girls: A Jaycee Grayson Novel — hit #1 and won the 2025 IPPY Gold Medal.

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Together, they’ll talk about what sustains funny writing across decades, how to make humor your hook, and why satire is more than snark—it’s strategy.

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SESSION 2: Team You and How to Win the Long Game: Mentorship, Mayhem, Making It in Showbiz

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What if your screenwriting mentor called the day after 9/11 to say class was still on—because audiences needed stories, especially funny ones, more than ever? What if thirty years later, you published satirical works in the same season, still challenging each other’s craft, work style, and points of view? Mentorship offers a path to resilience at a time when the writing life feels especially uncertain. Learn to mine time-tested creative alliances to surmount trends, trauma and the market itself.

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Mirror the path of a decades-long creative relationship that shaped two successful careers from page to stage—and a pair of audacious new literary satires coming opposite ends of the social spectrum. Walter and Sipos offer up private anecdotes, unfiltered business advice, and essential strategies for accessing a support system behind-the-scenes of multiple award-winning properties. Whether you want a mentor or want to be one come for the origin story. Leave with the tools to write your own.

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Join acclaimed UCLA screenwriting professor Richard Walter (Deadpan: A Novel)—a traditionally published author with a storied legacy—and his longtime protégé Julie Ann Sipos (Horrible Women, Wonderful Girls: A Jaycee Grayson Novel) — a Hollywood executive, indie author and founder of a publishing company dedicated to amplifying female voices — for an honest, hilarious look at how mentorship evolves over a career. From Hollywood punchlines to literary breakthroughs, they explore how stories find their way (even when you throw them out a car window), why mentorship is not a favor but a strategy, and how clashing creative minds can sharpen your edge.

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Learn More about the Authors:

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About Richard Walter:

Richard Walter is an author of best-selling fiction and nonfiction, celebrated storytelling educator, screenwriter, script consultant, lecturer and retired professor who led the screenwriting program in the film school at UCLA for several decades. He has written scripts for the major studios and television networks; lectured on screenwriting and storytelling and conducted master classes throughout North America as well as London, Paris, Jerusalem, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Beijing, Shanghai, Sydney and Hong Kong. His new novel, Deadpan (published by Heresy Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing) is available for order now. Subscribe to his podcast on ​Substack​ and blog on ​Medium​, and follow him on ​Twitter​/X and ​Facebook​.

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About Julie Ann Sipos:

Writer, producer, and creative executive Julie Ann Sipos has written and developed iconic stories and characters for Universal, Warner Brothers, Disney and Mattel. Horrible Women, Wonderful Girls: A Jaycee Grayson Novel, marks her literary debut in March, 2025 from Dartmouth Park. Her previous work has earned multiple accolades, including the Parents Choice Award, the Common Sense Gold Seal, and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Children’s Programming. Author of Love from Morning to Night: Poems and Songs for Mommy and Baby (American Girl Publishing 2016), she holds a 2004 MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA and teaches in the Department of Cinema & Television at CSUN.​​​