Lara Ameen

BIO

Lara Ameen is a screenwriter, novelist, short fiction writer, sensitivity/authenticity reader, and holds a PhD in Education with a Disability Studies emphasis from Chapman University. She received an MFA in Screenwriting from California State University, Northridge. She has presented on panels about disability representation in TV, film, and young adult fiction with showrunners, actors, and novelists at the Writer’s Digest Novel Writing Conference, Skylight Theatre, American University, CalArts, UCLA, Women Who Submit, and other venues, both in person and online. Her YA contemporary fantasy novel, SPAER, was awarded a disabled writers’ grant from Suffering the Silence, longlisted in Voyage YA's First Chapters Contest, and their Book Pitch Contest. A 2022 Lambda Literary Screenwriting Fellow, 2022 Mentorship Matters TV Writing Program Finalist, and a 2022 NBC Launch TV Writing Program Finalist, she was a 2023 Screenwriting Mentee as part of 1in4 Coalition’s mentorship program for disabled screenwriters. She is currently a writing instructor and freelance fiction editor for the online writing organization, Women on Writing. She is a 2021 alum of the Tin House YA Workshop, and 2021 and 2024 alum of the Futurescapes Writers' Workshop. Her short fiction has been published in Prismatica Magazine, Disabled Voices Anthology, Flash Fiction Magazine, Drunk Monkeys, just femme & dandy, Hairstreak Butterfly Review, and elsewhere. She made her traditional publishing debut as a contributor to the 2024 Lambda Literary finalist young adult multi-genre anthology, Being Ace, published by Page Street YA. 

Lara is open to young adult and adult contemporary fantasy novels and short stories, young adult and adult gothic horror novels and short stories, anything involving a time loop or time travel element (but more modern than historical), and dark academia college/university settings. Grad school set stories and stories about professors in a dark academia/contemporary fantasy world a plus. Lara is committed to uplifting stories about disabled characters across any disability experience, but characters who are wheelchair users, AuDHD, and/or have mental illness are a huge plus. Especially looking for asexual disabled lead characters and Egyptian disabled characters with authors who share those identities.

MSWL

WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR:

Genres:

Young Adult and Adult

TV Drama Pilots

Short Stories

TV Drama Pilots: sci-fi, fantasy, gothic horror, or supernatural dramas; anything with a fantastical element

Short Stories (collection or several interlinked stories okay): YA thriller, contemporary fantasy, gothic horror, anything with time loops or time travel (but not historical), dark academia, portal fantasy

Novels: YA and Adult contemporary fantasy, YA and Adult gothic horror, portal fantasy

THEMES/TROPES/THINGS I LOVE:

 Enemies to lovers

 Opposites attract

 Sibling stories (side plot is perfect, too!)

 Portal fantasy

 Gothic fantasy or horror

 Atmospheric fantasy and horror

 Romantic angst (side plot is fine!)

 The hurt/comfort trope

 Found family

 Ride or die friendships

 Queer disabled character saves the world/day

 Time loop/Groundhog Day stories with a more speculative twist

 Cinematic worldbuilding and lush prose in novels and short stories

 College/university/grad school settings

 Disabled MC has pet wolf or interacts with wolf packs (NOT werewolves)

 Disabled MC has dog or cat companion that doesn’t die

 Stories about fandom/fanfic set in a fantasy world

 Stories about grief and trauma done in a unique way

If you can comp your novel, short stories, or TV drama pilot to any of my favorite books, movies, or TV shows, I’d love to see them!

SOME OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS

One for All by Lillie Lainoff

If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come by Jen St. Jude

Where You See Yourself by Claire Forrest

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

The Devouring Gray by C.L. Herman

Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle

The Hacienda by Isabel Canas

Belladonna trilogy by Adalyn Grace

SOME OF MY FAVORITE TV SHOWS

WB/UPN’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer

WB’s Charmed (original)

FOX’s Tru Calling

Syfy’s Haven

Netflix’s Raising Dion

Netflix’s Archive 81

Disney’s So Weird

NBC/CBS’ Medium

CBC’s Being Erica

Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building

Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives

SOME OF MY FAVORITE MOVIES

I Saw the TV Glow

Before Trilogy (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight)

Moonlight

Harriet the Spy

10 Things I Hate About You

TikTik Boom!

WHAT I’M NOT LOOKING FOR/NOT THE BEST FIT FOR

 Middle Grade, chapter books, or picture books

 TV comedy pilots

 Feature screenplays

 Military or police stories

 Hardcore sci-fi

 Historical fiction

 Epic or high fantasy

 Smut (romance subplots are great, though!)

 Stories about vampires, elves, zombies, or fae

 Boarding school stories

 Pandemic stories if you’re not COVID conscious or immunocompromised

 Slasher or gratuitous horror

 Rape or incest (sexual assault okay if implied/off page)

 Disabled main character gets cured at the end

 Super crip or “inspiration porn” narratives

 Writers writing main character POVs with marginalizations they do NOT share

 Writers seeking self-publication

 Anything with child abuse or animal abuse

 Eugenics (unless written in a unique way)