Stephen Sloot
Screenwriter & Debut Novelist
Stephen Sloot
Debut Novelist · Austin Film Festival–winning Screenwriter
ART IS FOR QUITTERS
A rookie muse. A faltering artist. One masterpiece standing between them and oblivion.
Award-winning Screenwriter
Winner of the largest screenplay competition in the world.AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL
Feature Comedy Screenplay for "Harold Doesn't Die"
About Stephen
Stephen Sloot is a screenwriter and novelist with a talent for finding humor and heart in unexpected places. Over fifteen years in film and television, he co-created the Daytime Emmy–nominated children's series Furze World Wonders, won the grand prize at the Canadian Film Festival, and took the Comedy Feature prize at the Austin Film Festival — the largest screenplay competition in the world — for his screenplay Harold Doesn't Die.His path to storytelling began in his mother's bookstore on the shores of Lake Erie, and was nudged along by a court-ordered play in his teens (a story he swears is tamer than it sounds). He later performed live for The Moth, where he found the narrative voice that now runs through his fiction.After years writing for the screen, Stephen turned that voice to novels. His debut, ART IS FOR QUITTERS, is the result. A lifelong traveler who has lived in seventeen countries, he splits his time between the mountains of British Columbia, the cafes of Europe, and the beaches of California, always chasing the next good story.
Screenwriter & Filmmaker
Stephen has been writing for the screen for over a decade. He co-created Furze World Wonders, a Daytime Emmy–nominated children's series, and has developed television for the CBC and for production companies in Los Angeles and Toronto.His screenplay Harold Doesn't Die won the Comedy Feature prize at the Austin Film Festival, and his feature Hi, Jack is currently in development with producer Matt Berenson (The Place Beyond the Pines).
Debut Novel
After years as a screenwriter, I pivoted to my other great love: novels. I wanted to go deeper, get wittier, and frankly, add a lot more cheese.My debut novel, ART IS FOR QUITTERS, is the result. Muses walk among us. Not toga'd women of ancient Greece, but here, now, in present-day Montréal. Ari is a rookie one: charming, out of his depth, and assigned to coax a brilliant, faltering artist toward the masterpiece she keeps threatening to abandon. If she finishes, he's immortalized. If she quits, he fades. It's a funny, bittersweet story about where creativity comes from and what it costs, for readers of Circe, The Midnight Library, and The Night Circus.This is the next chapter, and it's going to be a wild ride.