Diablo Cody
After completion of her book, Cody was encouraged by Mason Novick to write her first screenplay. Within months she wrote "Juno", a coming-of-age story about a teenager's unplanned pregnancy. The Jason Reitman-directed comedy stars Ellen Page and Michael Cera.
Joy Cowley
She started out writing novels for adults, and her first book, "Nest in a Falling Tree" (1967), was adapted for the screen by Roald Dahl. It became the 1971 film "The Night Digger". Following its success in the United States, Cowley wrote several other novels, including "Man of Straw" (1972), "Of Men and Angels" (1972), "The Mandrake Root" (1975), and "The Growing Season" (1979). Typical themes of these works were marital infidelity, mental illness, and death, as experienced within families. Cowley has also published several collections of short stories, including "Two of a Kind" (1984) and "Heart Attack and Other Stories" (1985). Today she is best known for children's books, such as "The Silent One" (1981), which was made into a 1985 film. Others include "Bow Down Shadrach" (1991) and its sequel, "Gladly, Here I Come" (1994).