Anthony Flacco

Anthony’s background as a trained stage actor with over 2,000 performances under his Actors Equity membership provides the primary basis for his critically acclaimed ability to empathize with a wide cross-section of personalities. His screenwriting experience is also of great use in telling narrative stories that are visually compelling, whether for the “screen” of a reader’s imagination or the screen of a theatre or at home.He was selected for the prestigious American Film Institute fellowship in Screenwriting, and received his MFA in writing there in 1990 after winning AFI’s Paramount Studios Fellowship Award for his script, The Frog's Legacy. He was then selected out of 2,000 entrants for the Walt Disney Studios Screenwriting Fellowship, and spent a year writing for the Touchstone Pictures division.His first nonfiction book, A Checklist for Murder, was acquired in auction by Dell Books as a mass market paperback and turned in solid sales. Anthony adapted his book as a two-hour television movie script and sold it to NBC Studios for a movie of the week. For the next several years, he worked as a freelance script doctor and story editor.Anthony was hired by the Discovery Channel to write a two-hour documentary entitled Deadly Spree, based on a true story. His true crime writing was also featured on a one-hour episode of The Prosecutors for Court TV.Anthony served as a national Judge for the Illinois Arts Council, writing individual evaluations for over 100 screenplays for their 2003 Writing Awards. His screenplay, Tesla’s Best Secret, was a finalist in the Alfred Sloan Fellowship for Sundance.In addition to his own writing, Anthony has served as a freelance editor for books and book proposals that have recently sold to Hay House, Vanderwyck & Burnham, Rodale Press, and Lyons Press. He has also written book proposals for other authors who have gone on to garner publication contracts with Rodale Press, Random House, and St. Martin’s Press.His nonfiction book Tiny Dancer St. Martin’s Press was selected by Reader’s Digest as their Editor’s Choice for August, 2005 -- their 1,000th Commemorative Issue. The book has been internationally acclaimed, and as of 2007, received Best Seller status in Italy. Kansas City Star named Tiny Dancer “one of the 100 Most Noteworthy Books of 2005.”Anthony also edited the first two manuscripts for a new series of humorous books written by gay and straight couples, called E-Musings, which have sold to Marabout for French translation.Anthony’s first two novels of historical fiction are from Mortalis Books at Ballantine/Random House. The first, The Last Nightingale, was released in June of 2007, with the second, The Hidden Man, published in June of 2008.An experienced public speaker, Anthony frequently gives seminars on crime writing (brief syllabus available). He is a featured speaker on writing for writers conferences and clubs.