Indie Author is a movie for the dreamers of the world. They say that if you do what you love for a living, you'll never work a day in your life. For most authors, writing is their passion, but the odds have always been stacked against them. Enter the underdogs, the people who didn't let anything stand between them and the impossible. They are the daydreamers, the romantics, and the storytellers who found what it takes to earn a full-time living from their craft and have built a community to help each other and defy the odds. Through their stories, you might find answers to launch your own writing career. At a minimum, you'll be entertained, inspired, and well-armed with the hard truths and inside facts if you choose the adventure of a writer's life.

RICHARD WRIGHT was an African-American author of novels, short stories and non-fiction that dealt with powerful themes and controversial topics. Much of his works concerned racial themes that helped redefine discussions of race relations in America in the mid-20th century. Born on a plantation in Mississippi, Wright was a descendent of the first slaves who arrived in Jamestown Massachusetts. This program follows his arduous path from sharecropper to literary giant. Through authors like H.L. Menken, Sinclair Lewis, Theodore Dreiser, he discovered that literature could be used as a catalyst for social change. In 1937 Wright moved to New York and his work began to garner national attention for it's political and social commentary. Much of Wright's writing focused on the African American community and experience; his novel Native Son won him a Guggenheim Fellowship and was adapted to the Broadway stage with Orson Welles directing in 1941.