Monona Wali

Monona Wali received an M.F.A. from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in 1983 where she earned the Lynn Weston Memorial Prize. Her thesis film Grey Area was featured in many film festivals around the world, and was distributed by the Black Filmmaker Foundation. She co-directed and edited Maria’s Story (1990) a documentary about a guerilla leader in the Salvadoran Civil War. The film received national airing on P.O.V. in 1991, and the Blue Ribbon Edward R. Murrow award at the American Film Festival, among many other awards.

Wali was born in Benares, India and currently makes her home in Los Angeles. She is a published short story writer, and is an adjunct faculty member at Santa Monica College, where she teaches creative writing. She volunteers with InsideOut Writers, an organization that offers creative writing classes for incarcerated youth.