WRITER

Bajou writes plays, screenplays, and poetry. Her full-length play, Poetry, was a Finalist in the 2021 ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition. Her feature screenplay adaptation of Poetry was a Quarterfinalist in the 2022 WeScreenplay Feature Competition and the ScreenCraft Film Fund, and received an Honorable Mention at the 2022 Big Apple Film Festival. She co-wrote, produced, and stars in the feature, Person Woman Man Camera TV (Official Selection: 2022 Cinequest Film Festival), which won Best Production at the 2022 Harlem Int’l Film Festival. Her poetry received a Best of the Net nomination from Heavy Feather Review, a Pushcart Prize nomination from This Broken Shore, and is featured in Broad River Review, California Quarterly, SWIMM, and elsewhere. Her debut poetry collection, I Never Learned to Pray, was Longlisted for the C&R Press Poetry Award and is available from Main Street Rag. Order I Never Learned to Pray here! Member: The Dramatists Guild.

POETRY COLLECTION

**I NEVER LEARNED TO PRAY**
Longlisted for the C&R Press Poetry Award

“In these poems by Estelle Bajou there is an incisiveness and a distinct poetic voice that often rises to a kind of lamentation. Whether she surveys the conflicted state of man, or of nature, or reflects on the posited hopes or failings of the most intimate of relationships, she never averts her gaze. Her lines are carefully chiseled and seem effortless and reflect the hard-earned craft of a mature poet.”
—Gabor Barabas, author of *Collected Poems* and “The Spider,” a poem about his late friend, Louise Bourgeois, animated by Juan Delcan

“So much of Estelle Bajou's I Never Learned to Pray sounds like prayer: “A stubbornness appears...like cold, blue dye/through still water under light” or “We will only die as bees succumbing to the fragrance of a flower.” “What I Hear, I Hear” ends with “my mouth/Forms a dilatory/O,” the reader's exclamation after many of these sad and sharp poems. “I let go of something,/Like a breath joining the delicious air,” the last lines of “I Never Learned to Pray,” can't help but invoke the moment after every prayer's ask.
—Terese Svoboda, Guggenheim Fellow, author of Theatrix: Poetry Plays

”Estelle Bajou has a cold and discerning eye, a warm heart, and a poetic voice that is all her own. And she is not afraid to be true to all of them. The poems in I Never Learned to Pray open a door to a world that is at once starkly real, human, and beautiful.”
—Daniel Weeks, author of For Now: New and Collected Poems, 1979-2017, editor of This Broken Shore

“Estelle Bajou is a modern Walt Whitman. Her poetry has great operatic, lyrical vistas. I admire it greatly.”
—Emanuel di Pasquale, Academy of American Poets Raiziss/de Palchi Fellow, author of Writing Anew: New and Selected Poems

PLAYWRITING

Poetry, Full-length Play, Finalist: 2021 ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition, Official Selection: 2022 NY Summerfest

A young woman plagued by strange dreams has forged an unlikely bond with an aging poet. When he sustains a serious fall during a date with a beautiful waitress, she discovers he has a son, and the two form an unexpected attachment while caring for him. 2 W, 4 M.

SCREENWRITING

Poetry, Feature-length Screenplay, Quarterfinalist: WeScreenplay Feature Competition and Screencraft Film Fund; Official Selection: 2022 Big Apple Film Festival

Praise:

“The whip-smart dialogue of cinematic/literary icons like Woody Allen or Miranda July is infused, in this script, into a narrative that is as unexpected as it is – appropriately enough – poetic. Between young Ethel and aging poet Herbert, the script crafts a relationship that’s both unusual and refreshing, a HAROLD AND MAUD with a wry, unflinching modern twist, while Ethel's surreal dreams conjure up an immersive journey redolent of films like THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP. The dialogue, throughout, is superb… Offbeat, unique, and unflinchingly honest, this script is strikingly artful. The remarkable clarity with which [it] illuminates its characters is generally impressive… It is difficult to deny the emotional impact that [Poetry] leaves, an artful set of character portraits that are strikingly effective and compelling. This script presents a singular vision and an artistic voice that comes across as raw and authentic. It is at once insightful, charming, and poignant. While it may land slightly outside of the traditional popcorn commercial mainstream market, as an independent art piece, it feels as though it will engender a devoted following among more sophisticated audiences.”
—The Black List

Person Woman Man Camera TV, Co-Writer, Feature-length Screenplay. Official Selection: 2022 Cinequest Film Festival; Won: Best Production - 2022 Harlem International Film Festival.

The Number 2020 Is Somehow Destroyed, Short Film, Official Selection: 2021 NYC Indie Theater Film Festival.

Mauselehome Sweet Home, Co-Writer, Short Film

subHysteria, Co-Writer, Feature Film, Theatrical Release: North America (limited), South America