For somebody who won an international literary award for drama, Moraine Valley student Katis Varela had been writing for a very short time. In fact, she only started screenwriting the previous year, after taking a class on the subject. Yet it was love at first sight for her and the experience.
“It’s not like a book where you can pick up and just start writing,” Varela said. “Screenwriting has structure, and it’s unique being part of that process, where you see what’s actually going on behind the screen.”
The screenplay Varela submitted, A Bar Called Eden, was inspired by her Christian faith as well as her love of high-stakes game stories. It concerns a man named John T. Baptist, who has hit rock bottom in his life and ends up in a mysterious bar where he is pulled into a game to decide humanity’s fate.
The mix of these two disparate elements helped propel the screenplay to first place in the Moraine Valley Literary Competition’s drama category.
It went on to win third place in an international contest sponsored by the League for Innovation in the Community College. Winners of that competition receive cash prizes and are published in an anthology distributed to all of the colleges in the League.
Varela submitted the screenplay in the hope that readers would enjoy it, and was pleasantly surprised by her win.
“It felt so unreal,” Varela said. “It was so amazing, and I was so happy. I was like, ‘Did I actually win this?’”
Varela wants people to get out of their bubbles and know each other better, regardless of their careers or interests.
Varela’s screenwriting success is in part due to her being an avid reader, having consumed books regularly since learning to read. An avid fan of Legends & Lattes as well as the Court of Thorns and Roses series, she has used her love of fiction in her job at Homewood Public Library as an information clerk, a position she enjoys.
“It’s nice meeting people who’ve read books you’ve either liked or disliked and getting to know their opinions on things,” Varela said. “Whether they’re excited for something coming out, or they can go on with life without it.”
Her ultimate career goal is to become an animator. She is driven both by her drawing abilities and her love of animated series such as Toy Story and Total Drama. Varela’s favorite film is Encanto, for its portrayal of Latinx culture and its balancing multiple characters’ storylines.
When Varela isn’t writing, drawing or working at the library, she can be found cooking or gardening at her home in Elmhurst, both interests she picked up from her grandmother.
Her grandma didn’t really have a green thumb, so her plants “would always die,” but she had fun gardening anyway, Varela said. “I am personally able to grow a lot of my vegetables and fruits, and they were able to bloom, and I was able to incorporate them into my cooking. It teaches you how to be patient about life.”
Varela wants people to get out of their bubbles and know each other better, regardless of their careers or interests.
“If you can, get to know your librarian,” she said. “They’re really cool people, and if you want recommendations for anything, just go to one and ask them what they know.”
Velocity 
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