Psychopomp

The commission brief: write a direct response to the current American political climate. Over one hundred applicants from the UK and USA sent in synopses, the panel shortlisted thirty, then three and unanimously agreed on Psychopomp (lit: a guide of souls to the place of the dead).

A divorced, inactive Mormon and father reflects on life whilst holed up with his son in a one room apartment in Salt Lake City. Each struggle with their sense of identity in a country, once promising, now slipping dangerously out of their grip. Local tragedy strikes as bullets fly at a nearby school. And a hint of glitter on his son's face could be the unravelling of it all.