Diana Ossana

Ossana was born to an Italian immigrant father, Livio A.A. Ossana, and Marian (Anyan) of Irish/Welsh heritage and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She attended Eastern New Mexico University, where she double majored in English and political science, and moved to Arizona in 1977.
Ossana first read the Annie Proulx short story Brokeback Mountain in the October 13, 1997 issue of The New Yorker magazine. She immediately urged her writing partner McMurtry to read it and asked him if he felt they could write a screenplay based upon the story. McMurtry agreed they could. They wrote Proulx asking her for an option to the short story in order to write a screenplay. Proulx replied that although she did not see the potential for a movie in the story, she would agree to their option. Ossana and McMurtry proceeded to write the script, which they completed in early 1998. Ossana's and McMurtry's screenpl…