James C Strouse is an American screenwriter and film director He wrote the film Lonesome Jim 2005 directed by Steve Buscemi He wrote and made his directorial debut with Grace Is Gone 2007 starring John Cusack Strouse won an Audience Award for most popular dramatic feature and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival for the film He next wrote and directed the film The Winning Season starring Sam Rockwell and Emma Roberts Strouse is a native of Goshen Indiana and was an MFA student at Columbia University for fiction writing