Grant Cogswell

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Cogswell (2007)

Grant Cogswell (born October 24, 1967) is an eccentric screenwriter, independent film producer journalist, poet and political activist, known mostly to residents of Seattle, Washington.

Cogswell was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Guy Richard Cogswell, an aerospace engineer, and Diane Marie Berwald. His parents were separated when Cogswell was three years old, his father relocating with him to Europe to avoid legal action to regain custody of the child. His father married Robyn Means Johnston in December 1983, and began a peripatetic life which took them to several European capitals during Cogswell's youth. Cogswell's father died of lung cancer in 1997, and he became estranged from his stepmother and stepbrothers immediately afterward.

Cogswell coauthored the Seattle Monorail Initiative, a proposal to build a citywide monorail transit system, which was voted into law in November of 1997. The agency created by the law survived four challenges at the ballot; a fifth and final challenge (2005) was successful in defeating the project after questions were raised about the financing of the $1.7 billion plan.

In 2001, Cogswell campaigned for Seattle City Council against an African American incumbent, Richard McIver. Though at the outset the chances of success were rated low by the media, Cogswell was recognized as a legitimate challenger, his hopes dashed by the occurrence of the primary election just seven days after the attacks of 9/11. In 2005, Cogswell's campaign manager in the race, Phil Campbell published an account of the campaign, Zioncheck for President: A True Story of Idealism and Madness in American Politics, published by Nation Books. In March 2007, the film rights to the book were purchased by producer/director Stephen Gyllenhaal. The book's title came from a book-length poem Cogswell was writing at the time of the election, which was an elegy for Seattle congressman Marion Zioncheck who went insane after his political humiliation and committed suicide in 1936.

Cogswell entered the movie business himself in 2005 after writing a feature-length screenplay, Cthulhu based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft. The film premiered June 14, 2007.

Cogswell renounced his previously profound attachment to the city of Seattle (he has the city logo tattooed on his left bicep) and relocated to Mexico City in 2006. He is believed to be dividing his time between that city and Portland, Oregon.