Transparent, OITNB, Normal Heart Among Writers Guild Nominees

"HOLY HELL," screamed the post by Jill Soloway on her Facebook page today. "WE GOT NOMINATED FOR THREE WRITERS GUILD AWARDS!!!!"

Her enthusiasm was well warranted. In its awards competititon for TV, radio, and new media, the Writers Guild of America, the union for professional television and motion picture writers, honored the writers of the popular Amazon series Transparent with nominations for best comedy series, best new series, and best single episode of a comedy, "The Wilderness" by Ethan Kuperberg.

In addition to Soloway and Kuperberg, Bridget Bedard, Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Noah Harpster, Ali Liebegott, and Faith Soloway shared the nominations in the comedy and new series categories.

Also honored with nominations today for best comedy series: Orange Is the New Black, the Netflix series that stars LGBT actors Laverne Cox and Lea DeLaria. An OITNB script by Nick Jones, "Low Self Esteem City" was also nominated in the single-episode category. Among the nominees on the writing staff is Lauren Morelli, who made headlines last year when she filed for divorce from her husband of two years and started dating Samira Wiley, who plays Poussey on the series.

The other OITNB writers nominated are Stephen Falk, Sian Heder, Tara Herrmann, Sara Hess, Jenji Kohan, Alex Regnery, and Hartley Voss.

Another LGBT-inclusive Netflix series, House of Cards, received a best drama series nomination. Wrtiers include Bill Cain, Laura Eason, Sam R. Forman, William Kennedy, Kenneth Lin, John Mankiewicz, David Manson, Beau Willimon.

Five writers from ABC's long-running Modern Family were nominated for their work on two episodes of the comedy series: Rick Wiener and Kenny Schwartz for "The Cold," and Abraham Higginbotham, Steven Levitan, and Jeffrey Richman for "Three Dinners."

Larry Kramer received a nomination for his adaptation of his award-winning play about the early days of the AIDS crisis, The Normal Heart, for HBO. Kramer's teleplay was nominated in the long form adaptation category. HBO's popular and gay-inclusive Game of Thrones received best drama series and single-episode nods.

Among the traditional broadcast TV networks, NBC stood out as the only one whose news division was not nominated in any category. And CBS was the only traditional network with a nomination for prime-time series writing. The Good Wife garnered a best drama nomination for its writing team, which includes Leonard Dick, Keith Eisner, Matthew Hodgson, Ted Humphrey, Michelle King, Robert King, Erica Shelton Kodish, Matthew Montoya, Luke Schelhaas, Nichelle Tramble Spellman, Craig Turk, and Julia Wolfe, and also a nod in the single-episode category from drama.

The NBC soap operat Days of Our Lives, which this year featured soapdom's first wedding of two men, is nominated in the daytime drama category.

The awards will be presented in simultaneous ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles February 14.