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Short Fiction, The Novel, Memoir, Personal Essay
As a reader, I am drawn to vivid imagery, tight sentences, snappy dialogue (think Elmore Leonard), and quirky characters who stand out from the scenery. As your writing coach and editor, I will give you the tools to help you pare down your sentences to just the right length and rhythm (I excel at line-editing!). I will show you how to take a step back from the pages and look at the overall narrative and how each of its pieces fit into the bigger picture: we'll cut what is weak and flabby, and we'll dissect and rearrange the various parts, if necessary—all with the goal of making your creative work the strongest it can be.
What I bring to the table: more than 30 years of professional editing at newspapers and magazines, detailed track changing and margin comments on your work, an editorial letter of at least two pages, and availability for a video chat after you've had a chance to read through my notes and edits. I'm also available to answer emails along the way, if needed.
Though I read widely across all genres, I am particularly drawn to literary fiction, mystery, memoir, Young Adult, narrative non-fiction, history, and biography. As someone who served in the military for 20 years, I also work with writers who need a little insider knowledge in that regard.
David Abrams is the author of Brave Deeds and Fobbit. Publishers Weekly called Fobbit "an instant classic" and named it a Top 10 Pick for Literary Fiction in Fall 2012. It was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2012, an Indie Next pick, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, a Montana Honor Book, and a finalist for the L.A. Times' Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Abrams' short stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and appeared in the anthologies Watchlist, Fire and Forget and Montana Noir. Other stories and essays have appeared in Esquire, Glimmer Train Stories, Narrative, Salon, F(r)iction, High Desert Journal, Salamander, Connecticut Review, The Greensboro Review, Consequence, and many other publications. Abrams earned a BA in English from the University of Oregon and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. He blogs about books at The Quivering Pen: www.davidabramsbooks.blogspot.com
Rate: $80
Short Fiction, The Novel, Memoir, Personal Essay, Literary Journalism, YA and Children's Literature, Genre Fiction
As a literary magazine editor, I'm constantly reading and assessing short fiction on both a micro level (word choice, grammar, syntax, sentence-level mechanics, etc) and a macro level (characters, plot, story logic, big-picture themes and ideas), and I bring this same attention to all facets of my one-on-one consulting work. I love dissecting stories from a technical, craft-based perspective in order to help writers understand what's working, what could be working better, and most importantly, what is the particular piece trying to be and how can it get there. I love a wide array of styles and genres, though I'm particularly drawn to speculative fiction as well as writing that boldly embraces plot, stakes, and has some sense of innovation, daring, and risk-taking to it. I also love helping writers better understand the world of literary magazines and the process of submitting their work, as well as all the other aspects of publishing and career.
Joy Baglio serves as an associate fiction editor at the Bucknell University-based literary magazine West Branch, as well as the founder/director of Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop, a literary arts center and writing school in Western MA. Her short stories have appeared recently in Tin House, The Iowa Review, TriQuarterly, New Ohio Review, PANK, SmokeLong Quarterly, F(r)iction, and elsewhere. A 2018 Scholar in Fiction at The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, she holds an MFA from The New School, and her writing has been recognized by numerous contests, including The Ploughshares Emerging Writer's Contest (Honorable Mention), The Wigleaf Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions of 2017, The American Short(er) Fiction Contest (finalist), and others. With the support of fellowships from The Elizabeth George Foundation and The Speculative Literature Foundation, she's at work on a novel about three half-mermaid siblings, identity, origins, and the ocean. Find her online at www.joybaglio.com.
Rate: $120
the Novel, Short Fiction, Personal Essay, Memoir, Children's & YA Literature, Genre Fiction.
I love writing, reading, and helping other writers with both literary and genre fiction, and am especially excited about work that bridges the two. I edit literary fiction, historical fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, cross-genre work, and prose using visual art. I also write and edit screenplays and pilots, and have experience in TV writing rooms. I love helping writers find character-driven story arcs that feel surprising yet inevitable.
Carmiel Banasky is the author of the novel , The Suicide of Claire Bishop (Dzanc, 2015), which Publishers Weekly calls "an intellectual tour de force." Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Glimmer Train, LA Review of Books, Guernica, PEN America, The Rumpus, and on NPR, among other places. She earned her BA from the University of Arizona and her MFA from Hunter College, where she taught Creative Writing. She is the recipient of awards and fellowships from Bread Loaf, Ucross, Ragdale, Arctic Circle, and other foundations. After four years on the road at writing residencies, she now teaches, edits, and writes fiction and TV in Los Angeles. She is from Portland, Oregon.
Rate: $95
Short Fiction, Literary Fiction, the Novel, Memoir, Essay, Booklength Nonfiction
I am currently working on a historical novel set in an orphanage in Atlanta in the 1920s. I also have written about music, popular culture, and Jewish cultural history, and have had my work collected in numerous anthologies.
Steven Lee Beeber is the author of The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk (Chicago Review Press), the editor of AWAKE! A Reader for the Sleepless (Soft Skull Press) and the associate editor of the literary journal Conduit. His work has appeared in The Paris Review, Harper's, The New York Times and elsewhere. He has an MFA in Fiction from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and teaches creative writing and creative nonfiction at Lesley University and Harvard Summer School. His website is www.jewpunk.com.
Rate: $90
Short Fiction, The Novel, Literary Journalism, Memoir, Personal Essay, Book Length Nonfiction, Poetry, Historical Fiction.
I love helping people with their writing, period. There is nothing more exciting to me than living the writer's life. I spend mornings with my own work. After a lunch break, I boil water for tea and dig in to a client's or student's work. That's an ideal day as far as I'm concerned. That said, I do particularly respond to socio-political, historical, philosophical, contemplative, funny, quirky, inventive, poignant, intense rule-breaking writing. Gutsy. Quiet reflective. See? I kind of like it all.
Cara Benson is an award winning writer whose stories, poems, book reviews, and essays have been published in The New York Times, Boston Review, Best American Poetry, The Brooklyn Rail, Fence, Electric Literature, Hobart, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, 3:AM, and in syndication. She has received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Literature and is in revision on her second book, a novel. Of her first book the Huffington Post writes: "Benson does more with the two-word sentence than many poets do in two stanzas or even two poems, largely because it would be difficult to find even a single wasted word." Cara teaches Creative Writing in the Graduate Program at Prescott College. Her online home is: carabensonwriter.com.
Rate: $100
The Novel
The Novella
Short Fiction
Social Media
Query Letters
Are you working on a novel or short story and you keep getting the "We love this, but it's not for us" rejection letter? Jenna Blum may be the consultant for you. Jenna is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of novels Those Who Save Us and The Stormchasers and the novella "The Lucky One" in postwar anthology Grand Central; she is one of Oprah's Top Thirty Women Writers and has been teaching fiction and novel workshops at Grub since 1998. Jenna is interested in consulting on novels, novellas and short stories in their final stages of revision; she specializes in literary and some eras of historical fiction. (No genre, please!) Jenna will also provide consultation on troubleshooting your novel's outline, perfecting your query letter and creating/ fine-tuning your social media platform. Known for contributing to her novels' success via her marketing tactics, Jenna will help you identify your comfort zone and skills and help you create a marketing platform on social media and in person. Jenna specializes in Facebook, Twitter, and mainstream social media as well as writer websites, book club connection and public speaking.
Consultations accepted via submission only. Jenna's fee is $125/hour. Please contact Jenna via Grub or her website, www.jennablum.com.
Jenna Blum is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of novels Those Who Save Us and The Stormchasers and novella "The Lucky One" in anthology Grand Central. Jenna is also one of Oprah's Top 30 Women Writers. Jenna has taught for GrubStreet since 1997 and is thrilled to be returning.
Rate: $125
The novel, the novella, and young adult fiction.
Character-driven fiction: literary, young adult, adult coming-of-age, speculative fiction.
Lisa's services include coaching to finish a first draft and developmental editing of finished drafts. More than a dozen of her former students and clients have gone on to publish their novels with presses like Viking, Harcourt and Penguin.
Lisa Borders' second novel, The Fifty-First State, was published by Engine Books in 2013. Her first novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land, was chosen by Pat Conroy as the winner of River City Publishing's Fred Bonnie Award and received fiction honors in the 2003 Massachusetts Book Awards. Lisa has published humor in McSweeney's, essays in The Rumpus and several anthologies, and short stories in Washington Square, Black Warrior Review, Painted Bride Quarterly and other journals. She has taught creative writing since 1997, shifting her focus to the novel when she developed GrubStreet's Novel in Progress courses in 2005. She also co-developed and co-taught GrubStreet's Novel Incubator from 2011 – 2013, and developed and led the Novel Generator from 2014-2017. She now teaches in the University of Arkansas at Monticello's online MFA program. For more information on Lisa and her work, visit lisaborders.com.
Rate: $100
Screenwriting, Playwriting.
Character-driven pieces-- drama or comedy or dramedy, modern day and historical pieces, indie as well as stories with a smart, high concept. I also do consulting for TV projects.
Rate: $75
Short fiction, flash fiction, the novel, essay, line editing, copyediting, proofreading, ghost writing, guidance in submitting to agents, guidance in submitting to literary magazines, preparation for the MFA application, marketing and social media strategy and training, personal writing coaching.
I have a particular love for character-driven narratives with an emphasis on voice. Special interests include transnational, cross-cultural, and regional narratives; pop culture; literary criticism; and work that explores class, feminism, and identity. I have a keen eye for both sentence-level detail and big-picture editing, and work on projects ranging from flash to book-length.
An experienced literary magazine editor and juror for literary contests, fellowships, and awards, I can offer guidance on submitting to literary magazines, grants, and fellowships from the perspective of both the applicant and the reviewer.
A native of Great Britain, I'm particularly adept at authenticating settings, characters, and stories associated with the UK. I also offer cultural consulting on issues related to gender and class. For more information or to request a consult, please email email@example.com.
Colwill is the Writer-in-Residence at Wellspring House, Instructor and Consultant at GrubStreet, and Fiction Editor at Pangyrus magazine. After graduating a scholarship awardee of GrubStreet's Novel Incubator program, Colwill found representation for her first novel, Before We Tear Our Selves Apart, with Robert Guinsler of Sterling Lord Literistic, which is currently on submission to publishing houses. She is a recipient of the Henry Blackwell Essay Prize, a finalist for the 2019 Tennessee Williams Fiction Prize, a finalist for the 2019 Lit Fest Emerging Writer Fellowship, a "Notable Entry" in the 2019 Disquiet International Literary Prize, and has received fellowships and support from Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, The University of Texas at Austin, the James A. Michener Foundation, Boston College, Kansas State University, the Anderson Center, and GrubStreet. Colwill's work has appeared in Solstice Literary Magazine, The Conium Review, Poetry and Audience, and other places, and her essays have featured on Dead Darlings and GrubWrites. Along with Pangyrus, she has also served on the editorial team for Post Road magazine and The Conium Review. Colwill is especially proud to call herself a founding member of the Back Porch Collective, a Boston-based group of writers. With members connected to Cuba, India, Albania, Atlanta, Bosnia, Miami, Jamaica, and the UK, they bonded over a common passion for global narratives and literature's potential to create empathy and understanding across all geographical, political, and cultural borders. Hailing from Yorkshire, in the north of England, Colwill is determined to introduce the word "sozzard" to the American vernacular. For a full list of publications, projects, and services, please visit colwillbrown.com.
Rate: $75
Stephanie K Brownell is a multidisciplinary artist holding an MFA in Playwriting from Boston University. She publishes in fiction, poetry, and drama. Stephanie has taught at Boston University, Bentley University, the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, The Eliot School, the Urbano Project, and Lycée Marguerite de Valois, among others. She is a winner of the National Partners of the American Theatre Playwriting Excellence Award, a Gary Garrison Award national finalist, and the UT WomenWorks 2015 runner up. Stephanie is an alumna of residencies and fellowships nationwide including Ensemble Studio Theatre's New York Theatre Intensives, the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference Kennedy Center Fellows, Taleamor Park Residency, and Company One PlayLab. She is a 2018 Sewanee Conference Scholar and a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America. Stephanie's creative work is visual, intersectional and magical. Her scholarly work focuses on discourses of oppression, resistance, and imagination in contemporary and speculative literature. You can visit her website at skbrownell.com and creep on her travels and newest work on instagram at @skbrownell.
Rate: $75
Preparing the MFA & PhD Applications, Submitting to Lit Mags, Applying for Awards, Fellowships & Retreats, Personal Writing Coaching, Intensive Line Editing
The intersections of poetry and political economy, history (including art history), politics, class, race, gender, language, multilingual poetry, poetry of the Americas, poetry as a mode of inquiry.
Scott Challener is a doctoral candidate in English at Rutgers University and the recipient of a 2016 Massachusetts Cultural Council Individual Artist Fellowship. His poems have appeared in Lana Turner Journal, Pangyrus, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, Mississippi Review, and elsewhere.
Rate: $100
Short Fiction, The Novel, The Novella or Short Novel, Poetry, Individual Essay.
The Northeast, coming-of-age fiction, historical fiction, page-turners, memoir, essay, criticism, literary and lyrical work.
John Cotter's first novel, Under the Small Lights, was published by Miami University Press in 2010. In recent years his essays have appeared or will soon in Georgia Review, Catapult, Raritan and Electric Literature. His essay "Losing Music," published in Open Letters Monthly, was an honorable mention in Best American Essays 2015. John has performed a live monologue about losing much of his hearing at galleries and colleges around the country. In December of 2017 he was artist-in-residence at the SPACE gallery in Portland, Maine, and in 2015 he was an inaugural fellow at the Lighthouse Writers residency at the Fort Lyon homeless shelter, an experience he later chronicled at length for Guernica.
Rate: $75
Personal Essay
Book length Nonfiction
Blog posts
Query letters and Book Proposals
Application Essays
Memoir and personal essays on any topic, with particular expertise in writing about adversity, trauma and grief (Writing to Heal) and Narrative Medicine; Travel Writing; Op-Eds on any topic; blogs/columns that aim to inform readers about a particular topic; application essays (both undergraduate and graduate, with particular expertise in medical school essays and secondaries).
Jennifer Crystal holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Emerson College and a B.A. from Middlebury College. She specializes in non-fiction, especially writing to heal/narrative medicine, travel writing, memoir, personal essays, and op-eds. She is the author of Et Voilà: One Traveler's Journey from Foreigner to Francophile (Belfort and Bastion), and spoke at the 2017 Boston Book Festival about that book. Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe, wbur.org, Transitions Abroad, Abroad View, Spry Literary Journal, and many other publications. She writes a weekly column for Global Lyme Alliance, which has received mention in CQ Researcher, The New Yorker and weatherchannel.com. Her website is www.jennifercrystal.com.
Rate: $85
The Novel, YA and Children's Literature, Genre Fiction
Character-driven young adult fiction, middle grade, humor, science fiction, paranormal, fantasy, horror, magical realism, mystery, thriller, pop culture, food writing, and stories that can't be easily boxed into one category. My favorite elements to work on are dialogue (especially comedic), world-building, and intricately-crafted, puzzle-y plots.
Gina Damico is the author of six novels, dark comedies all: the grim-reapers-gone-wild books of the Croak trilogy (Croak, Scorch, and Rogue), Hellhole, Wax, and Waste of Space, all published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and recorded as audiobooks by Audible. Her work has been recognized as Best of the Year by both Audible and Amazon, and nominated for Teens' Top Ten awards by the Young Adult Library Services Association. She lives in California with her husband, cat and dog, can be seen occasionally performing improv, and owns an obscene amount of weird things purchased at yard sales.
Rate: $90
Some of the services I offer include: *Pitching help: how to write a pitch, how to target a pitch for a publication, how to identify markets and pitch those markets, feedback on specific pitches *Feedback on writing: whether it's an essay, a piece of reported journalism, or a work of literary non-fiction, I can offer feedback prior to submission and help guide the writing process *Freelance coaching: covers the basic how-to's of freelancing including setting financial goals, publication goals, and pitching goals; how to track income, log hours, and keep deadlines straight; how to establish and maintain relationships with editors *Sensitivity reading and writing tips on issues of gender, addiction, trauma *More: if you can conceive it, we can achieve it. Get in touch and let me know what you're looking for, and I can either find a way to help you myself, or try to refer you to someone who can
Britni de la Cretaz is a freelance journalist, sports writer, and essayist whose work has been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, espnW, Teen Vogue, Marie Claire, BRIDES Magazine, Parents Magazine, Literary Hub, Narratively, Elle, Vogue, and more. In 2017, she won the Nellie Bly Award for Investigative Journalism for her work on racism in the Boston sports media scene. She is currently working on a non-fiction book about women and girls in football. Visit britnidlc.com for more.
Rate: $100
Short Fiction, The Novel, Memoir, Individual Essay.
Cross-cultural, international, family, feminism, travel, literary fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.
Jennifer De Leon is the author of the YA novel, Don't Ask Me Where I'm From, forthcoming from Atheneum/Simon & Schuster (Caitlyn Dlouhy Books), and the editor of Wise Latinas: Writers on Higher Education (University of Nebraska Press, 2014). In 2017 De Leon was selected as a City of Boston Artist in Residence and in 2016, named Writer-in-Residence by the Associates of the Boston Public Library. Before that, her short story, "Home Movie," originally published in The Briar Cliff Review, was chosen as the One City, One Story pick for the Boston Book Festival. De Leon is now an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Framingham State University and a GrubStreet instructor and board member.
Rate: $75
Short Fiction, Flash Fiction, Essay, Intensive Line-Editing, Proofreading, Guidance in Submitting to Literary Magazines, Book Research Assistance, Preparing the MFA Application, Applying for Awards, Fellowships, & Retreats, Personal Writing Coaching
I can be a supportive, sensitive critical reader for short stories of all kinds, literary fiction, work in which place, setting, and social or cultural context are essential; hybrid/cross-genre work; essays and stories about cities and suburbs, family and immigration; Spanglish narration and dialogue; writing that deals with art as subject matter, or writing in dialogue with art. I do literary translation from Spanish to English; and English/Spanish and Spanish/English non-literary translation. I'm a native Floridian and can help you nail Sunshine State-specific settings. My experience as an arts administrator and grantwriting consultant can be especially useful if you're developing applications and funding proposals for books, residencies, and community projects. I'm happy to work with writers struggling with ADHD and executive functioning difficulties.
Denise Delgado is instructor, consultant, and Neighborhood Program Fellow at GrubStreet, teaching classes, including bilingual workshops in English and Spanish, and doing outreach in Boston neighborhoods and public libraries. She has facilitated creative writing and art workshops for adults and teens as well as socially-engaged arts projects at libraries, schools, museums, a prison and other community spaces since 1998.
Denise's fiction and critical work have appeared or are forthcoming in The Southeast Review, Inch, Hinchas de Poesía, Jai-Alai Magazine, 2040 Review, Fiction Writers Review, the anthology Florida Flash, and various contemporary art publications. Since 2010 she has organized the Free School for Writing, an itinerant classroom for literary craft talks and workshops. From 2005-2013 she worked for the Outreach Division of the Miami-Dade Public Library System as Curator for Art Services and Exhibitions and later, project director for the Vasari Project Archive. As a writer and multidisciplinary artist, Denise has received grants from New England Foundation for the Arts, Alternate ROOTS/The Ford Foundation, and Tigertail Productions' Artist Access Program. Delgado received an MA in Media Studies from The New School and an MFA in fiction from Warren Wilson College. She is currently at work a collection of linked short stories set in Miami and Cuba around two families connected through Operation Peter Pan.
Rate: $75
The Novel; The Novella or Short Novel; Short Fiction; Individual Essay; Book-Length Non-fiction
Literary fiction of any kind, with a special affinity for family relationships, coming-of-age stories, and period pieces. I'm also interested in research-based non-fiction, long or short.
Ursula DeYoung is an author living in Cambridge, MA. She earned a B.A. in History and Literature from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in History from Oxford University. Her first non-fiction book, a biography of 19th-century physicist John Tyndall entitled A Vision of Modern Science, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2011. Her first novel, Shorecliff, was published by Little, Brown in 2013 and tells the story of a large family that gathers in Maine in the summer of 1928.
Rate: $75
Short Fiction, Personal Essay
Literary, speculative, and experimental fictions. Critical, reflective, and political essays. Book-length manuscripts welcome.
Jane Dykema's fiction and nonfiction has appeared in Guernica, Electric Literature, Fanzine, the anthology, Cover Stories, and elsewhere. She's a 2016 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow and her fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She holds an MFA from UMass Amherst, teaches writing at Clark University, and is a Program Assistant for the Disquiet International Literary Program.
Rate: $75
Character-driven, high-concept and indie, drama, comedy, historical, and adaptations.
Cheryl Eagan-Donovan is a writer and documentary filmmaker. She studied writing and literature at Goddard College, has a BS from Boston University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University. She has published poetry and articles about Shakespeare, screenwriting, and film. She teaches screenwriting, film and literature at Lesley University and Northeastern University. Her new film, Nothing is Truer than Truth, is based on the book Shakespeare By Another Name. Cheryl is a lecturer at Shakespeare conferences around the country. Her debut documentary, All Kindsa Girls, screened at art house theaters and film festivals in London, Toronto, and throughout the US, is featured in Paul Sherman's book Big Screen Boston, and was short-listed for the PBS series POV. The film's theatrical screenings included the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, and the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Boston. She served as President of Women in Film & Video/New England for several years and was the 2012 Judge for the WIFVNE Annual Screenwriting Competition. She also served as a panelist for the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts 2012 Play/Screenwriting Fellowship. She served on the Board of Directors of The Next Door Theater in Winchester, Massachusetts for five years, and was just elected to the Board of Trustees of the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship.
Rate: $100
Short Fiction, The Novel, Preparing the MFA Application, Applying for Awards & Fellowships, Proofreading, Intensive Line-Editing, Querying Literary Agents, & Submitting to Literary Magazines.
Regarding writing program specific coaching, programs my clients have been accepted into include Boston University, The New School, American University, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Columbia College, University of New Hampshire, Bennington College, Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA), University of Montana, Pratt Institute, and the University of Edinburgh.
I'm interested in literary fiction of any kind, with particular interest in cross-cultural, international, and identity narratives. I'm also interested in high-concept, plot-driven or character-driven narratives, comedy or dramedy. I'm also available as a sensitivity reader.
I love reading your feedback because you totally get it, and your insights are very meaningful."
- Marina Hatsopoulos
"Jonathan is a very thoughtful line-editor who also uses higher-level critique to suggest how stories can work better as a whole. I was particularly impressed by his ability to speak in my language and honor the worlds of my stories so acutely. His commentary gave my pieces the extra push I needed to get accepted into MFA programs, and he even followed up when I was worried I had cut a story down too small for a contest. Thanks, Jonathan!"
-David Schwartz
Jonathan Escoffery's most recent honors include a Distinguished Story selection in Best American Short Stories 2018, a 2018 Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award, and the 2016 Waasnode Fiction Prize. He has received fellowships and support from Aspen Words, the Somerville Arts Council, The Writers' Room of Boston, Kimbilio Fiction, the Anderson Center, and Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Jonathan earned his MFA in Fiction from the University of Minnesota where he was a DOVE Fellow, a COSP Fellow, and the Fiction Editor at Dislocate magazine. He is currently the Writer-in-Residence at Wellspring House artist retreat in Ashfield, MA. He has taught Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota, UMass Boston, the Red Wing Youth Correctional Facility, and Roxbury Open Studios. Jonathan's writing has been selected to appear in The Paris Review, AGNI, Prairie Schooner, Pleiades, The Caribbean Writer, Passages North, Salt Hill Journal, Solstice Literary Magazine, Creative Nonfiction Magazine, and elsewhere. This fall he will begin as a doctoral candidate in the University of Southern California's Creative Writing and Literature program as a Provost Fellow. For a full listing of his publications and projects, please visit Jonathan's Author Page.
Rate: $75
Mark Fogarty is a story consultant and co-producer on the film, Respite Road, filming Spring 2018. Mark runs the filmmaking program at Bishop Hendricken High School, a Catholic school for boys. The program allows students to study film every day of their High School career and combines theory with production. Before becoming a teacher Mark worked as a video editor and cameraman for Numark, and Pet Fashion Week. He has made every kind of video imaginable, including short films, fashion videos, DJ tutorials and more.
Literary Journalism, Memoir, Personal Essay, Book-length Nonfiction, Short Fiction
Memoir, personal essay, with themes of family, adolescence, mental health, loss; travel and food writing; fiction with a strong first-person voice. I'm drawn to writing that is lyrical but thematically taut, deeply honest, that blends scene with an introspective impulse. I'm also happy to consult on professional matters, such as fine-tuning MFA applications and submitting work to literary journals.
Dorian Fox's essays and fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in December Magazine (as Honorable Mention in the 2015 Curt Johnson Prose Awards for Nonfiction), Under the Gum Tree, Gastronomica, Alimentum, Monkeybicycle, Bright Lights Film Journal, and others. His work has also been shortlisted for awards by Ploughshares, Phoebe and Bellingham Review. He received his MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Emerson College and has lived and worked in Boston for many years.
Rate: $85
I love to work with students on book-length manuscripts, chapbooks, packets of poems for submissions and applications, or individual poems. I am also available to consult with writers who want to learn how to navigate the literary magazine or book submission process. I also look forward to mentoring students through graduate school applications and academic job applications. I have experience mentoring many writers through the academic job market process. Such career guidance can include helping applicants navigate the entire process, providing feedback on application materials, and helping applicants prepare for interviews.
Rebecca Morgan Frank is the author of two poetry collections, The Spokes of Venus (Carnegie Mellon 2016) and Little Murders Everywhere (Salmon 2012), finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Her third collection, Sometimes We're All Living n a Foreign Country, is forthcoming from Carnegie Mellon in October 2017. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in such places as The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Harvard Review, New England Review, Guernica, Poetry Daily, and Verse Daily. She is the recipient of the Poetry Society of America's Alice Fay di Castagnola Award and fellowships from such places as the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, the Writers' Room of Boston, and the Mississippi Arts Commission. She holds a BA from Vassar College, an MFA from Emerson College, and a PhD in creative writing and literature from the University of Cincinnati. She has previously taught at Emerson College and at the Center for Writers, the graduate program at the University of Southern Mississippi. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of the University Press of Kentucky New Poetry and Prose Series. Co-founder and editor of the literary magazine Memorious.org, she is the Jacob Ziskind Poet in Residence at Brandeis University.
Rate: $95
Memoir, Individual Essay, Book-Length Non-Fiction, Journalism, Feature Writing.
Genres of writing I'm drawn to: Memoir; narrative nonfiction; personal narrative; personal essay; commentary/op-ed; stunt/immersion ("gonzo") journalism.
Subject areas I'm drawn to: I love writing on all topics, but in particular, I'm drawn to personal essays, narrative nonfiction and stories about personal relationships, family, childhood, adolescence; travel, pop culture, geek culture, fantasy/science fiction and subcultures; overcoming family/medical trauma .
I also help students reach their goals in publishing their work -- with a particular focus on the personal essay and oped --- as well as submitting work to agents and editors. I can serve as a personal writing coach and writing career planner.
A GrubStreet instructor since 2005, Ethan Gilsdorf is a journalist, memoirist, essayist, critic, poet, teacher, performer and nerd. He is the author of the travel memoir investigation Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms, named a Must-Read Book by the Massachusetts Book Awards. His essay "The Day My Mother Became a Stranger" was cited in the anthology Best American Essays 2016. His fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in Poetry, The Southern Review, The Quarterly, Exquisite Corpse, The North American Review, The Massachusetts Review, New York Quarterly and dozens of other literary magazines and in several anthologies, and he is the winner of the Hobblestock Peace Poetry Competition and the Esme Bradberry Contemporary Poets Prize. Gilsdorf got his start in journalism as a Paris-based travel writer and food and film critic for Time Out, Fodor's and the Washington Post. He has published hundreds of feature stories, essays, op-eds and reviews about the arts, pop, gaming and geek culture; and media and technology, and travel, in dozens of other publications worldwide including the New York Times, New York Times Book Review, Boston Globe, Boston Globe Magazine, Boston Magazine, Wired, Salon, WBUR's The Artery and Cognoscenti, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Art New England. A regular presenter, performer, and event moderator, he frequently appears on programs such as NPR, The Discovery Channel, PBS, CBC, BBC, and the Learning Channel, and also lectures at schools, universities, festivals, conventions, and conferences worldwide, including at this TEDx event, where he nerded out about D&D.Gilsdorf is co-founder of GrubStreet's Young Adult Writers Program (YAWP), and teaches creative writing at GrubStreet, where he serves on the Board of Directors. He also serves on the Boston Book Festival Program Committee and is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics. He received his BA from Hampshire College, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Louisiana State University. Follow Ethan's adventures at ethangilsdorf.com or Twitter @ethanfreak, and read his posts on Grub's blog, GrubWrites.
Rate: $85
Poetry, short fiction, memoir, personal essay, literary journalism, and book length nonfiction.
Poetic series, prose poems, lyric memoir, education and science-related topics, fiction and non-fiction with an international outlook.
Rebecca Givens Rolland is the author of The Wreck of Birds (Bauhan Publishing, 2012), which won the 2011 May Sarton New Hampshire First Book Prize, as well as the chapbook On the Refusal to Speak (dancing girl press, 2012) and the forthcoming chapbook The Vine of Somewhere (dancing girl press). She has received the Dana Award in Short Fiction, as well as the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship, the Clapp Fellowship from Yale University, and an Academy of American Poets Prize. Her fiction has been published or upcoming in The Literary Review, North American Review, Slice, and Hobart, her poetry in The Kenyon Review, the Colorado Review, and the Cincinnati Review, and her nonfiction writing in Brain, Child Magazine and Education Week. She has a doctorate in education from Harvard and a master's degree in English from Boston University.
Rate: $75
Short Fiction, Memoir, Journalism, Feature Writing, Young Adult Fiction, Children's Literature.
Writing for Children through Young Adult: All themes, genres and subject matter welcome. Fiction, non-fiction, historical fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, picture books, chapter books, middle grade, young adult.
Beth Raisner Glass is a children's book author, newspaper writer and teacher. She has taught in the Massachusetts public school system, and was Associate Professor of Education at Wellesley College. Her first picture book, Noises at Night, was published to wide acclaim and was featured on the Today Show's "Best Books for Children" segment. Her picture book, Blue Ribbon Dad, was published in 2011, and is now a featured book on Reading Rainbow's iPad app. Noises at Night was also selected as a Reading Rainbow ebook for their ipad app. She received her Bachelors in Education from Lesley College, and M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Lesley University. You can follow her online on her websitewww.bethglass.com and on Facebook.
Rate: $100
I'm interested in and can offer constructive feedback on all forms of poetry: lyric, narrative, formal, experimental, etc. I have particular expertise in the emotional arc and thematic sequencing of a poetry manuscript. I'm most excited by poetry that is imagistic, urgently voiced, makes language both strange and beautiful, and situates a speaker in a sociopolitical/ecological context.
Sarah Green is the author of Earth Science (421 Atlanta, 2016). Her previous chapbook, Skeleton Evenings (Finishing Line Press, 2015) won the 2014 New Women's Voices prize. Poems of hers have appeared in Best New Poets 2012, the Incredible Sestina Anthology, Pleiades, FIELD, Passages North, Mid-American Review, Gettysburg Review, Redivider, Ruminate, and elsewhere. A Pushcart Prize winner, she holds both an MFA and Ph.D. in Poetry. Sarah has 14 years of creative writing teaching experience, in settings ranging from higher ed (Oberlin College, Emerson College) to nonprofits (Grub Street, The Loft Literary Center) to artists' retreats in France and Italy. Enthusiastic about engaging with students at all experience levels and coming from all styles, as an instructor she emphasizes play, intuition, precision, and musicality. She is currently compiling a multi-genre anthology called Welcome To The Neighborhood.
Rate: $75
Short Fiction, The Novel, Memoir, Personal Essay, Book-Length Non-Fiction, Young Adult & Middle Grade Children's Literature
Upmarket fiction, memoir, young adult, nonfiction health, education, psychology, with a focus on the depth and complexities of relationships, mental health, medical trauma, childhood, adolescence, family. I'm especially interested in helping writers find the right structure for their projects and dig to the heart of the emotional narratives that drive their work.
Lynne Griffin is the author of the novels Girl Sent Away (SixOneSeven Books), Sea Escape (Simon & Schuster) and Life Without Summer (St. Martin's Press), and the nonfiction guides, Let's Talk About it: Adolescent Mental Health (SixOneSeven Books) and Negotiation Generation (Penguin). In addition to teaching at Grub Street, Lynne teaches in the graduate program of family studies at Wheelock College. She is the family life contributor for Boston's Fox Morning News and writes for Psychology Today. Her short fiction, essays, and articles have appeared in Slate, Brain Child, Parenting, Scholastic Parent & Child, Psychology Today, The Writer, The Huffington Post, The Boston Globe, The Drum Literary Magazine, Parents, and more. For more about Lynne's work, visit her website www.LynneGriffin.com.
Rate: $90
Short Fiction, the Novel, Flash Fiction, Young Adult and Children's Lit, Genre Fiction, Screenwriting, and Career Development.
My literary interests include sci-fi, fantasy, YA, and most speculative fiction in short or long form. I'm very passionate about accurate representation of gender, race, sexuality, and ability in fiction, so I'm especially interested in narratives that want to develop their female, queer, poc, and disabled characters. I want to help genre writers find that balance between complex worldbuilding and accessibility for your readers. I can also be a resource for your personal writing goals and habits, for example if you want to have monthly/weekly check ins and discuss your work in progress and get continuous feedback. I can also help you submit to literary magazines, especially for speculative fiction. If you have writer's block or are stuck at any stage in the writing process I can help get you through that and come up with tangible steps forward to continue your work!
Marcella is a writer, dancer, and assistant pig keeper who writes speculative and feminist fiction and poetry. She studied Creative Writing and Linguistics at Arcadia University, where she also taught several classes on the Hero's Journey and Women's Comedic Memoirs. She was a founder and editor of Quiddity lit mag, a Nanowrimo Come Write In Coordinator, and a teacher at Breakthrough Philadelphia and the Nationalities Service Center of Philadelphia. She received a Summer Literary Seminars Poetry Fellowship and was a finalist for the Dell Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing.
I also coach pre-published authors on how to think about their brand, social media platforms, and marketing connections as part of their career goals.
As a reader (and writer) I enjoy science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, literary fiction, short stories, children's and young adult literature, food writing, and personal essay. I am currently available for full manuscript reviews/consults in these genres.
Short Fiction, The Novel, Memoir, Individual Essay.
Any story, fiction or nonfiction, that attempts to shed light on the human experience.
Jessamyn Hope is an award-winning novelist and memoirist. Her novel SAFEKEEPING was a recommended read for summer 2015 by The Boston Globe; acclaimed by The Globe and Mail, The Montreal Gazette, and The Jerusalem Post; a New York Public Library Staff Pick; winner of the 2016 J.I. Segal Award in English Fiction; a finalist for both the Ribalow Prize and Paterson Fiction Prize; and found at number two on BuzzFeed's "53 Books You Won't Be Able to Put Down." Her memoirs have appeared in Ploughshares, Five Points, Prism International, and other literary magazines. Recent accolades for her memoirs include two Pushcart Prize honorable mentions, in 2015 and 2016; selection for Best Canadian Essays; and inclusion in the anthologies The Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose and The New Spice Box: Canadian Jewish Writing. She was the Susannah McCorkle Scholar in Fiction at the Sewanee Writers' Conference and has an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College. Learn more at jessamynhope.com.
Rate: $95
Short Fiction, The Novel, Literary Journalism, Memoir, Personal Essay, Book-Length Nonfiction, Personal Writing Coaching, and Intensive Line-Editing (higher rates apply)
I have over ten years of experience publishing a diverse list of award-winning and bestselling books at major publishing houses. I love fiction and nonfiction that builds empathy and bridges, stories that challenge and entertain us, and books that inspire us see the world in a new light.
In fiction, I'm interested in: literary fiction, women's fiction, book club, humor, historical, multicultural, magical realism, graphic novels, short stories, family sagas, coming-of-age, and stories exploring complex relationships.
In nonfiction, I focus on: memoirs, narrative nonfiction, history, business, journalism, travel, food, humor, pop culture, science, space, big ideas, inspirational, parenting, diversity, feminism, social justice, and essays.
The $80/hour base rate is for manuscript assessments; higher rates apply for detailed feedback like personal writing coaching or intensive line-editing.
Emi Ikkanda is an independent editor with over a decade of editorial experience at major publishing houses, most recently as a senior editor at Spiegel & Grau, a division of Random House. She previously worked as an editor at Times Books and Henry Holt & Company, imprints at Macmillan.
Emi has published National Book Award finalists, Pulitzer Prize winners, New York Timesand international bestselling authors including Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award Finalist Carla Power, New York Timesbestselling authors Richard Reeves and Julia Angwin, international bestselling novelist Michael David Lukas, former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao, Harvard graduation speaker Donovan Livingston, ABC sitcom Speechless's Zach Anner, and Iowa International Writing Program resident Lijia Zhang.
Emi regularly speaks on book industry panels, most recently at Grubstreet's Muse and Marketplace Writers' Conference in Boston, the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Conference, the Brooklyn Book Festival, and the Asian American Writers Workshop Writers' Conference. For more information, please visit www.emi-editorial.tumblr.com.
Rate: $80
Literary Journalism, Memoir, Personal Essay, Book-Length Nonfiction
I have a background in journalism, which is where I fell in love with nonfiction writing and storytelling. I think real life people are fascinating! My own writing typically slants toward memoir and personal essay, incorporating elements of reportage to place the story in a larger social/historical context. As a military veteran I have a (somewhat morbid) obsession with war literature, but I love learning about new things in surprising ways that don't feel like I'm learning, and any character-driven narrative that captures the emotional landscape that makes us all human—whether through memoir/personal essay, biography, literary nonfiction, journalism, or a combination thereof. I'm also happy to share my experience editing and reading for literary journals, pitching submissions, querying agents, and applying to MFA programs, awards and fellowships. I appreciate how difficult it is to trust someone with the blood, sweat and tears of your writing. I see consulting as a collaborative effort and want to make sure I'm helping you work toward your goals in the best way possible.
Lauren Kay Johnson is a former military public affairs officer and award-winning Department of Defense journalist. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Glamour, (as winner of the 9th annual personal essay contest), The Atlantic, wbur.com, Yale Medicine Magazine, CONSEQUENCE magazine, Drunken Boat, Pleiades, and several anthologies. Her writing and interviews have also been used in the creation of dance and theater productions. Lauren has been featured on nationally-syndicated radio programs and has lectured at schools, conferences, and veteran centers across the country, including the Association of Writers and Writing Programs national conference, the Boston Book Festival, and the University of Iowa. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Emerson College and has studied at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, where she worked with #1 New York Times bestselling memoirist Cheryl Strayed. A former editor-in-chief of Redivider literary journal, Lauren currently serves as a nonfiction screener for Ploughshares. Her forthcoming memoir explores her coming-of-age against the backdrop of war—beginning with her mother's Army career and deployment in support of Operation Desert Storm when she was seven years old, and later with Lauren's own service in Afghanistan.
Rate: $75
Literary Journalism (e.g. Op-eds, etc.), Memoir, Personal Essay, Book-Length Nonfiction, Poetry
I am a widely published freelance journalist and writer who focuses mainly on creative nonfiction--personal essays, memoir and literary journalism; however, I also write and publish poetry as well. The topics that interest me most and that I have carved out a niche in covering--are living with illness, class issues and poverty, dealing with the death of a loved one (or loved ones), trauma, childhood abuse, dysfunctions families, addiction in the family, nature and the environment and more. My personal essays, articles and op-eds have been featured in a variety of publications and media outlets, including The Atlantic, The Guardian, Salon, the Washington Post and Vice. I enjoy teaching and offering one-on-one instruction and mentoring, and take a strengths-based approach with those I work with while creating a supportive environment where we can mutually learn from each other.
Laura Kiesel is a freelance writer whose feature articles, op-eds, and essays have appeared in many media outlets including The Atlantic, The Guardian, Salon, the Washington Post, the New York Daily News, Self and Narratively. She currently blogs about having chronic pain for Harvard Health Publications. In 2016, she founded the nonprofit project Writing for Survival, which offers writing workshops and one-on-one mentoring for at-risk youth. She lives in Arlington.
Rate: $85
Short fiction, flash fiction, the novella, the novel.
I love writing that features contradictory characters, humor, a strong voice, and/or political concerns (particularly matters of race and ethnicity). Emotional complexity and power is my first aim. I have a sharp eye for line-level mechanics, and often find that large issues in fiction can be addressed through quite tiny adjustments of language, syntax, and the sequence of passages.
Sonya Larson joined GrubStreet in 2005, and helped to grow the organization from offering 80 classes a year to over 600. Since then she has managed GrubStreet's many and proliferating programs, and served as Program Director for several years.
Now, as the Director of the Muse and Advocacy, Sonya oversees the staff, organization, sponsorship, and execution of GrubStreet's annual conference of 800+ writers, guest authors, literary agents, editors, and publishing innovators. She also spearheads Grub's efforts to expand access to classes and services for writers of historically marginalized backgrounds. Sonya also represents GrubStreet at conferences nationwide, including AWP, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and Book Expo America.
Sonya's short fiction and nonfiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories 2017, American Short Fiction, The American Literary Review, Poets & Writers, The Writer's Chronicle, Audible.com, West Branch, Salamander, Memorious, Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices, Del Sol Review, The Red Mountain Review, and The Hub. She has received awards and honors from Best American Short Stories 2017 and 2015, the Pushcart Prize, Glimmer Train, Meridian, Salamander, the American Literary Review, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is at work on a novel about a Chinese community living in rural Mississippi in the 1930s, which earned her an Emerging Artist Award from the St. Botolph Club Foundation. In 2016 and 2018 she was awarded fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center.
Sonya received her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she served as editor of The Madison Review, and her MFA in fiction from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
Rate: $75
Cheryl Lawton Malone is a freelance writer and poet who teaches creative writing at Grub Street, and at Lesley University at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her children's writing has been published in numerous journals and magazines, and her children's poetry has received several awards. In addition, she holds a BA in International Relations from Lehigh University, a JD in Law from Suffolk University School of Law and an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University. Albert Whitman will publish her debut picture book, Dario and the Whale, in the spring of 2016. You can follow her on line at www.cheryllawtonmalone.com, on Twitter at @MaloneLawton and on Facebook as Cheryl Lawton Malone Author.
Rate: $75
The Novel, Personal Essay
I'm interested in literary fiction, complex characters, international settings, and political novels. My background as a former academic roots me in the long tradition of the novel, so I can offer good guidance to writers working with novel form either to tweak or modify established structures. I'm also especially interested in coaching writing and can work with writers to help them devise short-term and long-term motivational plans.
Henriette Lazaridis' debut novel The Clover House was published by Ballantine Books in April 2013 and was a Boston Globe best-seller and a Target Emerging Authors pick. Her work has appeared in publications including ELLE, Narrative Magazine, Salamander, the New England Review, The Millions, The New York Times online, and the Huffington Post. She is the founding editor of The Drum, an online literary magazine publishing short fiction and essays exclusively in audio form. Find her older Grub Daily posts by searching for Henriette Lazaridis Power.
@writerhenriette @TheDrumlitmag
Rate: $100
The Novel, Memoir, Book-length Nonfiction
Caroline Leavitt is the New York Times Bestselling author of Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You, and eight other novels. Is This Tomorrow was also an Indie Next Pick, a Jewish Book Council Bookclub Pick, long listed for the Maine Readers Prize,a Best Book of the Year from January Magazine, and a San Francisco Chronicle Lit Pick. Is ThisTomorrow was on the Best Books of the Year Lists from the San Francisco Chronicle, Kirkus Reviews and Bookmarks Magazine, as well as being a Costco "Pennie's Pick". Her new novel, Cruel Beautiful World, will be published October 4, 2016 from Algonquin Books. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times "Modern Love," the New York Times Book Review, More, Redbook, Salon, and more. She is a book critic for People Magazine, The Boston Globe, and the San Francisco Chronicle. The recipient of a New York Foundation of the Arts Grant in Fiction, she was also a finalist in the Sundance Screenwriting Lab and the Nickelodeon Writing Fellowships. She teaches novel writing online at Stanford and at UCLA Extension Writers Program, as well as working for agents and private clients. Visit her at www.carolineleavitt.com.
Rate: $90
Memoir, Individual Essay, Feature Writing.
Identity, sense of place, writing about the Midwest/regional writing, sports writing, gay and lesbian topics, coming of age, Jewish identity and culture. Performance pieces (i.e. spoken word and developing a one-person show), consulting on self-publishing.
Judah Leblang is a Boston-based writer, teacher and storyteller. His radio essays have appeared on almost 200 NPR and ABC-network stations around the US, and on several college and community radio stations. His column, "Life in the Slow Lane," appears regularly in Bay Windows, a Boston-area newspaper. The second edition of his memoir, "Finding My Place: One Man's Journey from Cleveland to Boston and Beyond," was published in 2013.
Rate: $75
Short Fiction, The Novel, Literary Journalism (e.g. Op-eds, etc.), Memoir, Personal Essay, Book-Length Nonfiction, Genre Fiction, Screenwriting/Playwriting
I began my writing exploration with fiction, but have crossed all genre lines in favor of telling my stories in the best possible way. This includes establishing great characters who have depth and live in fleshed-out worlds. It's also important to me to treat these stories with sensitivity and inclusion in mind. As a former college first-year writing instructor and current copyeditor in the publishing field, attention to detail rounds out my areas of interest and importance as a writer.
Zyanya Avila Louis received her MFA in Fiction from Emerson College and now teaches in their First Year Writing Program. In her time working with students at Emerson, she as developed a passion for working with international students, multilingual students, and other diverse student populations, which is born from being bilingual herself. She loves writing and reading fiction and non-fiction, and occasionally enjoys poetry. Zyanya was born and raised in El Paso, TX and now lives in Quincy, MA with her husband, their demon cat, and her growing library of books.
Rate: $75
Short Fiction.
Literary, mystery, and particularly experimental fictions, loosely defined.
Ron MacLean's novel HEADLONG won the 2014 Indie Book Award for Best Mystery. Ron's other books are the story collection Why the Long Face? (2008), and the novel Blue Winnetka Skies (2004). His short fiction has appeared in GQ, Greensboro Review, Prism International, Night Train, Other Voices and other quarterlies. He is a recipient of the Frederick Exley Award for Short Fiction and a multiple Pushcart Prize nominee. He holds a Doctor of Arts from the University at Albany, SUNY, and has been a proud part of team Grub since 2004.
Rate: $100
Jess Mann is a writer and an overthinker from a long line of storytellers. At an early age, she remembers wanting to tell stories of her own, but teachers didn't like her talking all through class, and her friends sighed and rolled their eyes a lot, when she was yelling tales at them, so she began to write them down to keep from forgetting them. Jess now writes a lot of stories down. She has a BFA from the University of Maine, and is currently at work on her MFA at Goddard College. She has also managed to publish some of her tales in publications like The Sandy River Review, Paige Leaves, and contributed to the book Baking By Hand.
She is excited to meet all members of the storytelling tribe, and will never roll her eyes and sigh at anyone.
Short Fiction, The Novel, The Novella or Short Novel, Individual Essay, Genre Fiction (Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, etc.), Genre Fiction (Sci-Fi, Fantasy, etc.), Young Adult Fiction.
Genre fiction that has literary heft and/or that attempts to break genre conventions. Literary fiction that is character-motivated but also plot-driven. The application of techniques from playwriting and screenwriting to prose fiction.
Michael Marano is a horror and dark science fiction writer whose first novel, Dawn Song, won the Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild Awards. Stories From the Plague Years, a collection of Marano's new and reprinted short fiction, was named one of the Top Ten Horror Publications of 2011 by Booklist. His supernatural crime novella "Displacement" was nominated for a 2011 Shirley Jackson Award. Stories From the Plague Years was reprinted in 2012 by ChiZine Publications of Toronto, who reprinted Dawn Song in 2014, which will be followed by two sequels, A Choir of Exiles and Winter Requiem.
Since 1990, he has also been reviewing movies for the Public Radio Satellite System program Movie Magazine International. Mike's pop culture commentary has appeared in many national publications. Marano is also a beginning circus performer, developing and choreographing narrative aerial pieces for the trapeze and lyra based on the works of J.G. Ballard and Philip K. Dick.
Rate: $75
Stacy Mattingly is coauthor with Ashley Smith of the New York Times bestseller UNLIKELY ANGEL, an Atlanta hostage story now a feature film, CAPTIVE. Stacy's work has appeared in the Oxford American, EuropeNow, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and elsewhere. In 2012, she launched the Sarajevo Writers' Workshop, a bilingual collective of poets and prose writers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has taught creative writing at Boston University and at GrubStreet and helped lead the first Narrative Witness exchange (Caracas-Sarajevo) for the University of Iowa's International Writing Program. Stacy holds an MFA from Boston University, where she was a Marcia Trimble Fellow, a Leslie Epstein Global Fellow, and recipient of the Florence Engel Randall Graduate Fiction Award. Her first novel, recently completed, is set largely in present-day Sarajevo.
Rate: $90
Memoir, Individual Essay, Journalism, Feature Writing, Writing for Radio.
Memoir, essay, radio reported pieces, spirituality, travel, fiction, radio storytelling, nonfiction, commentary and opinion.
Jennifer Mattson is a former producer for NPR's nationally syndicated program "The Connection" and worked as an editor for National Public Radio. She spent over six years as a producer for CNN, where she was responsible for CNN's daily live newscasts and producing CNN's international coverage. Jennifer came to CNN to work in the Washington bureau's political unit during the 1996 U.S. presidential election. She later moved to Atlanta, where she worked first as a writer and then as a newscast producer at CNN International. Prior to joining CNN, Jennifer worked as a reporter based in Budapest, Hungary covering Eastern Europe, where she reported on a number of regional stories for USA TODAY including a piece on George Soros and the Clinton-Yeltsin CSCE Summit. She has also reported, most recently, from Asia. Her work has appeared inTheAtlantic.com, USA TODAY, The Boston Globe, The Women's Review of Books, AsianCorrespondent.com, Tablettalk.com and CNN.com. She is the former Managing Editor of AsiaSociety.org. Follow her on Twitter at @jennifermattson
Rate: $125
Poetry, Author Website Production
Poetry and folklore, folk narrative, oral history, lyric poetry, narrative poetry, prose poetry, hybrid forms, naturalism, surrealism
Kentucky poet and folklorist Sarah McCartt-Jackson is the author of Stonelight (Airlie Press), which won the 2017 Airlie Prize, and three chapbooks: Calf Canyon, Vein of Stone, and Children Born on the Wrong Side of the River, which won the 2015 Mary Ballard Poetry Prize. Her poetry has appeared in Indiana Review, Copper Nickel, Bellingham Review, Journal of American Folklore, The Maine Review, NANO Fiction, and others. She received an Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship and Emerging Artist Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council, was selected for inclusion in the Kentucky Great Writers series, and has served as artist-in-residence for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Shotpouch Cabin through Oregon State University. She works on a farm in Louisville, where she also teaches poetry and makes up half of the art duo Project Diode.
Rate: $75
Short Fiction, Literary Journalism, Memoir, Personal Essay, Book-Length Nonfiction
I'm eager to consult on any form of creative nonfiction, including the personal essay, memoir, literary journalism, flash nonfiction, and writing about literature. I'm also very happy to assist with flash fiction. My particular interests include braided essays and memoirs, and writing about trauma, war, identity, family, mental illness, psychology, and religion. I very much enjoy character-based, scene-driven prose.
I'm particularly excited about writing that engages and interrogates the personal narrative amidst the backdrop of larger historical, political, and social contexts. I was born and raised in Miami, FL, and would love to work with narratives that sensitively and meaningfully include Spanish as well as diverse settings and characters.
I have a wide range of experience in revising, editing, and publishing—and teaching writing and literature in college and community classrooms—and can help writers prepare writing samples for MFA applications, fellowships, and grants.
Caitlin McGill is a 2016 St. Botolph Emerging Artist Award winner and the 2014 winner of the Rafael Torch Nonfiction Literary Award. Her work has been supported by the Bread Loaf Writers' conference, the Ragdale Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and has appeared or is forthcoming in Blackbird, The Chattahoochee Review, Crab Orchard Review, Consequence, Iron Horse Literary Review, Vox, War, Literature, & the Arts, and several other magazines. She recently completed a memoir about intergenerational trauma and abuse, inherited survival mechanisms, immigration, race, class, addiction, mental illness, war, and the cost of ignoring our histories. One essay from her book was named a Notable in The Best American Essays 2016. She teaches at Emerson College, GrubStreet, & Writers Without Margins. For more information please visit caitlinmcgill.com & follow her on Twitter @caitlindmcgill.
Rate: $95
Short Fiction, The Novel, Memoir, Individual Essay, Ghost Stories.
I am happy to consult on any form of literary fiction, creative non-fiction, and writing about literature. My particular interests are dramatic novels and long stories which relish style, language, setting, and deep character, coming-of-age narratives, family-based memoir, travel memoir, writing about illness, and historical biography. I have broad experience in editing non-fiction books and articles for publication, and can help writers choose, edit and prepare creative writing samples for MFA applications, fellowships and grants.
After completing an M.Phil in English Literature at Oxford, Nicole Miller worked at The New Yorker and The Oxford English Dictionary, where she is a longstanding scholarly reader in etymology. Her short stories have appeared twice in The May Anthology of Short Stories, edited by Jill Paton Walsh and Sebastian Faulks, and her nonfiction won the Dorothy Cappon prize for the essay in New Letters magazine in 2014. She held the Graduate Fellowship in Creative Writing at Emerson College, Boston, gaining her MFA in 2012. In 2012, she was also awarded a Ph.D in Victorian Literature from University College, London. She currently edits faculty manuscripts for Harvard's English Department and teaches creative writing at the Writer's Center in Bethesda and the British novel at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C. Her interests span the novel, short story, ghost story, essay, memoir and the translation of Modern Greek poetry.
Rate: $85
Short Fiction, The Novel, Memoir.
Literary fiction and personal narrative nonfiction on all topics, including but not limited to work that takes on travel, war issues, science and medicine, illness, grieving, music, and suspense. Please contact for rates.
Jenny Moore has provided thoughtful, constructive critiques to writers for two decades. Since earning her MFA at the New School in 2000, Jenny has honed her critiquing and writing chops in master-level workshops and one-on-one work with writers at every stage of the publishing process. Currently she's working on her second novel and is an editor for literary, cultural, and financial publications. She is a contributor to the anthologies Spent: Exposing Our Complicated Relationship with Shopping (Seal Press, 2014) and Walk With Us: How the West Wing Changed Our Lives (CH Books, 2016). Her writing also has appeared in journals and online, as well as in Boston City Hall and Grub's own Free Press.
YA and Children's Literature, Middle Grade, Picture Books
Middle grade and young adult novels, early reader books and picture books. Contemporary fiction and some science fiction, especially those that show ordinary characters dealing with extraordinary circumstances.
Taylor Morris is the author of more than a dozen books for tweens and young adults and is published by both Simon & Schuster and Penguin. She's published stand-alone novels, (including BFF BREAKUP), a series ("Hello, Gorgeous!"), and worked as writer on the first four books in celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis' wildly successful young reader series, "Recipe for Adventure." She's also a thorough editor with an eye toward manuscript details and overall cohesiveness. Taylor is an honors graduate of Emerson College's Writing, Literature & Publishing program.
Rate: $75
Scrivener, The Novel, Personal Essays
Consults on novel-length projects and personal essay, with a particular interest and expertise in cross-cultural and international narratives, medical narratives, and themes exploring religion, identity, trauma, and/or war, and specializes in helping writers find the best structure for their work. Also offers private Scrivener lessons, both the basics, and how to best adapt it to work best for your specific project.
As Director of Online and Special Programs at GrubStreet, Alison Murphy works on developing new and innovative models for our online and intensive programs, as well as overseeing our consulting program. When not at Grub, Alison can usually be found at her laptop with her faithful basset hound Murray at her feet, writing about war and pop culture, or teaching creative writing to inmates in the prison system. A 2016 James Jones First Novel Fellow and graduate of the 2014-2015 Novel Incubator, Alison is hard at work revising her first novel. Her nonfiction can be found in ROAR Magazine, Men's Journal, PsychologyToday.com, and elsewhere.
Rate: $100
Memoir, Personal Essay, Short Fiction
I'm particularly interested in cross-cultural narratives, narratives that aim to represent marginalized communities, stories about trauma, mental illness, identity, war, and mother/daughter relationships. I have extensive experience editing and giving detailed feedback on memoir and personal essays, and have helped students apply for graduate school and write query letters to agents.
Rani was a professor of Ethnic American and Postcolonial Literature at institutions such as Harvard, Yale, and Johns Hopkins University. Her work has appeared in Catapult, Salon, The New York Times Book Review, Hobart, Redivider, amongst other places. She has work forthcoming in Longreads. Additionally, she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for her essay in Redivider, was longlisted for Cosmonauts Avenue's 2017 Fiction Prize, and awarded a 2017 Archie D. and Bertha H. Walker Scholarship at the Fine Arts Works Center in Provincetown, MA. She is a 2017 Pauline Scheer Fellow and graduate of the Memoir Incubator at Grub Street working on a transnational memoir about fractured identity and her relationship with her mentally ill Bengali immigrant mother. She is represented by Erin Harris at Folio Literary Management.
Rate: $80
Short Fiction, The Novel, Poetry, Memoir, Individual Essay, Young Adult Fiction, Children's Literature.
GLBT literature, Jewish literature, feminist literature, literature with strong female protagonists, historical fiction, humor, formal and free verse poetry, cross-genre (a novel told in verse, for example), children's books for alternative families.
Lesléa Newman is the author of 62 books for adults and children including the novel, The Reluctant Daughter,the short story collection, A Letter to Harvey Milk, the poetry collection, Nobody's Mother, the young adult novel Jailbait, the middle-grade novel, Hachiko Waits, the children's book, Heather Has Two Mommies, and the writing guide, Write From the Heart. Her literary awards include creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, a James Baldwin award in cultural achievement, a Parents' Choice Silver Medal, and four Pushcart Prize nominations. Nine of her books have been Lambda Literary Award finalists. From 2008-2010, she served as the poet laureate of Northampton, MA. Her latest poetry collection, October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard is forthcoming. Visitwww.lesleanewman.com for more information.
Rate: $125
The Novel, Memoir, Book-Length Nonfiction, YA Literature
As a literary agent, I am familiar with both the publishing industry and the craft of writing. I know what editors and other agents are looking for in a manuscript or proposal and am pleased to provide an array of editorial services to help you give your work its best shot at publication. Please send me an email description of your project and the kind of assistance you need. If the project seems like a possible fit for me, I will request an excerpt to determine whether or not I am the right editor for your work. My editorial experience is wide-ranging but some topics do fall outside my field of expertise or interest and I will not take on a project that I do not feel I can enhance or help to develop. Rates vary by service.
Thematic interests include but are not limited to: contemporary + historical fiction; family relationship + coming-of-age stories; history + current affairs; social + cultural issues; memoir; food.
Amaryah Orenstein, founder and president of GO Literary, a Boston-based boutique agency, is thrilled to help writers bring their ideas to life. Aiming to give voice to a broad range of perspectives, she represents a wide array of literary and commercial fiction and narrative nonfiction, and is always looking for works that wed beautiful writing with a strong narrative and tackle big issues in engaging, accessible, and even surprising ways. Amaryah began her career at the Laura Gross Literary Agency in 2009 and, prior to that, she worked as an Editorial Assistant at various academic research foundations, including the Tauber Institute, where she edited books for Brandeis University Press/University Press of New England. Originally from Montreal, Canada, Amaryah earned a BA at McGill University before coming to the United States to pursue graduate studies in American History. She completed an MA at Ohio University's Contemporary History Institute and a PhD at Brandeis University, and currently serves as Co-President of the Boston chapter of the Women's National Book Association.
The novel, memoir, personal essay, and book-length nonfiction.
I'm most interested in narrative nonfiction, memoir, hybrid works, braided and lyric essays, formally experimental fiction and creative nonfiction, nature writing, science-oriented writing, regional writing, personal essays with a political/cultural/historical angle, writing about family dynamics, writing that examines class and culture, writing that interacts with other artistic disciplines, writing about women's lives, and place-oriented writing.
I'm also available to consult on submitting to agents/editors, writing coaching that works toward developing particular skills or longer works, intensive line-editing, and career planning.
Angela Palm is the author of Riverine: A Memoir from Anywhere but Here (Graywolf Press). Riverine was an Indie Next selection, winner of the 2014 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, a Kirkus Best Book of 2016, and a Powerful Memoir by Powerful Women selected by Oprah. Palm was a Bread Loaf Writers' Conference fellow in Narrative Nonfiction and a finalist for both the Vermont Book Award and the Indiana Emerging Author Award in 2017. Her work has been published in Tin House, Longreads, Ecotone, Creative Nonfiction, At Length Magazine, Passages North, Brevity, Paper Darts, Epiphany, and elsewhere. She has taught creative writing workshops and classes at Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Champlain College, New England Young Writers' Conference, The Writers' Barn, The Porch - Nashville, Writers for Recovery, and The Renegade Writers' Collective. She is on the Board of Directors for the Young Writers Project, volunteers with Amnesty International, and has worked as facilitator of the New American and refugee education program, Parent University. Before shifting her focus to creative writing, Palm worked as an editor in the higher ed publishing market with a focus on health sciences, technology, and the humanities. Palm is the Editor in Chief at Creative Side Marketing, serves as a reader for the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, works as an editor for the Harvard Business School, and serves on the Teaching Artist selection committee for the Vermont Arts Council. She has appeared as a featured guest at campuses, bookstores, and conferences all over the country.
Rate: $95
Short Fiction, Flash Fiction, The Novel, The Novella or Short Novel, Memoir, Individual Essay.
Catherine Parnell is the author of the memoir The Kingdom of His Will (Arrowsmith Press, 2007), and her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Barnhouse, Redivider, The Southampton Review, Post Road, The Baltimore Review, slush pile, roger, Dos Passos Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Stone's Throw Magazine, and Consequence Magazine, among others. Her essays and reviews have appeared in numerous newspapers and newsletters. She's a contrubuting editor for Salamander and the senior associate editor for Consequence Magazine. She received her BA from Boston University and her MFA from Bennington College. She recently completed a collection of short stories and is working on a novella.
Rate: $75
Short Fiction, Flash Fiction, The Novel, The Novella or Short Novel, Poetry, Memoir, Individual Essay, Book-Length Non-Fiction, Genre Fiction (Sci-Fi, Fantasy, etc.), Young Adult Fiction, Children's Literature, Line-edits, copyediting
I'm interested in all forms of story, including speculative fiction (fantasy, weird fiction, horror, and other genre fiction), literary fiction, cross-genre/hybrid writing (or any writing that plays with form), fiction (long and short form) and nonfiction. I'm most excited by writing that plays with form, and that critiques and is concerned with gender, sexuality, popular culture, memory, and history.
KL Pereira's chapbook, Impossible Wolves was published by Deathless Press is 2013. Her fiction, poetry, and nonfiction are forthcoming or appear in The Drum Literary Magazine, Shimmer Zine, Lightning Cake, The Golden Key, Innsmouth Free Press, Innsmouth Magazine, Mythic Delirium, Jabberwocky, The Medulla Review, Bitch Magazine and other publications. Pereira's work on fairy tales, sexuality, Wonder Woman, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are featured on Studio 360 and other radio programs, cited in numerous publications, and assigned in courses all over the United States and Canada. Find Pereira online on klpereira.com and @kl_pereira.
Rate: $75
Short Fiction, The Novel, Memoir, Personal Essay, Genre Fiction
I've provided consultation services on everything from poetry chapbooks to book-length academic projects to historical novels published by New York Times-bestselling authors. I'm particularly interested in helping clients who wish, with their writing, to shed light in these dark times. To that end, I'm drawn to stories from and about under-represented groups. I love working with clients operating within different genres, as I believe stories can be compelling whether they take place down the street today, 50 years ago, or on another planet. Come talk to me about your literary novel, your slipstream flash fiction, your comedic memoir, or your historical novella!
I also offer cultural consulting –– as a queer black woman who immigrated from Jamaica when I was young, I grew up noticing certain things about American culture(s) that my education and reading have helped me to name, enabling me to guide other writers who want to respect our complex human community.
Maria Pinto is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in Frigg, Necessary Fiction, The Toast, Word Riot and elsewhere. She studied Creative Writing and Women's and Gender Studies at Brandeis University, where she was awarded the Dafna Gesundheit Prize for Fiction. She was an Ivan Gold Fellow at the Writers' Room of Boston shortly after graduation, and in the summer of 2017 was selected to spend a month with four other writers in the Berkshires as a resident at The Mastheads, working in a studio on Herman Melville's estate. When she's not reading, writing her second novel, teaching creative writing, or freelance editing, she can be found in the woods exercising her left brain functions by studying fungi as an amateur mycologist.
Rate: $75
short fiction, the novel, memoir, personal essay and book-length nonfiction.
Thematic interests include but are not limited to contemporary fiction, women's issues, travel, class, humor, race. Please contact for rates.
Heidi Pitlor has been the series editor of The Best American Short Stories since 2007. Previously, she was a senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for ten years. She is the author of the novels The Birthdays (W.W. Norton, 2006) and The Daylight Marriage (Algonquin, 2015). Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares, The New York Times, The Boston Globe and many other places. She will join the faculty of the low-residency MFA program at Regis College in Denver in 2017.
Novel, Short Fiction, and Memoir.
Tina Pohlman has worked in publishing for more than twenty years, most recently as Executive Vice President, Publisher of Open Road Integrated Media. Prior to joining Open Road, she was VP & Publisher, Paperbacks at the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House. Over the course of her career she has also worked as Editorial Director of Harvest Books at Harcourt Trade Publishers, Senior Editor at Carroll & Graf, and Editor at Anchor Books.
An experienced editor and publisher Tina has acquired and edited a broad range of critically acclaimed fiction, including: Colson Whitehead's first two novels, The Intuitionist and John Henry Days, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist; Patrick DeWitt's Ablutions: Notes for a Novel; Tony D'Souza's Whiteman, winner of the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction; Alan Warner's Morvern Callar, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, and Paul Torday's Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction.
She has also acquired and published the paperback editions of numerous noteworthy titles, including Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation, a New York Times bestseller; Natalie Angier's Woman: An Intimate Geography, a New York Times bestseller; Christine Schutt's debut novel, Florida, a National Book Award finalist, and Kelly Link's story collection Magic for Beginners, a Time Best Book of the Year.
Pohlman has a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and is a member of PEN American Center and the Publishers' Lunch Club.
Rate: $150
Sophie Powell grew up in London and on a sheep farm in Wales. She is the author of the novel The Mushroom Man (Putnam Penguin) which received glowing reviews, including one from the New York Times Book Review, and which has been translated into several languages. She has also published short stories, including one in a collection selected by Zadie Smith. With a BA in Classics from Cambridge University and an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University, she is especially fond of writing that involves myth, magic and fantasy. She has taught Creative Writing at Boston College, New York University, George Washington University and on seminars abroad, as well as in prisons and libraries. For more about Sophie, visit www.meetsophiepowell.com.
Rate: $100
The Novel, The Novella or Short Novel, Genre Fiction (Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, etc.), Genre Fiction (Sci-Fi, Fantasy, etc.), Young Adult Fiction.
Character-based, imaginative fiction; dialogue and description; visual and performing arts, pop culture, camp and kitsch; revision technique. I love stories about outsiders, weirdos and dreamers, rendered vividly through close attention to language, details and style.
Kate Racculia is a writer and researcher who called Boston home for many years and currently resides in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Her first novel, This Must Be the Place, was published by Henry Holt & Company in 2010 and named a Must-Read by the Massachusetts Center for the Book. Her second novel, Bellweather Rhapsody, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in May 2014. You can find her online at www.kateracculia.com.
Rate: $75
The Novel, The Novella, Personal Essays, Memoir, Genre Fiction (Sci-Fi, Speculative), Screenwriting, YA and Children's Literature, Cultural Consulting/Sensitivity Reading (higher rate applies)
I have extensive experience as a professional reader, editor, and book reviewer, along with cultural sensitivity reading, offering a multicultural lens (including African-American, Native American, Latinx, and Asian culture). I have assisted authors through novel manuscripts and essays. My specialty genres as a published writer are Speculative, Science Fiction (dystopian, apocalyptic, futurism, Cli-Fi --climate fiction). I have also published essays with themes that address social justice, memoir, land ethics, and artist-life themes. Cultural and sensitivity reading rate is $125/hour.
Asata Radcliffe is a writer and filmmaker. Asata received her MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from Antioch University. She writes fiction, speculative & science fiction, and essays. She reviews for Kirkus Reviews and is the Editorial Director for the 2040 Review. She has writing that has appeared in anthologies and literary journals, including her most recent work in The Chart Anthology: 2017-2018 and Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia Butler (The Collection), released by Twelfth Planet Press. Asata was nominated as a fellow for the Monson Artist Residency and will serve on the jury panel for the 2019 Baie Ste. Marie Artist Residency. Currently, she is a faculty member at Maine College of Art.
Rate: $95
Novel, Short fiction, Memoir, Live storytelling
Interests include: Chemistry of story / Aristotle's "pity, fear, catharsis;" Upmarket novels that are literary with a commercial hook (hybrid of literary and genre) focusing on character and plot; Stories based on truth /autobiographical fiction / fictionalized memoirs; Coaching students to perform live stories on stage (including editing the story, coaching on performance, rehearsing with the student); consultancy and translations on the culture, politics, and religions in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan / Islamic societies
Javed Rezayee is a writer, teacher, and storyteller. He is the founder of StorySlam!, an LLC for organizational change by means of storytelling, and a storytelling club. He has coached, organized, and emceed live storytelling events in Boston, New York, Nepal, Morocco, Turkey, and Sri Lanka for workplace inclusion, community building, and promoting diversity and inclusion. He's told stories at the Moth, Massmouth, WGBH, International Institute of New England, and Northeast Storytelling among others. Javed graduated from Tufts University in 2010, as an adult student, where he now teaches a course on the structure and performance of live storytelling, featured The Power of a Story.
Javed is currently working on his debut novel. He is also a developmental editor and a translator. His nonfiction work has appeared in The New York Times, Tufts Magazine, and Open Society Foundations. He's authored an introduction to The Forbidden Reel (Daylight 2014). He's been an associate producer of One Bullet Afghanistan, an upcoming documentary out of New York University, and a consultant for PBS/FRONTLINE's Opium Brides. Javed's last translation project Chain of Command was with the National Geographic in New York City.
Rate: $75
Screenplays and plays—I'm open to all genres. I've helped award-winning playwrights and screenwriters edit and shape their work, but I'm just as excited to work with new writers, whether providing them tools for newfangled imaginings or rigorous revisions. In addition, I'm happy to consult on the business of being a writer: career planning, residency and MFA submissions, time management, etc.
Duncan Riddell is a writer based in Los Angeles. Currently, he is the staff writer on Hulu's upcoming series, LESS THAN ZERO. His film, OLDER CHILDREN, premiered at the Gene Siskel Film Center and went on to film festivals nationwide. He has developed projects for DreamWorks Animation and has worked as a dramaturge in Chicago and New York, assisting playwrights Craig Wright (GRACE, Broadway, Cort Theatre; MISTAKES WERE MADE, off-Broadway, Barrow Street Theatre) and Brett Neveu (THE OPPONENT, off-Broadway, 59e59 theatre), among others. He is also at work on his first novel.
Rate: $95
Rate: $75
Novel, Literary Journalism, Memoir, Essay, Book Length Nonfiction, YA and Children's Lit
I especially love voice-driven narratives, and am keen on speculative and realist fiction, medical narratives, work centering disability or chronic illness, both innovative and traditional linear forms, hybrid work, and child narrators. I would be happy to work with you on manuscript-length work as well as essays or other shorter projects too. I am particularly drawn to work that takes emotional risks.
Marian Ryan is a critic, essayist, fiction writer, and a publishing veteran with experience working with trade publishers Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Harcourt/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, including books for children and adults. She offers big picture perspective as well as insight into the nitty-gritty elements of shaping story and polishing prose. She holds a BA in journalism and an MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University, where she tutored and taught undergraduate writers and won the Heritage Fellowship in Fiction. She also taught writing at Northern Virginia Community College-Annandale. Her essays, books journalism, and fiction are published in Granta, New York Times, Catapult, Slate, Salon, San Francisco Chronicle, Necessary Fiction, Cosmonauts Avenue, and other publications. She is writing a hybrid memoir exploring memory, trauma, and intellectual disability in the twentieth century.
Rate: $85
Short Fiction, Flash Fiction, The Novel, The Novella or Short Novel, Personal Essay, Book-Length Nonfiction, Feature Writing
Other Services: Preparing the MFA Application, Submitting to Literary Magazines, Submitting to Agencies and/or Editors, Applying for Awards, Fellowships, Conferences, and Retreats, Intensive Line-Editing, Personal Writing Coaching, Career Skills for Writers
Flash fiction, historical fiction, realism, magical realism, fabulism, experimental writing, column writing, social commentary, personal essay, lyric essay
Matthew Salesses is the author of a novel, I'm Not Saying, I'm Just Saying, a novella, The Last Repatriate, and two chapbooks. In 2014, Thought Catalog Books will release two ebooks, Different Racisms and All-American Bear Terrorizes Canada. His current project is a serialized, illustrated novel, Marked, to be published by Gazillion Voices. Matthew has written nonfiction for The New York Times, NPR, Salon, the Center for Asian American Media, The Rumpus, and most often for The Good Men Project, where he is a Contributing Writer and Fiction Editor. His stories appear in Glimmer Train, American Short Fiction, Witness, PEN America, West Branch, and over 50 others. He has received awards and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Glimmer Train, Mid-American Review, [PANK], HTMLGIANT, IMPAC, Inprint, Emerson College, where he did his MFA, and the University of Houston, where he is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing & Literature. He has taught writing at Grub Street, CCAE, 826 Boston, Writespace, and Inprint. More at matthewsalesses.com.
Rate: $75
Short Fiction, Flash Fiction, The Novel, The Novella or Short Novel, Memoir, Individual Essay, Book-Length Non-Fiction.
International fiction and nonfiction, travel writing, nature writing, family memoir, literary fiction, magical realism fiction, historical fiction, linked stories, novellas.
Shuchi Saraswat's writing and photographs have appeared in Ecotone, Quick Fiction, and Juked. Excerpts of her novel have won her the Gulliver Travel Research Grant from The Speculative Literature Foundation and fellowships and scholarships to Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Writers Omi at Ledig House, The Writers' Room of Boston, Tin House Summer Writers' Workshop and Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. She lives in Boston, where she received her MFA at Emerson College while working in the editorial department at Fringe Magazine and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and she currently works as a buyer at Brookline Booksmith, an independent bookstore right outside of the city.
Rate: $100
Short Fiction, The Novel, The Novella or Short Novel, Memoir, Individual Essay, Book-Length Non-Fiction, Feature Writing, Humor Writing.
Historical and literary fiction, short stories on all topics, memoir and book-length narrative nonfiction. I'm especially intrigued by themes that explore the conflict between the individual and the environment, whether political or personal. I love working with novices helping them find their voice and story, and I do significant work with seasoned writers preparing their material for submission. I help writers find the right tone and content for their query letter; choose the right material to showcase; and/or put together a compelling and relevant nonfiction book proposal. Agents and editors often hire me to work with their writers. While most of my editing is big picture, I also line edit and ghostwrite.
Rate: $85
Michelle Seaton's short fiction has appeared in One Story, Harvard Review, Sycamore Review, The Pushcart Anthology among others. Her journalism and essays have appeared in Robb Report, Bostonia, Yankee Magazine, The Pinch andLake Effect. Her essay, "How to Work a Locker Room" appeared in the 2009 edition of Best American Nonrequired Reading. She is the coauthor of the books The Way of Boys (William Morrow, 2009) and Living with Cancer (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017), and Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life (HarperWave, 2018). She has been an instructor with Grub Street since 2000 and is the lead instructor and created the curriculum for Grub Street's Memoir Project, a program that offers free memoir classes to senior citizens in Boston neighborhoods. The project has visited fourteen Boston neighborhoods and produced five anthologies.
Rate: $85
Courtney offers intensive line-editing, overall editorial feedback, and personal consultations on fiction projects, both short stories and longer works. She is enthusiastic about helping you make your work the best it can be. References available upon request.
Courtney Sender's fiction has won the Glimmer Train fiction open, The Mississippi Review fiction contest, the Boulevard emerging writers contest, the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival fiction contest, and the Lawrence Prize for best story in Michigan Quarterly Review. Her work also appears in AGNI, The Kenyon Review, American Short Fiction, The Georgia Review, and others. A MacDowell Colony fellow, she holds an MFA from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars and currently studies religion & literature at Harvard Divinity School.
Rate: $90
Short Fiction, The Novel, Memoir, Personal Essay, Book-length nonfiction
I specialize in editing and providing constructive feedback on fictional narratives, be it short stories, novellas, or novels. While literary fiction is my primary focus, I appreciate genre-bending work that defies easy categorization. I love working with emerging and established writers committed to honing their craft and elevating their manuscripts to achieve new heights. Given that much of my fiction incorporates historical elements, I have completed extensive research in the areas of stand-up comedy, nineteenth and twentieth-century American history, post-WW II Japan, and Jewish culture. Aside from manuscripts, I am eager to assist writers with book/story research and literary magazine submission strategies.
Douglas Silver's fiction has appeared in The Rumpus, The Cincinnati Review, New England Review, The Chicago Tribune Printers Row Journal, Crazyhorse, The Literary Review, Callaloo, Blackbird, and elsewhere. He has been a finalist in competitions by Narrative Magazine, Glimmer Train, American Short Fiction, and Zoetrope: All-Story. A grant recipient of the Elizabeth George Foundation and former writer-in-residence at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, he lives in Manhattan where he writes and fosters rescue dogs. Read more at www.DouglasSilver.com
Rate: $90
Literary Journalism, Memoir, Personal Essay and Book-Length Nonfiction, Applying for Awards, Fellowships & Retreats, Intensive Line-Editing, Cultural Consulting/Sensitivity Reading, Personal Writing Coaching
My areas of interest include works of nonfiction that explore personal transformation, social justice, politics, race, gender, education, music, pop culture criticism, art history, cultural history, literary criticism and the complexities of American identity and history. I am interested in consulting on both research-based works and personal reflections. I enjoy working with writers from all backgrounds, particularly writers of color and underrepresented writers.
Willona has published non-fiction, fiction and poetry in literary journals that include BlazeVOX, The Rumpus, Bohemia and Remolinos (the blog of riverSedge). She has more than 15 years of experience working as a staff writer and editor, and she currently consults with nonprofit organizations and corporate clients. As a freelance writer, Willona has published in publications that include Paste, Publisher's Weekly, Fresh Cup and DCist. She is also the managing editor and curator of Black Coffee & Vinyl Presents: Ice Culture (2019), which features art, music and literature from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica ( www.blackcoffeevinyl.com)
Willona teaches writing workshops and hosts literary events that use literature and creative writing to foster dialogue and enhance cultural understanding. She has taught creative writing workshops at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery (DC), and she also has led workshops in Iceland, Canada and virtually in Serbia. She has received two Artist Fellowship awards from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and participated in several artist residencies and writing workshops. Willona earned a BA in English from the University of Virginia and an MA in Literature from American University.
Rate: $85
Short Fiction (individual or collections), The Novel, Historical Fiction, Memoir, Personal Essay
Thematic Interests: family, class, childhood, women's lives (contemporary and historical), marriage, Jews, faith more generally, nature and the environment, mental health, history.
Anna Solomon is the author of two novels, Leaving Lucy Pear (Viking, 2016) and The Little Bride (Riverhead, 2011), and co-editor with Eleanor Henderson of Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today's Best Women Writers (FSG, 2014). Anna's short stories have twice been awarded the Pushcart Prize, and you may have read one of them, "The Lobster Mafia Story," when it was Boston's One City One Story read in 2012. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, One Story, Ploughshares, The Boston Globe, The Georgia Review, and Slate, among others, and she holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop. Anna has taught at Grub Street, Brown University, Sackett Street, and elsewhere. She grew up in Gloucester, MA, and now lives in Brooklyn, NY. More at www.annasolomon.com.
Rate: $100
Memoir, Personal Essay, Book Length Nonfiction, Children's Literature
I've helped novice and veteran nonfiction writers improve their work and get published through careful attention to macro issues such as structure, flow, audience, voice, and purpose; as well as micro issues such as grammar, punctuation, and redundancy. I view my role as a collaborator, coach, and cheerleader. Together, we set realistic goals and create a system of accountability. I specialize in personal essays about relationships, family, work, pop culture, media. As an award-winning picture-book author, I consult with prospective or active children's-lit writers who want help with project concepts, manuscript editing, queries, industry information. I also consult on query letters and book proposals. I offer personal coaching to help writers understand and work through writer's block and other inner obstacles to creativity. To learn about Debbie's approach to generative writing, see https://grubstreet.org/grub-daily/freewriting-with-a-purpose-get-started-and-keep-going/.
Debbie Sosin is a writer, editor, teacher, and psychotherapist. Her picture book, Charlotte and the Quiet Place (Parallax Press, 2015), was named the Gold Winner in Foreword Reviews' 2015 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards. The book also won the 2016 Silver Medal for Children's Picture Books (7 & Under) from the Independent Publisher Book Awards and was named a 2015 Bronze Winner by the National Parenting Publications Awards. Her first nonfiction book, Breaking Free of Addiction: 42 Therapeutic Tools to Help You Recover from Problem Drug and Alcohol Use, was published by Between Sessions Resources in Fall 2017. A craft essay, "The Self as Antihero in the Essays of Nora Ephron, David Sedaris, and Steve Almond," was the cover story in the Oct/Nov 2015 issue of The Writer's Chronicle. Other essays have appeared in the Boston Globe, Globe Magazine, Zone 3, The Manifest-Station, Writer's Digest, The Review Review, Journal News, on Salon, Cognoscenti, in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and the Perspectives in Modern History series. Since 2009, Debbie has facilitated Write It Like It Is workshops and groups in the Boston area. She also offers personal coaching and manuscript consultation for writers at all levels. Debbie offers mindfulness services in Newton, where she has a private psychotherapy practice. She earned her MSW from Smith College School for Social Work and her MFA from Lesley University. Learn more at www.deborahsosin.com.
Rate: $100
Short Fiction, The Novel, Memoir, Personal Essay
Literary fiction of any sort, with particular interest in character-driven fiction, family sagas, historical fiction, research-based fiction, and the immigrant experience. I am also interested in personal or research-based non-fiction.
Kate Southwood is the author of Falling to Earth (a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick) and Evensong. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Prairie Schooner, HCE Review, Fiction Writers Review, Literary Hub and elsewhere. She has an MFA in Fiction from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and lives and writes in Oslo, Norway. Her website is katesouthwood.com.
"Kate's ability to see a piece of writing simultaneously in a structural/developmental sense and on a sentence level has been critical to my work as an essayist and memoirist. She offers multiple developmental suggestions in a way that is inspiring rather than overwhelming, and she has an uncanny ability to identify even the slightest misstep in tone. She makes me want always to strive to give her my very best work, because I know it will come back to me sounding even more like the way I want to write. Her turnaround time is lightning fast. I highly recommend her." – Elisabeth Fairfield Stokes (contributor to Not That Bad, ed. Roxane Gay)
Rate: $100
Young Adult Fiction, Middle Grade Fiction, and Adult Fiction.
I am open to all types of fiction, but I especially like middle grade and YA realistic fiction.
Mary Sullivan's middle grade novel, Dear Blue Sky (Penguin), won the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Award. She is also the author of the novels Stay and Ship Sooner, and she has ghostwritten for the Beacon Street Girls series. She has received a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant for Literature, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award, and a St. Botolph's Award. She was also chosen as one of the Borders' Original New Voices. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and their four children.
Rate: $75
Poetry (all aspects from the page to the stage), Playwriting (generative, short plays - flash plays and 10-minute and 1-acts), scenes, full length development), Personal Essay, Short Fiction (especially flash fiction), interdisciplinary and performance work; social action writing/writing in collaboration with communities and organizations, touring universities (speaking, lectures, performing), marketing your work, teaching writing, building your platform and audience.
As a poet, playwright, performer, and educator, my mission is to create, and help others create, work that provokes dialogue around themes such as race, gender, and the body in order to provoke dialogue and social change. My belief is that through writing we can recover lost narratives and forge new ones drawing from a rich diversity of perspectives. While I have training in poetry and playwriting, I am drawn towards work that experiments with and plays with form, the page, and performance. In my poetry, I utilize archival texts to create a poly-vocality when rendering history; I like to use the page as a sort of visual map for these voices and moments in time. While I am interested in fragmentation and visual and sonic qualities to language, I also am drawn to narrative and lyrical poetry that emulates the voice and is inspired by speech and music. As a playwright, I utilize interdisciplinary modes for storytelling. I encourage my students to take risks, do research, dig into your own histories. In my one-on-one consulting, I am interested in how you can find your own unique voice, seeing all of the tools of writing as exciting paint colors and textures in a palette - or instruments to make just the right sounds. Since teaching writing has been my profession since 2002, I am passionate about encouraging, nurturing and supporting students in generating language, expressing yourselves, and using the editing process as one of refining and making your work shine. Writing should also be cathartic, illuminating, and fun, and I hope to support you in finding such discoveries.
Poet, playwright, performer and college instructor Aimee Suzara has graced stages and classrooms nationally with spoken word, plays and workshops. A Mills MFA alumni (2006), her poems have been published widely and her first poetry book, SOUVENIR, was a Willa Award Finalist (2015). Her plays have been staged at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, Thick House, Bindlestiff Studios and Brava Theater; her play TINY FIRES was a finalist for the Bay Area Playwright's Festival. She has collaborated and performed as a performing poet with Dance Theater companies such as Deep Waters Dance Theater, Ramon Alayo Dance Company and University Dance Theater, and her poetry has been adapted into an opera, a choreographed dance piece, and theatrical scripts. Her work has earned the YBCAway Award, AROHO Spirited Woman Award and she was a 2016 Artist Investigator with CalShakes. Committed to helping writers develop their voices, she has been teaching English, Composition, Creative Writing and Interdisciplinary Studies for 13 years at the college level as well as poetry and spoken word to youth and adults; she is currently a lecturer at San Francisco State University in Asian American Studies Department and City College of San Francisco in the Interdisciplinary Studies Department and an online instructor at Grubstreet based in Boston.
Rate: $85
Grace Talusan lives in Somerville and teaches writing at Tufts University. She has published essays and stories in Creative Nonfiction, The Boston Globe, Brevity, Buran, Tufts Magazine, Colorlines, and other publications. She earned an MFA from the University of California, Irvine and a Massachusetts Artist Grant in Fiction.
Short Fiction, The Novel.
I'm curious about the whole spectrum of novels and short stories, both literary and genre. Through my own writing, I have a lot of experience working with historical fiction, as well as magic realism, fantasy, and other forms of speculative fiction.
A 2014 James Jones First Novel Fellow, Cam Terwilliger's writing has appeared in a number of magazines, including West Branch, Electric Literature, Gettysburg Review, American Short Fiction and Narrative, where he was selected as one of the magazine's "15 Under 30." His fiction has also been supported by fellowships from the Fulbright Program, Brown University, Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Elizabeth George Foundation, and the American Antiquarian Society. A graduate of Emerson College's MFA, he teaches at NYU when he isn't teaching at Grub Street .
Rate: $75
Short Fiction
Flash Fiction
The Novel
Personal Essay
Young Adult Fiction
Children's Literature
I enjoy all sorts of fiction, narrative verse, poetry, and personal essays. In fiction I'm drawn to contemporary realism, cross-cultural, international, diverse, Asia-related, science/natural history threads, and historical. Adult: short fiction, flash fiction, novels, personal essays, narrative poetry/verse novels, fiction in translation, multimedia poetry. YA and Children's: young adult fiction, middle-grade fiction and nonfiction, verse novels, biographies, picture books of all varieties, poetry.
Holly Thompson is the author of the young adult verse novels The Language Inside and Orchards, winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature (both Delacorte/Random House), and the middle grade verse novel Falling into the Dragon's Mouth (Henry Holt). She is also author of the adult novel Ash (Stone Bridge Press), the picture books The Wakame Gatherers (Shen's/Lee & Low) Twilight Chant (Clarion), and One Wave at a Time (Albert Whitman), and she compiled and edited Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction--An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories (Stone Bridge Press) to support teens in the 2011 tsunami impacted areas of Tohoku. She is a columnist and feature writer for Wingspan , the ANA inflight magazine. For over ten years she has served as Regional Advisor for the Japan chapter of SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators). Originally from Massachusetts and a longtime resident of Japan, she holds a B.A. in biology and an M.A. from the NYU Creative Writing Program. She visits schools and offers workshops in the U.S., Japan and internationally, and teaches creative writing at Yokohama City University, U.C. Berkeley Extension, and GrubStreet.
Rate: $75
Short Fiction, Flash Fiction, The Novel, The Novella or Short Novel.
Rate: $125
Screenwriting: (TV, Stageplays, Dialogue, Monologue Writing, Format, Structure, Script Coverage, Script Editing, Translation from Spanish to English or English to Spanish, Co-Writing, Script Doctor)
If you are interested in writing a screenplay or a stage play but do not know where to start, I can offer one-on-one consultation on screenplay format, structure and help you with feedback on dialogue and character development. I also offer script coverage, script editing and even script translation from English to Spanish or Spanish to English. If you are looking for a co-writer or script doctor for your script idea, I would be happy to help with that as well! If you need help with anything related to the development of your script I would be happy to help.
Paloma Valenzuela is a Dominican-American writer, director and actress originally from the city of Boston. She studied Writing for Film and Television at Emerson College and graduated in 2009. After graduating from Emerson she moved to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to work on developing projects in film and television including working as Second AD for the television show "Juanita's Gran Salon y Spa". In 2010 she started La Gringa Loca Productions, a multi-media production operation which has since produced three stage plays both in Boston and the Dominican Republic: "RANT!" (2008), "Show Up" (2012), and "Queseyocuanto" (2012), a 60 Min. Narrative Film "Saturday" (2010), two promotional videos for Miss Rizos "Lecciones en La Calle" (2011), a Documentary Web Series, "Onomatopeyas Dominicanas" (2013-2014), an official commercial for Miss Rizos Salón in Santo Domingo (2015 and 2016), a comedic web series "The Pineapple Diaries" (2015-2016). In 2016 Paloma was the recipient of the New England Foundation for the Arts Creative City Grant. With this grant she produced, through La Gringa Loca Productions, season two of "The Pineapple Diaries". Episode 17 "Pero Mi Cédula No" of season one won the Special Jury Prize at the International Festival of Santo Domingo Mujeres en Cortos 2016. The Episode "Brunch" from "The Pineapple Diaries" was Official Selection at the Roxbury International Film Festival 2017. The Episode "Untitled" was Official Selection at the Latino Short Film Festival 2017, Official Selection at the Howard University Film Festival 2018, Finalist at the Rolda Webfest 2018, Official Selection at the Providence Latin American Film Festival 2018 and Official Selection at the New Orleans Film Festival 2018. Paloma continues to produce and direct for various projects through La Gringa Loca Productions including the Official Music video for Dominican artist AcentOh for his song "2020" and a promotional video for Write Boston's Teens in Print Program. She plays the role of Lolita in the upcoming Dominican coming-of-age comedy, "Un 4to de Josue" set to premiere in October of 2018. Paloma has worked as Second AD for three Dominican feature films and is currently in Boston touring "The Pineapple Diaries" Monologue Writing Workshop. Paloma has been awarded as one of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Creative Luminaries of 2018-2019. She is very excited to be joining GrubStreet as a Teaching Artist!
Poetry, Short Fiction, Personal Essay, Academic/Analytic Essay, Literary Journalism, Memoir, Curriculum Development, Reading List Compliation
I'm primarily a poet who has taught writing across genres including workshops and intensives dedicated to academic writing, fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and literary journalism. Prior to focusing on poetry, I trained with a range of platforms in the journalism industry and am interested in the intersection of poetry and reportage and the personal and the political. As an instructor, I've created courses that consider the narratives of marginalized people and their experiences, digital literacy, and family/collective historical narratives among other themes.
Renia is a poet from the east coast. She earned her BA in Journalism from Howard University and her MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University. A BOAAT Fellow, she's taught university and pre-collegiate writing at both Cornell University and The School of the New York Times. She's won awards from the Hurston/Wright Foundation and Sonora Review and has been a finalist for honors from Southern Indiana Review, Yemassee, Cosmonauts Avenue, Indiana Review, and other publications. Her work appears or is forthcoming in The Offing, Prelude, Tahoma Literary Review, Slice, Ruminate, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere. She lives in New York City.
Rate: $75
Short Fiction, The Novel, Memoir, Personal Essay, Book-Length Nonfiction
About me: I spent almost 20 years as an editor at a top literary journal, and as a teacher and a writer of novels and essays-- which means I know how it feels to be on both sides of the desk. (This essay goes into more detail on how I work.) At Tin House I edited books, short fiction, essays, and literary food and drink writing, and I have a particular affinity for stories about the complex bargains and specific weirdness of family, marriage and romantic relationships, and professional life. I'm more attuned to mining emotional complexities than formal experimentation, and am a big believer in creating a vivid sensory world. If you need assistance as you get your bearings in a new project, I'll ask questions to help firm up your intentions or guide you in experimenting productively, creating the situations that will yield story later—even if you don't yet know what it will be. I especially love to help writers find the unexpected pathways in a situation or character. They say all the stories have been told, and they probably have, which is why I think human complexity is what will make yours new and intriguing. If you've hit a wall halfway through your draft, let's talk about what I see in your pages so far. When you're getting toward the final stages of a project, I can help you condense a baggy manuscript, polish a final draft for submission, and add texture and vigor to your prose. At all stages, I can design prompts and exercises for inspiration or to help you unlock a tricky writing problem or project.
I charge $110 per hour, which includes detailed tracked changes and extensive margin comments and an editorial letter of roughly 2 pages for a story or up to 10 +, single spaced, for a book-length manuscript. I also am happy to answer emails along the way as needed, and I include a follow-up phone or video conference, or two, after you've had time to go over my suggestions (or to get started as we decide how best to work together). I meet writers wherever they need help, so let me know what you're working with and we can devise a productive method. We can also change it up, if needed.
Michelle Wildgen has over twenty years of experience as an editor and writer, including 18 years with the award-winning literary journal Tin House. She is the author of three novels: You're Not You, which was a NYT Editor's Choice and was made into a feature film starring Hilary Swank; But Not For Long; and Bread and Butter. Her essays and criticism have appeared in the New York Times Book Review and "Modern Love" column, Tin House, as well as O Magazine, Real Simple, The Writer, Best Food Writing, and in anthologies like Death by Pad Thai and Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer. Her short fiction has appeared in Best New American Voices, StoryQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, TriQuarterly and elsewhere. In 2013, with novelist Susanna Daniel, she cofounded the Madison Writers' Studio, which offers small MFA-level workshops in fiction and nonfiction in Madison, Wisconsin, and has taught at UW-Madison, the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, and the Tin House Writer's Workshop, where she has mentored individual writers and consulted on their book manuscripts since 2005. You can find out more at www.michellewildgen.com or www.madisonwriters.com.
Rate: $110
Short Fiction, The Novel, Poetry, Memoir, Individual Essay, Book-Length Non-Fiction.
Narrative and subject-focused nonfiction, spirituality, food, travel, literary fiction, poetry, memoir.
Kathleen has been an instructor for Grub since the summer of 2008. She is the author of memoir The Blue Poppy and The Mustard Seed: A Story of Loss and Hope, published by Wisdom Publications. Her essays and articles have appeared in Hip Mama Magazine, The Shambhala Sun, the anthology The Best Spiritual Writing of 2009, and Psychology Today Online, as well as other publications. She is also the co-author of Images of America: Chicago's Gold Coast, from Arcadia Publishing. She holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans, as well as an MDIv in theological studies and Chaplaincy. She is the Chaplain/Interfaith Care Coordinator for the Essex County She teaches Tibetan Meditation as well as creative writing. She is the founder of Dakinis Ascending Writing Adventures (www.dawatrips.com) leading international writing/meditation retreats.
Rate: $100
Short Fiction, Flash Fiction, The Novel, Young Adult, Memoir and Personal Essay
Other services:
Submitting to Lit Mags, Submitting to Agents/Editors, Applying for Awards,
Fellowships & Retreats, Intensive Line Editing, Personal Writing Coaching, Mindfulness and Writing
I appreciate authenticity, complexity, and unpredictability. Literary and historical fiction greatly appeal, as do creative non-fiction projects that address personal struggle or coping with illness. Thematic interests include coming-of-age, family/relationships, cultural diversity, foreign locations/language, feminism, humor, and social satire. I'm also a fan of breaking rules in convincing, innovative ways (as encouraged by my former mentor, the late Andre Dubus). Surprise me!
Lara JK Wilson's short fiction has been published in the The Kenyon Review, StoryQuarterly, American Fiction, Indiana Review, Confrontation, Printers Row and the Chicago Tribune Book Section, among others. Her work has been anthologized in Short Stories from Printers Row, Volume One and Hacks: 10 Years on Grub Street, as well as selected as first runner-up for the Nelson Algren Awards and the Mark Twain Award for Fiction. She was awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship and fiction scholarships from both the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers' Conferences. For six years, she served as a member of the board of directors at Grub Street, where she has taught fiction workshops for over a decade. As a life-long practitioner of meditation and a breast cancer survivor, she now incorporates mindfulness practices into her writing process (having studied mindfulness, health, and the creative process with Ellen Langer and associates at Harvard). As the mother of four children who attend four schools, she's also an organizational guru.
Rate: $100