The Work Room
Online Workshops, Craft Seminars, + Manuscript Consultations
A program of The Shipman Agency
The Work Room was created in response to the pandemic. It has been so successful it is now a permanent feature of The Shipman Agency’s offerings. Here you will find opportunities to deepen your craft or get your manuscript in shape while studying with some of the world’s leading authors, many of whom offer classes exclusively through The Work Room. Students receive a graduate-level experience that will challenge their assumptions and broaden the scope of what their work can do.
All classes and consultations are virtual and held live over Zoom. Information on how to access classes will be sent two days before the start date. In the case of absences or time differences, all our classes are recorded. Got a question? Find our FAQ page below. For any other Work Room-related inquires, please contact our program manager Kate Mabus, kate@theshipmanagency.com.
Winter Quarter 2026 Faculty: Sandy Ernest Allen, John Manuel Arias, Evanthia Bromiley, Edward Carey, Kristi Coulter, Emily Dufton, Jonathan Escoffery, Ruth Franklin, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Joseph Keckler, Stephen Kuusisto, Dorothea Lasky, Greg Mania, Jess McHugh, David McLoghlin, John Cameron Mitchell, Saretta Morgan, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Javier Sinay, Lidia Yuknavitch
Manuscript Consultations: Samiya Bashir, Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Sumita Chakraborty, Jos Charles, Elaine Hsieh Chou, Anna Clark, Kavita Das, Michael Dickman, Jonathan Escoffery, Ru Freeman, Maria Dahvana Headley, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, Dorothea Lasky, Rickey Laurentiis, Greg Mania, Sarah Manguso, Saretta Morgan, AX Mina, Kristin Radtke, Brynne Rebele-Henry, Ayşegül Savaş, Elissa Schappell, Sonia Shah, David Shields, Ira Silveberg, Rob Spillman, Meredith Talusan, David L. Ulin, Sunil Yapa, Yasmin Zaher
Books by Work Room faculty, and new and forthcoming books from our clients, are available on our affiliate page at Bookshop.org.
ALL GENRES
2 Sessions: Saturdays, January 10 + 17
1:00-3:00pm ET
Stephen Kuusisto
Join blind poet and memoirist Stephen Kuusisto as he talks about what it means to be a “literary listener.” He is the author of the memoirs Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey; Planet of the Blind (a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”), Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening, and of the poetry collections Close Escapes, Only Bread, Only Light; Letters to Borges; and Old Horse, What Is to Be Done?
Kuusisto writes: “Starting in the 1920’s creative writers turned to the image as the means for conveying immediacy in literature. The idea was to be as clear as news photos. These talks will instead focus on sound as a tool of the imagination. Igor Stravinsky said: ‘Hearing has no merit. A duck hears also.’ Our goal is to explore the art of active listening. “
We’ll explore opera arias, steamboat whistles, the chance music of what happens around us, conversations overheard, the sound of a baseball cracking off a bat, water coursing, Chet Baker’s trumpet, Beethoven’s old piano—in short talk about stretching our ears. The aim is to promote great listening, literary invention, and yes, fun.
Session One: Who Are the Great Literary Listeners?
Kuusisto talks about literary listening: why is it different from just hearing things? From John Keats to Tillie Olson, from Hemingway to Toni Morrison the best writers have had a true felicity for deep listening and have conveyed it in their work. One outcome is that you’ll appreciate the auditory imagination when reading.
Session Two: The Practice of Active Listening
Kuusisto provides exercises (many drawn from his own life of blind travel) that will sharpen the skills of anyone who wants to not only listen with attention, but also put that experience into writing.
Students will discover…
The difference between hearing and deep listening
How to incorporate listening into creative writing
Deep listening changes the world for every writer.
This class has 3 full scholarships available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, January 2.
8 Sessions: Saturdays, January 10 - February 28
9:00-11:00am ET
Greg Mania
This generator is taught by Greg Mania, author of the memoir Born to Be Public, which has been named a best book of 2020 by NPR, O, The Oprah Magazine, Electric Literature, The Brooklyn Rail, Largehearted Boy, and was a 2020 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Humor. He is currently working on his debut novel.
So, you have an idea for a book. Maybe you even already wrote it! Either way, you are ready for the next step. Does the thought of writing a book proposal for your nonfiction project make you want to light no fewer than 14 lavender-scented candles and lie in the dark for three days straight? You’re not alone! But after having written three book proposals, I promise you it’s not as daunting as it seems.
In order to demystify this seemingly overwhelming task, I’m thrilled to offer the Book Proposal Generator. Beginning with an overview of the anatomy of the book proposal by looking at several different examples, this generator will be broken up into eight weekly sessions. Each week, we will be discussing and going over one element of the book proposal in detail. At the end of each session, students will be assigned to complete a draft of the section discussed, which is to be handed in the following Friday, no later than 8 p.m. Students will receive peer and instructor feedback in class the following day, after which the next section of the book proposal will be discussed and assigned to complete for the following week. By the final session, each student will have a complete book proposal, and will be ready to take the next step on the path to publication.
Workshop Highlights:
Students will receive several different examples of proposals that have successfully sold to use as reference when working on their own.
Students will receive extensive individual feedback on their own proposals from the course instructor that will be emailed to them each week.
Each student will leave this course with a complete book proposal, ready to take the next step on the path to publication.
This workshop has 1 full and 1 partial scholarship available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, January 2.
1 Session: Thursday, January 29
6:00-8:00pm ET
Joseph Keckler
Joseph Keckler has performed his songs and stories around the world—from dive bars to Lincoln Center and NPR’s Tiny Desk. He is the author of the collection Dragon at the Edge of a Flat World. His most recent piece, A Good Night in the Trauma Garden, was commissioned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In this masterclass, he shares the tips, tricks, and techniques he’s picked up along the way for publicly presenting written work. Whether you want to feel more comfortable reading from your novel on an upcoming book tour, sharing poetry at your local open mic night, or are even considering adapting a story into a full-fledged performance piece, this session will offer practical and liberating guidance.
Together we’ll cover:
Editing text for live presentation
Grounding in your voice, breath, and body
Staying present and channeling nervous energy
Rhythm, timing, and musicality
Engaging your audience
Finally, we will explore how performing your text can, in turn, make you a better writer.
There will be a Q & A segment but no workshopping of student work or individual critiques.
Partial scholarships are available based on need. To apply, please fill out this form by Wednesday, January 21.
1 Sessions: Saturday, January 31
2:00-5:00pm ET
Kristi Coulter
Kristi Coulter is the author of two acclaimed memoirs, Nothing Good Can Come From This and Exit Interview: The Life & Death Of My Ambitious Career. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The Mississippi Review, New York Magazine, Elle, and elsewhere. She has taught at Hugo House, the University of Michigan, and the University of Washington. Kristi lives in Minneapolis and Los Angeles and is at work on a novel that she has reverse-outlined twice (so far).
Writers are often characterized as either "plotters" or "pantsers," a binary that, like many, isn't all that helpful or useful in real life, where both approaches can serve even those of us who are naturally drawn to one side. This seminar is especially geared toward seat-of-the-pants writers who amass a pile of rich, gloriously unkempt pages and wonder "How do I make sense of this? How do I turn it into, you know, a book?'
The answer: via reverse outlining, a technique for discovering your book's structure while you're neck-deep in writing it, or even after you've completed a draft. Via discussion, handouts, and examples, we'll explore the possibilities of reverse outlining along with best practices for building your own. We'll also talk about various ways to use the results of your reverse outline in completing or revising your manuscript.
Some in-class practice will be included, followed by time to debrief, so please bring at least 50 pages of a novel or memoir draft to work with.
Workshop Highlights:
How to reverse-outline a novel or memoir draft or partial draft
The points in a writing process when reverse outlining is most useful
How to apply the results of your reverse outline to your draft
This class has 1 scholarship available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, January 23rd.
2 Sessions: Saturdays, March 7 + 14
12:00-3:00pm ET
Jonathan Escoffery
A must-take seminar for writers preparing to apply for fellowships, residencies, and graduate programs, from Stegner and NEA Fellow, Jonathan Escoffery.
Whether you want to enhance your craft or win more writerly time and support, chances are that someday you’ll face a competitive application process. At such times, a well-written artist statement can go a long way to make you stand out from the pack. In this session, we’ll discuss the key components that every personal statement and statement of purpose should include, as well as holistic, big-picture considerations for making your application as strong as can be. A necessary and practical workshop for writers looking to apply for fellowships, residencies, MFA programs, and grants. You will be provided with resources, sample statements, strategies, and tips that will ensure your applications are taken seriously.
Workshop Highlights:
Learn about the types of residencies, conferences, creative writing programs, and fellowships that exist, how to find them, what takes place at each, and strategies for making oneself an attractive applicant.
Learn what elements must be included in a statement of purpose versus a personal statement.
Take home a strategy guide and sample statements that will be discussed in class.
This class has 2 half scholarships available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, February 27.
1 Session: Sunday, March 15
1:00-3:00pm ET
Ruth Franklin
Ruth Franklin's criticism appears regularly in The New Yorker, Harper's, and other publications. Her books include Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award) and The Many Lives of Anne Frank. She teaches nonfiction writing (criticism, biography, and memoir) in the MFA program at Columbia University. She’s here to show you how she organizes her projects:
I've used Scrivener to write two books and dozens of magazine articles and essays, and I’m convinced that it is the best software available for structuring and drafting a long-form project—fiction or nonfiction. Unlike Word or Google Docs, Scrivener is a platform that allows you to visualize your entire book at a glance; to organize your notes so that you can actually find the information you need; and to easily and flexibly move from research to draft. But for those accustomed to traditional word processing, there’s a bit of a learning curve.
In this two-hour masterclass, I’ll walk you through the process of setting up a Scrivener project and demonstrate some of the features that make this software so useful, including snapshots of each version of a draft, in-line notes and comments (to yourself or others), and the fun “notecards on a bulletin board” view. There will be plenty of time to answer all your questions. I’m a nonfiction writer, but Scrivener is equally applicable to fiction and nonfiction.
I’m not getting a cut from the manufacturer for this—I promise! I’m just a devoted fan who can’t imagine writing a book without Scrivener.
Workshop Highlights:
Learn how to create and structure a Scrivener project
Explore features that can help you write more easily and creatively
Come away inspired!
This class has 3 scholarships available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, March 6.
Fiction
1 Session: Wednesday, December 3
6:30-8:30pm ET
Michael Zapata
This master class is taught by award winning novelist and editor Michael Zapata, author of The Lost Book of Adana Moreau, Best Book of the Year for NPR, the A.V. Club, Los Angeles Public Library, among others, and founding editor of MAKE Literary Magazine. He is the recent recipient of the Meier Foundation Artist Achievement Award. In Axios, Michael Zapata’s work was called an important “part of the growing Latino-futurism movement.”
Does free will even exist? What does uncertainty mean for our characters and the material realities through which they move and act? Does motivation even matter in prose? In this master class, Michael Zapata will guide writers through inquiries into characterization to create works of fiction that both utilize and bend the limits of our characters’ lives, and the relationships they contain. Additionally, as both resources and examples, we will pull from a wide range of fictional material including the short stories “When We Were Nearly Young” by Mavis Gallant and “Atomito” by Liliana Colanzi, the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, and the film The Exterminating Angel by Luis Buńuel.
Workshop Highlights:
A deeper understanding of new ways to approach characterization.
New approaches in thinking about how material realities impact characters and their relationships.
This master class includes a Q&A.
This class has 1 full and 1 partial scholarship available. To apply, please fill out this form by Monday, November 24.
2 Sessions: Wednesdays, December 10 + 17
7:00-9:00pm ET
Jess Row
Jess Row has published three collections of short stories (The Train to Lo Wu, Nobody Ever Gets Lost, and Storyknife, coming in July 2026). His fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Granta, Ploughshares, the Baffler, and many other venues, and has been selected three times for the Best American Short Stories. A teacher of creative writing for more than 25 years, he's currently a professor in the Department of English at NYU.
Beginning with Jamaica Kincaid's beloved story "Girl," we will look at ways of taking a distinctive, dynamic voice and making a story out of it, using (among other techniques) context clues, submerged information, indirection and subtext. While the reader thinks they're simply listening to someone talk, they're absorbing an entire fictional world. It seems difficult at first, but in truth this is one of the easiest ways to create a story—even for complete beginners!
Our other authors will include Grace Paley, Kate Braverman, Yvonne Vera, Nicole Krauss, and Raymond Carver, and we'll also talk about one of my own stories, "Dear Yale."
Workshop Highlights:
What makes a good narrator: how to pick out the right voice and make it tell a story
How narrators (in most cases) tell us much more than they intend to—and why that matters
The varieties of first person short stories: from simple dramatized monologues to fully structured works
To apply for a scholarship, please fill out this form by Monday, December 1.
1 Session: Sunday, January 11
1:00-3:00pm ET
Jonathan Escoffery
Jonathan Escoffery is the author of the linked story collection, If I Survive You, which was nominated for more than a dozen prizes and awards internationally, including the National Book Award, and was a finalist for the Booker Prize, the Dublin Literary Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and others. His stories have earned awards from The Paris Review, American Short Fiction, Prairie Schooner, the American Society of Magazine Editors, Miami New Times, and Passages North. He holds an MFA in Fiction from the University of Minnesota, and was a 2021-2023 Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.
Jonathan designed this seminar to share the strategies that took his short fiction from good to award-winning. Participants can expect group discussions and an in-class writing prompt, as well as strategies for writing engaging fiction.
Energetic prose and unforgettable characters are often said to be the bedrocks of literary fiction. Fully fleshed out characters have implied histories and futures that never make it onto the page, so what dictates where and when a character’s problems and desires become worthy of dramatization? And what determines where that dramatization ends? And, finally, how do you know when your story is undercooked, over-inflated, or fully realized? In this craft talk, we’ll discuss story-worthy characters and explore how elements such as repetition, reversals and recognition, and suspense and tension-building can help us determine the contours of the worlds we create.
Workshop Highlights:
Interactive class discussion
In-class writing prompt
Strategies for building suspense and reader engagement
This class has 1 half scholarship available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, January 2.
25 Sessions: every other Wednesday, January 28, 2025 - February 10, 2026
6:00-8:30pm ET
John Manuel Arias
John Manuel Arias is the national bestselling author of Where There Was Fire, named a best debut by Apple Books and a Finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, and the forthcoming novel Crocodilopolis. His poetry and prose have appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, The Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, F(r)iction and The Rumpus.
It all starts with a sentence. One line will grow into a story, then into a draft, and finally a manuscript, polished and perfected, to be sent out into the world. But the process—getting to know your characters like family, writing twists even you didn’t see coming—is where the beauty lies. It’s in creating a novel that is whole. Because the novel, to come alive, must be whole.
The year-long generator will take a holistic approach to creating that first draft; from the sonic to stylistic, to inventing unique architecture, students will master novel-writing from the structural down to the sentence level. Along the way, with inspiration from books by authors, poets, and essayists of color (from Toni Morrison to Eduardo Galeano, Edwidge Danticat to Arundhati Roy), students will be able to discover their own voice, style, and strengths.
Through craft lectures and generative prompts, students will learn and master plot, character development, outlining, dialogue, research, and metaphor, while discussing texts that push the boundaries of what a novel can be. Writers will benefit from multiple workshops throughout the year, bonding with their cohort through constructive and encouraging feedback meant to nurture writers and their manuscripts. Three one-on-one meetings with the instructor will keep writers on track throughout the year, ensuring their work-in-progress receives the care and guidance it deserves.
The final part of the generator will focus on navigating the publishing industry as a debut novelist, facilitated through visits by agents, editors, and veteran writers.
This workshop is perfect for students looking to write literary, historical, or magical realist fiction with a focus on decolonial storytelling.
Workshop Highlights:
Completed novel draft
Deeper understanding of craft and decolonial storytelling
Insight into the publishing process
There is the option to pay by installment. This class has 2 partial scholarships for a reduced fee of $3,500. To setup a payment plan or apply for a scholarship, please contact Kate Mabus, kate@theshipmanagency.com.
2 Sessions: Saturdays, February 7 + 14
11:00-12:30pm ET
Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Maurice Carlos Ruffin is a Professor of Creative Writing at Louisiana State University and an instructor at Randolph College Low-Res MFA program. He is the author of three New York Times Editor's Choice books, including the novels The American Daughters (One World, 2024) and We Cast a Shadow (One World, 2019) and the story collection The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You (One World, 2021) .
This holistic generative workshop will include two sessions. Students will receive a lecture on how to create characters and stories that have narrative drive. Students will also receive information on how to use their life experiences to improve their work. In the generative portion, students will be prompted to participate in helpful exercises that range from scene construction to building entire book narratives. By the end of the workshop, students will be able to construct compelling characters, make active protagonists, and draw on personal life experiences to improve their writing.
This class has 1 scholarship available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, January 31st.
2 Sessions: Sundays, March 1 + 8
10:00am-12:00pm ET
Evanthia Bromiley
Evanthia Bromiley has published short fiction and creative nonfiction in AGNI, Prairie Schooner, and Five Points. Her debut novel, Crown, was published in June 2025. A graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, she is the 2025 Grace Paley Fellow for the Under the Volcano international residency in Tepoztlán, Mexico, as well as the recipient of scholarships from the Aspen Institute, a Lighthouse Fellowship, a Lisel Mueller scholarship, and Elizabeth George and Carol Houck-Smith awards. She has studied pedagogy with Harvard Project Zero and is interested in creating dynamic and engaging learning experiences for writers. Currently, she is traveling around the world.
Exceptional narrative turns are an intimate experience. We encounter emotions alongside a character, feel as she feels, move as she moves, and in the best scenes, experience moments of radical empathy. Reading scenes by Gabriela Cabazón Cámara, Lucia Berlin, Grace Paley, Denis Johnson, Deborah Levy, Catherine Lacey and Percival Everett, we will analyze the distinctive turns that create, channel, and change energy in a work. We will then turn to the components of our own scenes, and revise using (among other techniques) power shifts, subtext, revelations, image, misdirection, and surrealism.
Workshop Highlights:
Choose narrative material for scenes, based upon your character, their unique voice and world
Employ specific craft tools to create, change and direct energy through narrative turns that surprise and enchant
Analyze techniques to give a scene a beautiful and unique shape, practice opening and closing scenes
There are 2 scholarships available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, February 20.
1 Session: Sunday, March 8
11:00am-2:00pm ET
Edward Carey
How to reignite your imagination, sharpen your fiction, and give yourself permission to be braver and stranger in your writing through the inspiration of fairy tales…
Edward Carey is here to show you how. He is the author of nine books including Little, The Iremonger Trilogy, and Edith Holler. His work has been published in 25 languages. For the last sixteen he taught at Michener Center and the English Department of the University of Texas at Austin, before returning to England. He was also a frequent visitor to Iowa Writers Workshop, where the first version of this class originated. Carey illustrates all his books and his illustrations have been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Corriere della Sera and in Wes Anderson's latest film “The Phoenician Scheme.”
In this seminar, we will visit these wondertales and see in all their darkness and boldness, how they still speak to us today and how they can liberate our writing. We’ll start with the tales of the Brothers Grimm, as well as the 1001 Nights and the work of Hans Christian Andersen, before moving to more modern practitioners, including Leonora Carrington, Angela Carter and Helen Oyeyemi.
We shall examine the simplicity of the form—it has been said that there is no fat on a fairy tale—its vibrancy, its sheer imagination, its cruelty and what lies beneath its seeming nonsense, often messages of a more sober and alarming content. We shall learn the lessons of economy and plot and character that such tales have to teach writers of any sort of fiction.
We shall visit ugly sisters, evil stepmothers, simple brothers, hapless tailors, little red caps, decaying houses, depressed Christmas Trees, bluebeards, flying trunks, many thieves, mutilated bodies, fake children, talking dolls, and a flea who lives with a louse. We shall consider terror and darkness, how best to survive and even triumph over monsters, monstrous parents, poverty, the whole terrible world.
There will be numerous exercises for writers throughout.
Workshop Highlights:
Letting your imagination run wild.
Rediscovering your love of story.
Giving yourself permission to be bolder and stranger with your work.
To apply for a scholarship, please fill out this form by Friday, March 6.
NonFiction
1 Session: Sunday, November 16
12:00-2:00pm ET
Ruth Franklin
Ruth Franklin's criticism appears regularly in The New Yorker, Harper's, and other publications. Her books include Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award) and The Many Lives of Anne Frank. She teaches nonfiction writing (criticism, biography, and memoir) in the MFA program at Columbia University.
How can thinking and writing critically about art and culture deepen our practice as creative writers? Join Ruth Franklin, a longtime book critic and teacher of nonfiction, to consider how works of art to which we are drawn—paintings, books, film, photographs—can give us new ideas for or perspectives on our own work.
In this single-session class, we'll do a close read of a short lyric essay that blends criticism and memoir. We'll then practice some techniques to accomplish similar effects and discuss strategies for responding to the art we consume on a daily basis, from books and museum exhibitions to podcasts, television, and more.
Workshop Highlights:
Learn how to clearly and effectively describe a work of art
Explore the use of criticism to tell stories about our own lives
Generate possibilities for continuing the work we begin together
This class has 3 scholarships available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, November 7
2 Sessions: Saturdays, January 10 + 17
4:00-6:00pm
Lidia Yuknavitch
Lidia Yuknavitch is a highly acclaimed, nationally bestselling author of memoir, fiction, and nonfiction. Her most recent book is the memoir Reading the Waves (Riverhead, 2025), which is being adapted into a feature film by the actress Kristen Stewart. Reading the Waves was praised by Booklist as “emotional and darkly hilarious,” and as "electrifying" by Suleika Jaouad.
—
When I set out to write a life story, I immediately ran into a wall: I could not tell the story I wanted to tell by and through linear narrative or traditional “memoir” form. So I didn’t. If this sounds like you, come swim around in non-linear storyspace with me.
Instead, I asked, what if my body had a point of view? What resulted was non-linear storyspace that opened up to infinity. Or maybe a storyspace where my story could connect to all the stories that have come before and might come after, and where my body could breathe, swim, speak alongside others in a kind of chorus.
The invitation here is to explore storytelling modes that amp the primacy of experience and memory as nonlinear environments. We will do some generative portals together, and I’ll give participants some “to go” portals upon conclusion. We will look at examples and try some generative writing specifically from these sites:
Session One will explore corporeal experience and memory as fluid environment. Session Two will explore image, sound, surroundings as sensorial storyspace and the self as sediment. We will read and discuss short excerpts from Garth Greenwell, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Maggie Nelson, Camille Dungy, Diana Khoi Nguyen, and Joy Harjo.
Workshop Highlights:
Generative writing
Expansion of content and form
Confidence in your own artistic vision and voice
To apply for a scholarship, please fill out this form by Friday, November 2.
8 Sessions: Sundays, January 11 - March 1
12:00-1:30pm ET
Jess McHugh
Jess is a critically-acclaimed author and journalist (the New York Times, TIME, the Atlantic, etc) who has been full-time freelance for most of her career. She’s made it work with a combination of strategic pitching and practical tools for staying productive and creative. This workshop is for non-fiction writers of all genres, whether investigative journalists, personal essayists, or cultural critics. Jess will give you the toolsto improve your craft and navigate the ever-changing media landscape.
The course will cover everything from crafting compelling pitches to editors, to generating ideas when your creativity feels stalled, to managing deadlines and the business side of writing. Jess will talk you through what works and what doesn't, with a few examples from her own career of how an idea went from a cold pitch, to the reporting stage, to publication with a major publication.
Each session blends practical strategy with craft, so you’ll leave with both actionable tools and stronger work on the page. Weekly exercises, in-depth feedback on assignments, and group discussions will give you clarity, confidence, and momentum — whether you’re just starting out or looking to level up your freelance career. By the end of the course, you’ll have a roadmap for how to pitch, write, and build a sustainable freelance practice that works for you.
Prior freelance experience is helpful but not required — all motivated writers are welcome.
Workshop Highlights:
Each writer will leave with three polished pitches ready to send to editors.
Practical tools and routines to stay organized, productive, and creative across multiple assignments.
In-depth feedback and group discussion to help you refine your craft and troubleshoot challenges.
2 Sessions: Thursday, January 15 + 22
7:00-9:00pm ET
Greg Mania
This generator is taught by Greg Mania, author of the memoir Born to Be Public, which has been named a best book of 2020 by NPR, O, The Oprah Magazine, Electric Literature, The Brooklyn Rail, Largehearted Boy, and was a 2020 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Humor. He is currently working on his debut novel.
What makes something truly funny on the page—and how do you actually conjure LOLs from the void? This two-session workshop is for writers looking to craft short humor pieces for outlets like McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The New Yorker’s Daily Shouts, and other literary-humor platforms. We’ll break down the anatomy of a successful humor piece—tone, rhythm, pacing, structure, escalation, and surprise—while exploring how humor springs from your unique voice and worldview (and not just caffeine and mental illness). Through close readings, group discussion, and guided exercises, you’ll generate new material, experiment with comedic forms, and refine your ideas into sharp, submission-ready pieces.
In the second session, we’ll workshop participant drafts with a focus on comedic clarity, structure, and punch. You’ll learn how to heighten jokes, tighten prose, and find the emotional or cultural core that makes humor resonate beyond the punchline. Whether you’re new to writing or already a seasoned quipster, you’ll leave with a deeper understanding of how to bring your comedic voice to the page—and the confidence to face that blinking cursor like it owes you money.
Workshop Highlights:
A clear understanding of what makes a written piece actually funny (and why timing, tone, and surprise matter more than punchlines alone).
Practical tools and techniques for developing, structuring, and refining short humor pieces fit for McSweeney’s, The New Yorker, and beyond.
Personalized feedback and strategies to sharpen your comedic voice—so your jokes land, your sentences sing, and your readers stop scrolling.
This workshop has 1 full and 1 partial scholarship available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, January 9.
2 Sessions: Sundays, February 1 + 8
2:00-3:30pm ET
Jennifer Michael Hecht
Jennifer Michael Hecht is the author of The Wonder Paradox: Awe, Poetry, and the Meaningful Life (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023), as well as Doubt (Harper Collins) and Stay (Yale), and her three poetry books include Who Said (Copper Canyon). Her prose and poetry have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, Vox, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, The Missouri Review, Tin House, and The Kenyon Review. She has taught writing in the graduate programs of The New School and Columbia University.
If you’ve got a nonfiction project, or just an idea, there’s a lot I can tell you about writing it and getting it through publication. I’ve got five nonfiction books, with four different publishers. They have met with a variety of success from heartbreaking, to significant, to bestseller. I’ve worked in many forms: academic, popular history and philosophy, creative nonfiction, memoir, and journalism. My work has won some major awards as well. Along the way I’ve learned a lot about writing nonfiction and I’ve also learned a lot about what agents and editors are looking for. I’ve got a collection of insights to share. So if you have a nonfiction idea, or something you’re trying to finish, I’ll give you a nice leap forward. If you don’t have a project but want to know more about it all, I’ve got a lot to share. All are welcome!
There will be an optional invitation to send me a short piece of writing which I’ll give notes on by the second class session.
Workshop Highlights:
Learn how to attract agents and editors.
Discuss techniques for exciting prose and developing your own voice.
Think about how to hone an idea towards an original thesis.
This class has 2 partial scholarships available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, January 23.
6 Sessions: Thursdays, February 5 - March 12
6:00-8:00pm ET
Javier Sinay
This writing workshop is taught by Javier Sinay, an author and a journalist. His books include The Murders of Moises Ville, the true story of his journey reporting a long forgotten true story of violence and displacement, but also resilience and cooperation. In 2015 he won the award of Fundación Gabo (the most important for journalism written in Spanish language) for his story “Fast. Furious. Dead” published in Rolling Stone. He has lead writing workshops, in person and virtually, at The Work Room, the Yale Journalism Initiative, UMass (College of Social & Behavioral Sciences--Journalism), Brandeis University, The Center For Fiction (NY), Lighthouse (Denver), the National Library of Argentina, Casa América (Madrid, Spain) and more. He lives in Buenos Aires.
In this workshop we will read and write to learn about those who came before us -- and thus we will better understand our identity: Who were they? Who are we? Why did Jorge Luis Borges never publish the story that dishonors his grandfather? Why does Prince Harry say so little about his father in his memoir? Why did our grandparents do what they did? From how many generations do we carry genes? These and other questions about genealogy, family, molecular biology and inheritance can help us find answers through words.
This workshop is for any writer interested in identity and will teach you how to write a perhaps epic and surely revealing family memoir. We will read pieces by Jorge Luis Borges, Margo Glantz, Leonard Cohen, Gabriela Wiener and Jordan Salama, among others. And my book 'The Murders of Moisés Ville’.
Workshop Highlights:
Instructor and peer feedback
Generative writing exercises
To apply for a scholarship, please fill out this form by Wednesday, January 28.
1 Session: Saturday, February 7
2:00-4:00pm ET
Emily Dufton
The deadlines are coming. This spring, many of the leading grant-giving institutions in America and beyond will be looking for this year’s crop of winners. If you’re writing a book and need support, this money can transform your experience. Dedicated funds for travel and research, or to cover housing and childcare costs, can be the difference between finishing a manuscript and falling behind. But first, you have to convince these organizations that you’re the writer who deserves these funds.
This class will demystify the grant writing experience. We’ll walk through a typical grant application, discuss the many kinds of grants available, and practice transforming our books into successful pitches – which is harder than it looks. We’ll also discuss self-promotion, and the new landscape facing writers in the social media age. At the end, students should feel prepared to apply for a variety of grant opportunities. Plan for a brief lecture, workshop, and plenty of time for Q&A.
Emily Dufton is a writer and drug historian based near Washington, DC. Her first book, Grass Roots: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Marijuana in America, traced fifty years of grassroots cannabis activism, from the 1960s to 2017. Her forthcoming book, Addiction, Inc.: Medication-Assisted Treatment and America’s Forgotten War on Drugs, traces the federal development, and subsequent commercialization, of the opioid addiction medication industry. It won a J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award in 2021, a Robert B. Silvers Work in Progress Award in 2022, and a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant in 2022, which helped to finance the writing. Dufton is here to show you how you can achieve the same.
To apply for a scholarship, please fill out this form by Friday, January 30th.
2 Sessions: Saturdays, February 21 + 28
11:00-1:00pm ET
David McLoghlin
David McLoghlin is a prize-winning poet, and a writer of memoir and personal essay. His third book, Crash Centre (2024), was recently shortlisted for The Pigott Prize. In October 2025 he won the Waterford Poetry Prize, and was awarded a Literature Bursary (grant) for memoir by Ireland’s Arts Council for an immersive nonfiction project where he will play the courses of his grandfather, Eddie Hackett, the “father of Irish golf design,” as a complete novice. An essay from this book is forthcoming in Golfer’s Journal. A personal essay has recently been published on the Poetry Foundation’s website. His poems have been broadcast on WNYC’s Radioloab and anthologized on both sides of the Atlantic, most notably in Grabbed: Poets and Writers on Sexual Assault, Empowerment and Healing (Beacon Press, 2020).
In her seminal book, The Situation and the Story, Vivian Gornick makes a surprising assertion, that writing memoirs and personal essays requires us to construct a narrator to tell our story. This narrator is “composed” by selecting and weaving the raw material of our lives into a clear throughline. Whether detached, wise, wry, or humorous as they reflect on the past, done well, this narrator wins the reader’s trust by stitching moments together and presenting them as examples of insight and understanding into a particular life with universal application.
The most practical way of finding this narrator is via exposition (also known as reflection, “glide,” or “summary”). These thoughtful passages come between or woven within more immersive, scene-like moments, and it is here that the writer provides essential information that moves the story forward, often across time, tells the reader what to think, and what the story means and is really about. Learning what your story means for you will, in turn, will help you to develop and improve your narrative voice, via well-employed exposition. Memoir is often comprised of two main elements: scenes that tell the core story of the past—the younger you—and exposition in the voice of the adult narrator, the wiser “you,” located in the “narrative present” of the book, reflecting on the past from a position of understanding. It is these moments of reflection that weave the story together, conveying the sense of “I didn’t know at the time but,” typically in the voice of hard-won insight.
Workshop Highlights:
In this master class you will gain greater clarity around differentiating scenes from exposition (showing from telling).
This will help you to learn the difference between telling the story of what happened and commenting on what it means.
Clarifying these aspects will assist you in bringing forth a narrative voice capable of knitting the various elements of your book together.
There are 1 full and 2 partial scholarships available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, February 13.
2 Sessions: Saturdays, March 7 + 14
1:00-3:00pm ET
Sandy Ernest Allen
Become a better self-editor by taking this two-part Craft Seminar taught by author, essayist and journalist Sandy Ernest Allen. When writing about our own lives — or the lives of others we may or may not know — how can we forge the critical distance necessary for revision itself? Consider this an opportunity to push your best unpublished personal essay draft or memoir excerpt to the next level.
This is a craft-focused seminar focused on the revision of personal essays and other literary nonfiction pieces. When writing about our own lives, how can we forge the critical distance necessary for revision itself? In general, how can we become better self-editors? This course will be geared towards serious writers of literary nonfiction who already have a strong draft of a personal essay (or standalone memoir excerpt) they wish to revise. Consider this an opportunity to push your best unpublished personal essay draft or memoir excerpt to the next level. During the first class, the instructor will guide students through a variety of strategies for revision, ones they’ll then try out during the interim.
Students will be asked to submit their initial drafts ahead of the first class and the revised drafts ahead of the second, primarily for instructor perusal (Maximum 15 pages. If a memoir excerpt, material should work on its own without further explanation.) Students will also be asked to share a reflection with the instructor, discussing how the revision process went for them. Though this won’t be a formal workshop, participants may be asked if they’d be willing to have portions of their two drafts shared with the group for discussion. Ample time will be provided for student questions, both about revision, as well as topics like pitching, editorial processes, fact checks, and the various challenges one can face when writing about real people and events.
Workshop Highlights:
Students will come away with a variety of approaches for the revision of personal essay/memoir, including work they already feel is strong.
They'll get to try out and play with various mechanical drills in service of revision, as well as strategies for forging distance between the self who wrote the draft and the one who is revising.
They will learn how to navigate some of the real-world hurdles one might face when attempting to publish personal essays/memoir/reported literary nonfiction.
2 Sessions: Sundays, March 15 + 22
12:00-2:00pm ET
Tricia Romano
An interview isn’t just a series of questions, it’s a conversation—a dance between the interviewer and the subject. Take it from Tricia Romano, the author of The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper that Changed American Culture (Public Affairs, 2024), which Dwight Garner, writing for the New York Times Book Review, called “A well-made disco ball of a book.”
As someone who has interviewed thousands of people—included more than 200 subjects for a recent oral history— each interview was incredibly different. Some of my interviews have been short and sweet—packed with information but very quick and to the point. Others have been long and meandering, fun during the moment, but in the end, did not yield much useful information.
You will find that every interview is like a fingerprint—completely unique. Some subjects are open books and love to talk. Other interviewees are like talking to a wall. Your job is to get the information you need for your profile, book, or Q&A from them as painlessly as possible.
We’ll talk about what makes Taffy Brodesser-Akner such an amazing profiler. We’ll analyze some of the techniques that print journalists like Susan Orlean, Danyel Smith, and Wesley Lowery use for their interviews and how NY Times journalist Wesley Morris handles his questions. We will discuss what made Joan Didion such a compelling interviewer.
In addition to examples from some of the aforementioned writers, we’ll look at some of my own interviews from The Freaks Came Out To Write and Q&A’s I conducted and talk about what worked and what I wish I would have done differently. We’ll also try a few in-class live attempts at interviews to demonstrate how to navigate conversations.
We’ll analyze some of the different approaches for interviewing subjects as well as talk about the techniques, such as:
How do you prepare for an interview?
How do “friendly” interviews for profiles differ from those that are antagonistic?
How do you broach difficult subject matter with your interviewees?
How do you handle interviewees who possess strong media training? How do you get them to actually answer your question? And what do you do when they won’t?
How do you use an interview to draw out “color” for your story or book—details about an environment, events in the past, or details about another person?
To apply for a scholarship, please fill out this form by Friday, March 6.
Poetry
6 Sessions: Sundays, January 11 - February 15
3:00-6:00pm ET
Dorothea Lasky
Dorothea Lasky has over 25 years of experience teaching writing and a doctorate in fostering creativity. She has led hundreds of poetry workshops and has taught an intensive graduate course on creating a poetry manuscript for over a decade.
During weekly group workshops, we will work closely together and write our best poems. We will consider how poems are constructed by analyzing poems by class members and others, including poems by Catullus, Cornelius Eady, Bhanu Kapil, John Keats, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Sylvia Plath.
As a student, you will receive intensive feedback from both the instructor and your peers, in order to help your poems grow. Some of these topics of critique may include: voice, persona, style, titling, organization, meaning, audience, and poetics. Generative prompts will be given each session to help facilitate your work. At the end of the class, you will walk away with a batch of workshopped poems you can feel excited about.
Workshop Highlights:
Getting both individual and group feedback on your poems
Reading a group of published poems and analyzing their craft
Leaving the class with a batch of poems you feel proud about sending off for publication
This class has 2 partial scholarships. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, January 2.
1 Session: Tuesday, January 27
6:00-8:30pm ET
Saretta Morgan
Saretta Morgan is an award-winning poet and the author of Alt-Nature (Coffee House Press, 2024), which received a 2024 Southwest Book Award, and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry and the Publishing Triangle's Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. Her writing considers the environmental impacts of U.S. militarism and is informed by over a decade of organizing, direct action, and study at the intersections of grassroots humanitarian aid, veteran-led demilitarization movements, and grassroots conservation.
Every literary text represents the efforts of intergenerational and overlapping communities struggling with and against each other to reproduce bodies of language. Language is, in the words of novelist, poet, and scholar Cristina Rivera Garza, “a form of material labor undertaken by concrete bodies in contact.” When we position ourselves as authors, appropriation is inevitable, but that doesn’t mean it should be taken for granted.
In this seminar we’ll reflect on the individuals, communities, and ecologies who make our individual practices of writing possible, and consider playful, somatic, and ethically-grounded strategies of revision that hold us accountable to what we’ve received from others. This isn’t a matter of citation. It’s a practice of building worlds in which those to whom we are indebted can live as fully as possible.
Workshop Highlights:
Create a living map of your practice and its influences.
Orient yourself through who you choose to honor.
Generate new writing through self-disruptive revision strategies.
This course has 2 scholarships available. To apply, please fill out this form by Sunday, January 18.
Manuscript Consultations & Private Mentorships
Please note: If you’re interested in a manuscript consultation, please be sure to click through for complete pricing information. The price you see has variants. Not all prices for consultations are flat rates; some are registration fees that will go toward a final fee based upon work done. Please read individual writers’ descriptions for how they charge for their services.
With over a decade of experience as a poet, educator, book and magazine editor, and manuscript coach, I have guided writers from early drafts through extensive revisions and into publication. As faculty at Columbia University, Reed College, and the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and numerous literary and arts residencies, I have led workshops and coached students through poetry and prose projects, and helped writers develop their voice and craft across a variety of genres.
I have spent 25 years as a book, magazine, and anthology editor, working with authors on poetry manuscripts, nonfiction manuscripts (creative as well as informative), short form pieces such as articles, stories, and essays, and more. I combine creative coaching with editorial rigor, helping writers transform their poetic voice while paying attention to both the line and larger structure.
As the author of Field Theories (2017), Gospel (2009), and the forthcoming I Hope This Helps (2025), I bring a deep understanding of creative process, structure, and revision, complemented by my experience editing and shaping full-length manuscripts.
This consultation includes:
Initial Intake: A one-hour session to discuss your manuscript’s themes, goals, and challenges. We’ll explore your vision, identify key areas for growth, and discuss the direction you want your work to take.
Detailed manuscript feedback and editing: I will provide a close, comprehensive reading of your manuscript with holistic feedback. For poetry, this includes line edits, radical revision suggestions, and organizational recommendations for manuscripts of 40–90 pages. For prose (up to 100k words), this includes structural feedback, character development insights, plot coherence, and stylistic recommendations. My approach focuses on both the fine details and the broader arc, helping you refine your work at every level.
Follow-up consultation: A second meeting to discuss my editorial feedback and revisions. We will also cover publication strategies, potential next steps for your work, and methods for generating new creative material moving forward.
POETRY
Full-length Manuscript
40–90 pages: $1,000
Chapbook Special!
15-30 pages: $350
A Poem!
1-5 pages: $75
PROSE
Book Manuscript (< 100,000 words): $2,500
Creative Nonfiction and Nonfiction
Short Form Manuscript (Essays, Stories, Articles): starting at $250 (hourly rate)
I look forward to helping you craft your best work and explore new creative possibilities!
COACHING
I love working with authors to bring their books to life from wherever they are to where they need to go!
I am available to work with you at any stage of your writing process — from idea to proposal and submission — and engage a variety of methods to help you get your work done and put your best foot forward on the page.
I have limited availability from season to season to take on just a few individual coaching clients. What you gain in me is a thought partner, a writing partner, and a sounding board.
What we’ll do together:
Brainstorm: Helping you to dream up and actualize ideas for your book.
Drafting: Helping you to develop your first draft and then further develop that draft into a finished manuscript.
Encouragement: Providing support and accountability to help you overcome obstacles and achieve your goals.
Proposals: Working with you, once your manuscript is ready, to develop a comprehensive book proposal.
Pricing: Begins at $750 per week (ideal project commitment is 12 weeks)
“I chose to work with Lillian-Yvonne on my second manuscript because they're a true innovator in the field of poetics, leveraging technology and other modes of inquiry to push the limits of language, to push the poem itself beyond what we might conventionally think it can say or do. Lillian-Yvonne’s critiques are always astute, and challenging, and simultaneously uplifting, somehow, while always respecting what the poem itself is trying to accomplish. Ultimately Lillian-Yvonne helped me shape my manuscript into something more than I myself imagined it could be. And that’s a gift.” - Jubi Arriola-Headley
$400/hr
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram will provide a holistic reading of the manuscript and comment on the overall book concept, ideas, and major themes. This option also includes comments on poem ordering and arrangement, with extensive line edits and comments on individual poems. Manuscript length 48-64 pages. Additional fee to be negotiated for manuscripts between 64-80 pages.
I teach in English and Creative Writing at the University of Virginia, where I’m in the core MFA faculty. I’ve previously taught at Emory University, the University of Michigan, and North Carolina State University, and I’ve also been in the core MFA faculty at the latter two. Many manuscripts on which I have consulted have become award-winning collections with leading presses. Working one-on-one with writers is one of my favorite responsibilities. I have a particular love for questions regarding sequencing and for offering generative feedback, although I enjoy every aspect of manuscript critique, including offering practical recommendations and tips for publication and promotion (if desired).
My experience as a poet lends itself to helping writers re-envision what they have created; my experience as a scholar of poetry lends itself to offering nuanced readings of the text as it is as well as identifying areas it may wish to further explore. I also have a substantial editorial background: I’ve been poetry editor of AGNI (where my time on the editorial staff totaled thirteen years), art editor of At Length, a guest editor for the Academy’s Poem-a-Day, served on the Alice James Books Editorial Board, and served as a reader or contest judge for several book prizes, among other commitments.
I am the author of Arrow (Alice James Books (U.S.)/Carcanet Press (U.K.), 2020), which received coverage in the New York Times, NPR, the Guardian, and other venues, and received the GLCA New Writers Award, the Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize (U.K.), and other honors. Poems from my second in-progress collection, The B-Sides of the Golden Record, have been published in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Kenyon Review, The Offing, Massachusetts Review, Poetry, Split This Rock’s The Quarry, LARB Quarterly, and elsewhere. I’m also currently writing a scholarly book titled Grave Dangers: Poetics and the Ethics of Death in the Anthropocene, which is under advance contract with the University of Minnesota Press, and my peer-reviewed critical articles have appeared in Cultural Critique, Modernism/modernity, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment, Verge: Studies in Global Asias, and elsewhere. I’ve received fellowships from the Poetry Foundation and Kundiman, and I’ve been shortlisted for the U.K.’s Forward Prize.
Figuring out what makes books tick is one of my favorite things to do, and I look forward to working with you.
Manuscript review: This manuscript consultation includes 60 minutes of Zoom time to be used however you and I decide would be most beneficial to you (recommended: a 30-minute initial conversation about your book, your goals for it, and your sense of where it stands and what it needs, followed by a 30-minute post-read conversation). Next, I will provide a holistic reading of the manuscript and comment on the overall book concept, ideas, and major themes, including on sequencing and arrangement. You can also select up to 15 pages on which to receive extensive line edits, questions, and analyses. You will also receive resources to aid in revision of individual poems as well as the full collection. We’ll discuss a timeframe for our work together in our first meeting (or over email, if you elect not to use any Zoom time on an initial meeting). Manuscript length up to 80 pages. Additional fee to be negotiated for longer manuscripts. $400
Manuscript review + revision: At this level, I will also read the revised manuscript with the same level of response. You’ll also receive up to 60 additional minutes of Zoom time, with the schedule determined collaboratively (e.g. 30 minutes after first-read feedback and a 30-minute post-second read conversation, or the full 60 after the second read). The goal of the additional Zoom minutes is so that we can discuss my feedback, any additional questions you may have, and other associated topics that may be on your mind, such as publication. We’ll discuss a timeframe for our work together in our first meeting. $700
I am a poet with three published poetry collections and have been working one-on-one with writers for over five years, including consulting as faculty on collections from students at Randolph College, the Jack Kerouac Disembodied School of Poetics, UC Riverside, and NYU. My accolades include a Pulitzer nomination, the 2017 National Poetry Series, a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship through the Poetry Foundation, and more. I have an MFA from the University of Arizona as well as an MA in English Literature from UC Irvine and currently teach poetry as part of Randolph College’s Low-Residency MFA program
I believe in providing in-depth generative feedback. In our manuscript consultation, I will work to give a sense of how I’m reading the manuscript, what excites me, but above all what I believe could be emphasized, expanded, focused in on, and written through. This will include a combination of suggested edits, expansions, generative prompts, reordering, and/or reading recommendations.
This will typically take the form of an email exchange followed by a close-reading. Depending on manuscript length, reading will take between two to four hours. I will write and provide detailed notes throughout this process. In addition to the notes, we’ll meet virtually for a discussion of the work, preferably two hours. As I charge by the hour, however, this process is quite flexible, and I am willing to work with what works best for you.
I model my manuscript consultation approach after radical empathy and radical listening. This manuscript consultation aims to be supportive, inclusive and collaborative, with an eye towards helping your novel become the best possible version of itself through a detailed and deep understanding of the craft of fiction. What’s included:
A one hour introductory phone call to understand what your needs are, what you are struggling with and what you hope to achieve.
An extensive editorial letter beginning with the manuscript’s summary and strengths, followed by dedicated sections on: worldbuilding, characterization, character relationships, story arc/narrative structure, pacing/timeline, emotional effect, language and dialogue, in addition to anything specific to your manuscript that a) you want to address or b) that comes to my attention while reading.* The editorial letter will conclude with suggestions and ideas for how the overall manuscript might be improved.
*Examples: setting, interiorization, stakes, internal vs. external journey, braiding multiple storylines, logical inconsistencies/plausibility, narrative POV, narrative subversion (“twists”), reader investment, tone and atmosphere, scaffolding, beginnings and endings, compression and expansion, thematic question(s), authorial vs. character knowledge, missed opportunities, sensitivity remarks and more.
A one hour follow-up phone call after you have processed the editorial letter, have any questions and/or would like to discuss your revision plan. During this call, I can also answer any questions about the querying and publishing process.
Note: Line edits are not included.
All genres of fiction are welcome, including speculative fiction.
Please submit the first 20 pages of your novel to see if we are a good fit.
Max word count: 100,000 words.
Flat Fee $2,500
True stories, well told, matter! I will give line-by-line editing and a letter with detailed editorial notes on your nonfiction manuscripts. That includes book chapters, essays, artist statements, book proposals, articles, work samples, or any other form of nonfiction prose.
Price: $200 flat fee for the first 20 pages (12 pt. Times New Roman, double-spaced, minimum of 1-inch margins) and $4 for every page after that.
A la carte option: For a manuscript consultation that includes a letter with detailed editorial feedback, but no line-by-line edits, the flat fee is $150 for the first 20 pages (12 pt. Times New Roman, double-spaced, minimum of 1-inch margins) and $3 for every page after that.
Note: payment is for initial flat fee; additional page fees to be determined and invoiced separately.
My manuscript consultation is based on an examination of how a work balances the craft of writing with the substance of conscience, the personal and the political. These guiding principles are ones that I've culled through my fifteen years working for social change and twelve years writing about it, including in my recent book Craft and Conscience: How to Write About Social Change. As the creator of the Writing with Conscience class which I've offered through The Shipman Agency, the New School, and other institutions I'm inspired by helping more writers to be writers of conscience.
I offer two types of manuscript consultations:
1) Stand Alone Manuscripts - Essays, Articles, Op Eds, Stories.
Sliding scale starting at $150 based on length/word count.
This includes substantive summary feedback about what is working well and suggestions for improvement as well as line edits.
2) Book Manuscripts - Draft manuscripts for book length works.
Sliding scale starting at $750 depending on the length of work.
I will provide summary feedback on how the manuscript hangs together as a cohesive whole, respond to the narrative flow and narrative elements, whether the desired themes are coming through, and whether there is a balance between personal and political themes.
For an additional fee, I also offer post feedback consultations via phone/zoom to discuss any follow up questions.
I have taught poetry workshops and advised poetry thesis manuscripts for the past decade at Princeton University, as well as in the MFA programs at NYU and Columbia, along with guest workshops in graduate and community programs around the country. I have seen manuscripts through from rough drafts, extensive revision, and into publication. I have published four of my own books of poems including Days & Days (Knopf, 2019) and the forthcoming Pacific Power & Light (Knopf, 2024). Many of my poems have appeared in The New Yorker and elsewhere.
This consultation includes an initial hour-long meeting and conversation about what you imagine your book to be, where it comes from and where you would like it to go. What are your concerns about the work, and what are you most excited about. With these things in mind I will closely read the book and provide both holistic notes as well as suggesting line edits and possible developments and alternatives, including ordering of the manuscript and “writing into the corners” of the book. I will send you these edits and ideas and then we will meet a second time to discuss them, as well as publication possibilities, and strategies for creating new work in the future.
I look forward to working with you!
I’m interested in working with prose writers who desire to have their short fiction, personal essays, or novels receive extensive global feedback. Typically, I like to learn a bit about what I’ll be working on to see if we’re a fit before moving forward, and I may ask to see a short excerpt (1-3 pages) of the piece, so that I can gauge my interest and reading speed.
I am also excited to work with writers who are preparing to apply to graduate-level creative writing programs, including MFA and PhD programs. As a graduate of University of Minnesota’s MFA program and the Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, and as a former Provost Fellow in USC’s PhD in Creative Writing and Literature program, I feel well-equipped to help. I have also served as a juror/ reader for such programs for several years, which has given me insight about the application process from the faculty perspective. I am happy to review personal statements, statements of purpose, and writing samples, as well as to discuss the decision to apply for such programs.
I am open to longer-term coaching on a case-by-case basis, but prefer to work on a project together before moving forward with such arrangements.
I began my teaching career in 2012, and my fiction has earned awards and honors from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Paris Review, the National Book Foundation, the Booker Prizes, and PEN America, to name just a few.
For full-length manuscripts (novels and memoirs), my rate is $4,000. For shorter work, my starting hourly rate is $150, which includes two reads of the manuscript and a feedback letter, which typically ranges from 2-4 pages, addressing elements of the writing such as:
Character Development (round vs. flat; wounds, flaws, & fears)
Character Desire (concrete & abstract; internal & external; tangible & intangible)
Plotting & Structure
Stakes/ What’s at Stake?
The First Pages (inciting incident)
Backstory
Point of View
Narrative Distance
Voice & Style (in larger terms)
Obstacles, Conflict, & Complications
Pacing
Suspense & Foreshadowing
The Final Pages (crisis; climax; denouement; reversal)
Character Arcs
Theme & Premise
Setting
Text & Subtext
Missing or Irrelevant Scenes
This does not include copyediting; however, as a natural part of tracking the work's movements, and strengths and weaknesses, a large degree of marginalia is almost guaranteed. We’ll agree to a turnaround window prior to getting started, but a story under 30 pages will typically receive feedback in a week’s time. Full-length manuscripts typically take 4-6 weeks.
I'm also happy to speak over the phone after you've received my feedback to discuss it further for approximately one hour.
Short stories, Personal Essays, Memoir
You: Are not mainstream in your outlook. Your vision is wide, and you are moved to write a work that has deep resonance for your community, your environment, your country, your world. Your story could be intimate and personal or complex and global or all these things. Line-by-line editing and a letter with detailed editorial notes on your project. I have taught for decades in the US (across the country and at a range of institutions including Columbia University and CCNY) and abroad, and published collections of stories, essays, and novels. I have also published poetry and worked as a freelance journalist. I meet writers where they are, with regard for who they are as people, what has moved them to write, and with a view to helping them go further. I help writers to lean into the emotional truths that underlie their writing, to draw on their strengths, and to develop under-utilizedaspects of their repertoire.
Price levels:
1 Detailed editorial feedback letter including line edits. $200 for the first 20 pages (12 pt. Times, double-spaced, 1-inch margins) and $4 for every page after that.
2 Detailed editorial feedback letter but no line-edits. $150 for the first 20 pages (format as above), $3 each additional page.
3. Full manuscript consultation available by request. As a veteran in the literary world, I have an extensive network of contacts across the media and publishing industries. I routinely connect my students to industry professionals when I feel their projects are ready. Please provide a work sample of up to 15 pages for review to evaluate fit. The fee for a complete manuscript review and 2 feedback sessions (1 hour each) is $1,200 for projects up to 60k words and $1,500 for those up to 90k words.
All Genres
Maria is a New York Times-bestselling, Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning novelist, translator, poet, and dramatist whose work unearths hidden meanings, characters, and possibilities in stories we think we know. She's the author of eight books, most recently Beowulf: A New Translation (2020) and The Mere Wife (2018). In 2023, she delivered the Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature at Oxford, and released a reimagining of Virgil's Aeneid into a full-cast musical for Audible. Her version of the literary world is one in which all the genres merge, all the storytellers are equally thrilling, and there are definitely dragons. Her work on Beowulf was described in The New Yorker as "storming the dusty halls of the library, upending the crowded shelf of Beowulf translations to make room for something completely new."
Maria has most recently taught writing at Sarah Lawrence and Bennington, and she regularly teaches workshops at universities around the world. For the Shipman Agency Workroom, she's taught sessions on creating the fantastical, finding your voice, adapting the classics into contemporary work, and editing yourself, among many others.
Her consultations will help you find the tools to go deeper in your work, to finish and submit your newly revised novel, or even to totally reinvent yourself as a writer, diving into the project you've been too afraid to start. She's also happy to consult with writers who don't have manuscripts yet, as long as they have an idea and a work sample.
To begin, please submit a short description of your project, and of your consultation goals, which Maria will review to make sure it's a good fit. If approved, the next step is registering and paying the initial $300 for one hour of work. You'll submit the first 15 pages of your manuscript, as well as a synopsis of the overall project and a bio. Maria will provide written notes on the first 15 pages, along with an estimate for the full job.
If you don't have a manuscript yet, the consultation series will begin with the above - short description and consultation goals, review, initial payment - and then you'll begin with an hourlong Zoom session to make a plan of attack.
The consultations will include Zoom or phone sessions with questions, research suggestions, creative brainstorming, and live feedback. Together, you'll make a plan that suits your project. Maria's style is both empathetic and pragmatic - she'll help you achieve your writing goals, and offer a great deal of feedback and ideas along the way.
The payment is for one hour of work, plus preparation of an estimate for the full project. Additional hours will be invoiced and paid after registration.
Her rate is $300/hour, and her minimum is $1200.
Poetry
I’ve taught in the graduate writing programs at The New School and Columbia and have guided MFA poetry collections of a great variety of poetic schools and backgrounds. My eclectic taste for whatever is surprising, insightful, and urgent is evident, I hope, in the many brief reviews I’ve written for the Academy of American Poets, at poets.org. For $1,250 I can give a manuscript a close read with notes throughout, a written response of 1-2 pages, and two online meetings. For $1,500 I will read the revised manuscript as well, with the same level of response, both on the page and in a brief report, and in another online meeting.
Nonfiction
I have worked with authors on works of memoir, journalism, creative nonfiction, and academic manuscripts. For $1,250 I read the manuscript and write up a 1-2 page response, provide selected pages with detailed line edits, and have two online meetings to discuss. Depending on the readiness of the manuscript this may be mostly about overall structure and the development of your book’s best feature, or about line edits for style and power. I’ll also advise on steps toward publication. At the $1,500 rate my response is 4-5 pages and I return the whole manuscript with notes throughout.
Short Story collections, Novels
Full manuscript $1750
A manuscript consultation with me centers energy, joy, and deep intentionality. In engaging with your fiction, I prioritize radical listening and open communication, ensuring your creative vision and unique voice will not only guide our discussion, but also shape my engagement with your pages. I seek to meet every project with equal parts rigor and respect. Committed to encountering work through a decolonial lens, I am especially equipped to engage with projects that decenter the white, western gaze while challenging and subverting a colonial hegemony. I welcome projects that play with time, structure, point of view, and language in a way that expands our understanding of literature while championing historically disenfranchised voices. Empathy brews at the center of this work—work I hope we will do together.
Specifically, you can expect:
A one-hour initial conversation to discuss your vision, intentions, and goals for your project. What you wish to achieve, and how I can best support your aspirations.
A 4-6 page (single spaced) editorial letter addressing your project through the lens of your clarified vision. As I believe we writers learn as much from leaning into our strengths as we do from identifying where we might push our work even further, I will spend proportionate time considering both with a consistent focus on locating the heart of your work. Fictional craft elements I’ll consider include character development, structure, voice, tone, plot, time/pacing, point of view/perspective, and place, among others.
Detailed line edits and margin notes on the first 20 pages of the manuscript.
A one-hour follow-up conversation to address any questions you may have while charting a revision plan that feels approachable and in line with your goals.
Flat fee applies to projects up to 100K words. A $1 fee for every page over 100K applies.
My ask of you: Please send the first 20 pages of your manuscript to Work Room manager Kate Mabus, kate@theshipmanagency.com so I can determine if I will be the best reader for your work. Due to the personal nature of engaging honestly with one’s work-in-progress, I wish to honor your time, and ensure my approach will best align with your project and your needs.
As a mixed Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) writer, reader, and teacher, I am committed to championing voices that have been historically marginalized and disenfranchised. I have taught creative writing at the graduate level, provided manuscript consultations, and led workshops and craft seminars for the last five years. My goal is to bring this experience and enthusiastic investment in artmaking to your work-in-progress, helping you identify and hone your individual voice rather than assert my own.
Add-on / A la Carte:
A one-hour consultation on querying agents, including a thorough review of a query letter with line notes: $300
I will provide feedback about your poetry manuscript, including line edits, radical revision suggestions, and organizational recommendations. This feedback will come in the form of notes and conversation. The cost is $500 for a 2-hour consultation, including written notes, for manuscripts between 40 to 70 pages.
Rickey Laurentiis is offering tutorials and consultantships in the poem, the manuscript & the syllabus.
Rickey Laurentiis is a poet who was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, to study light. Their debut book, Boy with Thorn, won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Levis Reading Prize, and was a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. As a curator and art writer, they have work with a number of institutions including The Andy Warhol Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, John Hopkins Archaeological Museum, and the the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Their next book is Death of the First Idea, coming froom Knopf in 2025. Literary honors include fellowships from the Lannan Literary Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, and the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics at the University of Pittsburgh. Friends call her Riis.
In private consultantships, I will work one-one-one in periods of an hour or more in three subjects: individual tutorials concerning packets of poems (no more than 15 pages of work) & full consultantships on the poetry manuscript (no more than 60 pages of work) and writing syllabi (including poetry, fiction and nonfiction courses). In my tutorials and consultantships, I aim to listen carefully; to hear what lives under the ask towards what’s best for the piece of writing at hand or the course being developed. I want the tutor or client to leave feeling restored to their assignment as writer, and with specific tactics to apply to their writing in its general improvement, and specific strategies to apply in the classroom.
Tutorials, 1 hour, $150
Consultantships 1.5hr or more, starting at $500
Fiction, Nonfiction
Sarah Manguso is the author of ten books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Her books are frequently described as crossing, blurring, or reinventing genres.
She has taught creative writing for more than twenty-five years, both privately and at various institutions of higher learning, and she would welcome the opportunity to work with you on a manuscript of fiction or nonfiction.
To receive an estimate, please register and pay the initial $250 for one hour of work. Sarah will provide notes and line edits on the first few pages of your manuscript, along with an estimate for the full job.
Her rate is $250/hr, and her minimum fee is $1500.
Sarah’s fee includes detailed line edits and notes on all aspects of the work, which will be provided via Track Changes. Sarah will then be available for a discussion via phone or Zoom.
Please note that upfront payment is for one hour of work plus preparation of an estimate for the full project. Additional hours will be invoiced and paid after registration.
“Greg’s approach to teaching and mentorship is representative of who he is as a whole: thoughtful, compassionate, insightful, honest, and humorous. I’ve benefited from one-on-one sessions with him and have also taken part in a seminar that he led. In each setting, Greg excelled at providing his students with the individualized counsel that an aspiring writer can only hope for. He provides equal parts praise, guidance, and compassionate critique in a way that encourages his students to harness and unleash their own creative prowess."
- Clay Klaus-Wade
"Greg is a fantastic teacher. He is encouraging, specific in his teachings and an effective communicator. He clearly loves to teach and to share his knowledge. He always involves the student and simultaneously emboldens the student to craft their own style. He creates a safe space for each student to ask questions, to test their own theories and assumptions."
- Buffy Shutt
Hi! Thanks for your interest in learning with me. A little bit about myself: I am the author of the memoir, Born to Be Public, which has been named a best book of 2020 by NPR, O, The Oprah Magazine, Electric Literature, The Brooklyn Rail, Largehearted Boy, and was a 2020 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Humor. I am currently working on my next memoir, Not a Wonderland: Dispatches From a Body That's Trying to Kill Me, and Save Our Serotonin: An Illustrated Guide for the Modern and Mentally Ill.
My teaching philosophy is pretty simple: If you care about your story, someone else will, too. My job—and joy—is to help my students hone their craft by looking inward. Because only by looking inward can you learn to write about the way you move through the world. I'm not here to teach as much as I am to hold up a mirror and help you mine your reflection for the things you might not have noticed before or hadn't thought to consider in one way or another—all of the things that make up the fabric of your being, the things that should be radically honored both on and off the page.
This consultation will begin with an initial hour-long meeting and conversation about your work-in-progress. I want to hear about why you started writing your project, and where you imagine it going. I want to know why your project matters to you. We will also discuss any concerns or challenges you face, as well as what you want to achieve by the time you finish your final draft.
Following our conversation, I will then give line-by-line edits, along with detailed editorial notes on your work-in-progress. This can include a nonfiction manuscript, book proposal, book chapters, query letter, essay(s), article(s), work samples, or any other form of nonfiction prose.
Price breakdown: $200 flat fee for the first 20 pages (12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, and one-inch margins), and $3 for every page after that.
A la carte option: For a manuscript consultation that includes a letter with detailed editorial feedback, but no line-by-line edits, the flat fee is $175 for the first 20 pages (12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, and one-inch margins), and $3 for every page after that.
Please note: Payment is for the initial flat fee. Additional page fees to be determined and invoiced separately.
I look forward to working—and learning—with you!
AX (Ana) Mina
As a nonfiction writer, you have great ideas. How do you get the word out and build a platform? I offer coaching as a tool to help you refine your ideas, communicate them effectively and find the right people to support your work.
You have great thoughts to share — how do you communicate them crisply and precisely for public consumption? Think of thought leadership as a layer that supercharges your communications efforts. Building from my experience developing communications strategy, we’ll develop a custom strategy for getting the word out there about your work and your best ideas.
Every writing client has different needs, and we’ll work on a toolkit that will help you take action on bringing your ikigai, or life’s purpose, into fruition through guided exercises on a tool called Quenza and ongoing coaching sessions. Here’s an example of some of the tools we can explore together:
Brainstorming and ideation sessions — start with your idea, no matter how rough, and let’s refine it through active feedback and idea generation
Working through creative blocks, using creative strategy and ideation, meditation, yoga, tarot and somatic wellness practices (I’m a certified trauma-informed yoga teacher with training in secular mindfulness)
Getting the word out: Public speaking skills, and telling the story of yourself and your work
Leadership and management skills, whether for those leading creative communities and mission-driven organizations or those running their own business.
Clarifying your core values and mission as a writer (i.e., your ikigai)
Coaching is a partnership, and I’m happy to take a first 30 minute call for free to determine two things: (1) how we vibe together as people and creative and (2) whether there’s a fit with what you’re looking for and where I can help. If we mutually agree to move forward, we’ll develop a coaching package that works for you — whether that’s finding your ikigai, developing your platform or something more custom. We can also do ad hoc, ongoing coaching to help you work through creative blocks.
Sessions are a sliding scale of $125-200 for up to 75 minutes (with a suggested rate of $150), and a 5 pack is available for $500 - 800 (20% discount).
The expectation that writers “rip off the Band-Aid” or “just do it” when the perspectives we’re called to express feel painful or triggering, is a form of normalized suffering that racial capitalism and patriarchal industries depend on. By overriding feelings of resistance and hesitation in favor of production, we lose critical information, and the capacity to form language unique to our individual journeys.
If you’re into pain, that’s great. But for everyone else: writing doesn’t need to feel tortuous. Persistent anxiety and physical manifestations of stress aren’t necessarily proof that you’re “doing the work.” Insight—about even the darkest of subjects—can take place in moments of connection, gratitude, curiosity, and pleasure. Sometimes the language you need requires going outside, working with your hands, developing personal rituals, re-learning rest, shifting (even temporarily) the orientation and shape of your life ... We can think through the specific auxiliary practices that make sense for your body, your budget, your values, and your work.
I’m passionate about working with writers who are ready to develop multimodal strategies in support of specific projects, concerns, or interests. This approach to generating and revising work involves a commitment to evaluating the ways you spend time and relate to others during all of the time that you aren’t writing. It isn’t for everyone. Ask yourself if you are open to:
developing practices of invitation that honor your physical and emotional boundaries, while intentionally creating space for them to expand;
learning to recognize, trust, and follow the languages/silences that are unique to you, even when they extend beyond recognizable signifiers and established frames;
reframing mastery as a commitment to curiosity and honesty about what the world looks like from exactly where you are;
preparing yourself in physical and material ways for the language that you need to arrive.
If so, let’s start with a 30-min call. You can share your goals and we’ll decide on a plan that feels meaningful to you. This consultation is available to individual writers as well as small, focused groups working in a similar vein. Due to the nature of the process, in most cases a minimum of two sessions will be required. A sliding scale is available for QTBIPOC writers and writers with disabilities.
The following is provided as a guide; actual prices will depend on the scope of your project.
Standard Fee:
Starting at $150 / 75 minutes for a single writer
Starting at $225 / 90 minutes for small groups
Sliding Scale:
Starts at $100 for a single writer and $175 for small groups
Graphic novels, memoirs, and book-length comics comprise one of the fastest growing book markets world wide, but commercial publishing houses don’t always offer rigorous editing the way they might with books of more traditional prose. I will offer detailed editorial notes on drafts of graphic novel, memoir, essay, and comics projects ranging from short, stand-alone pieces to book-length projects. As a comics editor, I examine the effectiveness of the text—the strength of the language, voice, details, and dialogue—as well as the image—pacing, framing, perspective, and technique. I also critique the relationship between the two, and offer suggestions as to how text and image can function together most effectively to communicate a story, argument, or idea.
$600 for a manuscript up to 20-pages;
$800 for a manuscript up to 50-pages;
$1200 for a manuscript up to 120 pages;
$2000 for a manuscript up to 250 pages
Please note: If your graphic manuscript is particularly prose-heavy, fee structure can be discussed separately.
Spring Consultation Offer (April 20-June 1)
Novel/YA Novel
I will provide editorial coaching, revision notes, and feedback in the form of an editorial letter and one virtual meeting (1 hour). $400
Poetry Manuscript
I will provide editorial coaching, revision, comprehensive notes, and individual line edits in the form of an editorial letter and one virtual meeting (1 hour). $300
N.B. At this time, Ayşegül is not available to begin new consultations until October.
This manuscript consultation is intended to find the essential strengths of your project—the places where the writing comes alive—and identify the aspects of your novel-in-progress that give you joy. From here, we will discuss ways to complete the book, bring out its inherent qualities, and to follow your own voice in the process.
After an initial one-hour conversation, where we discuss your vision and the areas you would like to tackle, I will read the manuscript and offer a detailed editorial letter, notes throughout the manuscript, and 5-10 pages of in-depth line edits. In my letter, I will focus on plot elements, character development, structure, and voice. We will meet again for an hour-long call to discuss my notes and come up with a revision plan that feels manageable and right for the book.
I will also offer guidance about querying agents, and the editorial process.
I have led novel writing workshops as well as individual consultations for the past five years and love to collaborate with writers to find the unique qualities of their projects and help them finish their books with enthusiasm (and patience!)
Writers work alone and in the dark. The process of crafting a piece of writing that generates meaning and emotion, a work capable of nothing less than dreaming the reader into a world entirely of the writer’s making, is a daunting task. For as vast and mysterious as the levers of the writer’s imagination may be, the only tools at the writer’s disposal are paltry. Something to write with and something to write on. The only other thing the writer requires is a reader. Someone to witness the work and offer feedback. Inevitably, regardless of the quality of that feedback, the writer is dissatisfied. The writer suspects and rightly so, that there are issues. There are always issues, and the writer, regardless of how skilled they may be, cannot see them. They know this, and it’s maddening. Sometimes the issues are related to craft. The structure isn’t helping the story tell itself. The pacing is out of whack. The point of view is fuzzy. Other times the problem isn’t on the page but in the writer themselves. They don’t what the story is or why they’re telling it. They can’t recognize what is most alive in their work. If you find yourself in such a place, I offer my help. For years I have been helping writers in just this way. Helping them to locate the beating heart in their stories and strategize solutions for revision that work in the direction of their strengths.
You have several options.
Option1.
You receive notes on the text: (queries, comments and suggested edits) an editorial letter and an hour-long conference via Zoom/FaceTime/telephone to discuss the work’s strengths and weaknesses, big picture issues and avenues to pursue in revision. $450
Option 2.
You receive an editorial letter, and an hour-long conference via Zoom/FaceTime/telephone to discuss the work’s strengths and weaknesses, big picture issues and avenues to pursue in revision. $350
Option 3.
Your manuscript is returned to you with margin notes and an editorial letter addressing matters of craft. $250.
Option 4.
An hour-long conference via Zoom/FaceTime/telephone to discuss the work’s strengths and weaknesses, big picture issues and avenues to pursue in revision. $250
My rates are based on twenty, double-spaced, twelve-point type pages, or $250 an hour for longer works.
Do you have ideas or writing you’d like to turn into a creative non-fiction book? Over the past twenty years, I’ve published five award-winning nonfiction books and two edited collections, have edited dozens of books as an editor/publisher and have served as a judge for the National Book Awards in Non-Fiction. I think in books! Meet with me on zoom for up to 2 hours to talk through your book concept. We can discuss how to develop your idea into a book-length project, how to organize and structure it, find research and reporting opportunities, and publishing strategies, upon request. $500
Need feedback to turn your book-in-progress into a polished manuscript ready for submission? Send me your pages. I’ll provide a 3-4 page written response on structure, organization, clarity, originality, and publishing strategies and meet with you on zoom to discuss. $2000
David Shields specializes in literary nonfiction/creative nonfiction, autobiography, memoir, personal essay, the curated diary, literary collage, literary collaboration, oral history, dialogic books, one-act plays, remix/repurposing/“appropriation,” “found documents”/fraudulent artifacts, documentary film, the essay film, screenwriting, the photo essay, the elegy, brevity, the prose-poem, the short-short, flash fiction, “autofiction,” and other kinds of boundary-jumping work.
He’d welcome the opportunity to consult with you on your work, whether it’s a sequence of brief essays, a long collage, a screenplay, a book-length work-in-progress, or anything in between.
$250/hour for a one-to-one consultation, which involves a writer sending a manuscript electronically. It will be marked up using Track Changes, and followed by a phone conversation about the notes.
For private consults, the fee is $250/hour, or a negotiated flat fee for a longer manuscript. Detailed edits, line edits, and big-picture structure will be provided.
Please note: upfront payment is for one hour; additional hours to be discussed and invoiced after registration.
$250/hour
Writers have less editorial time with their in-house editors than ever. Many agents are great with the deal but simply aren't editors. Where is a writer to turn?
For thirty years I've worked with literary writers in various capacities but my great love has been the deep dive into a manuscript with them. While I always keep an eye toward what a reader might think, I maintain deep respect for the integrity of work that is formally challenging, based in vernacular, or otherwise considered non-traditional. I will work with literary writers in both fiction and non-fiction.
We'd begin, ideally, with the review of a complete manuscript though writers "in process" are welcome to set up other arrangements. You'll receive notes with a focus on how the draft as a whole works rather than the nitty gritty of a line edit. We'll then set a schedule for the rewrite and can review in sections or as a whole. The second draft may be the place we agree to do a line edit. Ideally, the response to that draft allows us to look at ahead at publishing possibilities.
Having worked "inside" the industry, I will provide counsel on next steps when we're done. Ongoing coaching and career consultation can be provided whether you're an editorial client or not. Non-editorial clients must commit to a minimum number of hours to be determined.
Fees are $250 per hour for both editorial and career consultation services. Writers must commit to a minimum number of hours, to be determined. Accommodations made for monthly retainer clients.
Please note: upfront payment is for first hour; number of hours and final cost to be discussed after registration.
Short story and essay consultations. Micro- and macro-suggestions on the manuscript, followed by a one-hour phone consultation. Up to 25 pages, 7,000 word count maximum. Critique will be based on 20 years of editing writers for Tin House, including pieces that have been included in Best American Stories, Best American Essays, O’Henry Prize Stories, and have been included in collections that have garnered National Book Award nominations, MacArthur Genius Grants, the LA times Fiction Prize, among many other accolades. $300-$400 depending on length.
I accept students on an ongoing basis for private editorial and writing career consultations. As someone with a fiction MFA degree from Cornell and who has published memoir, personal essay, and criticism, and is currently working on a novel, I am uniquely qualified to address a range of prose writing concerns that are specific to the individual writer. I was also the founding executive editor of them., Condé Nast's LGBTQ+ platform, and have an extensive network of contacts across the media and publishing industries. I am always happy to connect former students to industry professionals when I feel that their projects are ready, and have successfully done so for a number of former students.
I only work with people who I feel I can substantially help, so please provide a work sample of up to 15 pages for review. The fee for a complete manuscript review and 2 hour-long editorial feedback sessions is $1,200 for projects up to 60k words and $1,500 for those up to 90k words.
I am deeply committed to giving people from historically marginalized groups more access to writing and publishing channels. If you are from a marginalized community and can't afford my fee, I would charge on a sliding scale of $800-$1,200 depending on the length of the project and the financial status of the student. If you'd like to take advantage of this option, please note this in the 'Other Information' section of your registration.
Please note: initial payment isn’t final fee; final fees will be discussed after registration. The balance will be invoiced separately.
Please note: The cost is $250/hour, or an agreed upon flat fee. initial fee is not final; final fee to be discussed after registration and balance will be invoiced separately.
I am offering top-to-bottom manuscript consultations, which include comprehensive notes and feedback, in the form of both individual line edits and big-picture notes on frame, structure, and areas for revision, as well as narrative development. Consultations will include a phone conversation about the notes, with suggestions on next steps. I am comfortable working in fiction or nonfiction, short or book-length, up to 300 pages.
Beginning after April 23.
Please note:
FAQ
How do recordings work?
Almost all of our classes are recorded and uploaded to Vimeo. If you have time zone differences, get sick, or know you need to skip a session, we’ll send you a password-protected link to view the recording. You’ll have four weeks to view it. We also have an archive of past classes available for purchase. If interested, please inquire with kate@theshipmanagency.com.
Can I register for a class that’s already started?
For craft seminars and master classes, we welcome registration at any point. We’ll send you recordings and class materials to catch up. For workshops, we might be able to get you in, as long as you reach out before the third session.
What if I want to withdraw from a class?
If you let us know at least 2 days before the class starts, we’ll be happy to offer you a full class credit or a refund minus a $25 processing fee. If the class has already begun, we won’t be able to offer a refund or credit. If there are extenuating circumstances we should consider, please write to kate@theshipmanagency.com.
What if a class is canceled?
Occasionally, we cancel classes due to low enrollments or, very rarely, when a conflict comes up for the instructor. In that case, you’ll be offered a full refund or class credit.
What are the scholarship options?
Most of our classes have full or partial scholarship offerings. If so, those details will be listed on the course page along with an application via Google form. Scholarships are awarded based on financial need, stated interest, and, in some cases, the quality of the writing sample you submit. We will do our best to give you a decision at least a week before the class begins. Please note: If you register for a class before being offered a scholarship, we cannot offer a refund after the fact.
Can I set up a payment plan?
We offer payment plans for classes over $300. Those require a non-refundable deposit of $100-$250, depending on the course fee. You’ll pay in regular increments before the 30th of each month until the total course fee is fulfilled. kate@theshipmanagency.com can help you determine a schedule and get you set up. It’s essential that students stay on track so we can pay our instructors on time. If you can no longer keep up with your payment schedule, we will unfortunately have to withhold access to the class.
How do I sign up for someone else?
You can purchase a Work Room gift card, which can be applied toward the cost of a class or consultation, here.
Other guidelines:
Craft seminars and master classes generally have open enrollment, while workshops have capped enrollment. We process registrations on a first-come basis.
Students are not allowed to share the Zoom link for classes, record sessions, distribute or reproduce any associated materials.
We’re committed to ensuring our students are treated with respect. If you have a concern, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
2 Sessions: Saturday + Sunday, December 13 + 14
12:00-1:30pm ET
John Cameron Mitchell
John Cameron Mitchell wrote/directed/starred in the rock musical and film Hedwig and the Angry Inch for which he won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, a Special Tony for his performance, an Obie Award, the Best Director award at the 2001 Sundance Festival and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor, along with 25 other awards. He wrote/directed the improv-based film Shortbus (2006); directed the film adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole (2010) which garnered a Best Actress Oscar nom for Nicole Kidman; and co-wrote and directed the YA punk romance How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017) starring Kidman and Elle Fanning. He executive-produced (with Gus Van Sant) Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation (2004) which was the most decorated documentary of 2004.
John spills his guts on what he's learned as a multi-hyphenate polymathematical writer (drama, screen and prose), director, performer, songwriter, podcaster, memoirist, producer and DJ in his 42 years of storytelling. He will discuss different forms of approaching narrative writing (autobiographical, adaptations of pre-existing texts, stories based on real-life figures, improv-based development as well as stimulate cross-format creation. Eg, could your novel begin as an audio-based format (like a fictional podcast), could dialogue in a novel or play be improved through improvisation with actors? He'll also get into the challenges of telling a story in a culture that asks, "Is that your story to tell?" When does well-intentioned identity politics come into conflict with an author's informed imagination of characters and settings that they have less personal experience with. He will also encourage input and discussion with participants in the masterclasses.
This course has 1 full and 2 partial scholarships available. To apply, please fill out this form by Monday, December 1st.