Writing is really hard. I think it’s one of the hardest things in the world—especially when the objective is to make strangers feel something when they read what you have written.

Whether you intend to inspire laughter or tears, or are aiming for a different thing, by attempting this you have undertaken something that’s impossible for most people and difficult for everyone else.

I have found that it’s best to seek help when doing this stuff. I have sought such help myself, and I have been helping other people with writing for a long time.

I was an Assistant Professor of English for four years, specializing in creative prose writing. I led many workshops. Before that, I earned a PhD in English at the University of Missouri, where I also led and participated in workshops.

Since I left academia in 2016, I have been working as a freelance writer, ghostwriter, and editor. I read short stories, novellas, and full-length novels for hire. I edit them and provide extensive feedback. I offer praise where it is warranted, and provide guidance for revisions. Many of these texts are by first-time writers; others are the work of authors with several books to their names. 

I have had a great success rate with helping clients see the unrealized potential in their works-in-progress. With my aid, they recognize the shortcomings that have eluded them. I take pains to show them, too, where their work succeeds, the things they have already achieved and can build on—which we writers, self-critical to a fault, are often oblivious to. 

I strive at all times to be both the incisive critic and the generous mentor.  When I write my pages-long summary critiques for the writer, and when I offer commentary on the texts as I pore over them, I ensure that I am clear, thorough, and as helpful as I can be.

I myself have published three books—a novel, essay collection, and short story collection. I have won a Pushcart Prize, the Nilsen Prize for a First Novel, the inaugural Robert C. Jones Short Prose Book Contest, a Jane Geuting Camp Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), a Columbus School for Girls Fellowship at VCCA, the Willow Springs Fiction Prize, the Robert and Adele Schiff Prose Prize, Copper Nickel's Editors' Prize, the American Literary Review Award in Creative Nonfiction, and The Journal’s Creative Nonfiction Contest, and I have had six Notable Essays in the Best American Essays series. I have published essays and short stories in many magazines, including The Missouri Review, AGNI, Kenyon Review Online, Indiana Review, and Beloit Fiction Journal. I am a contributing editor at Copper Nickel, and I have been a first reader for fiction and nonfiction at a number of literary journals in the last twenty years. 

My rates for this work are flexible.

I tend to charge $150 per 10,000 words for a consultation, in which I comment on your manuscript, pointing out its strengths as well as the potential I see for growth and refinement.

I am also available for more detailed work, such as line-editing or copyediting.