To those who rely on force and control, your art is dangerous. To explore the range of your sentience is to remember that there is something else possible in your life. Something beyond what you are being told, because you have something to tell yourself.
The Reading, "Why Do You Write?"
When I began publishing poetry over a decade ago, I was working at a corporate job and reading as much as I could on the side. After countless community events and writing workshops, what started as a clandestine passion had become a serious center of my life. While I was getting recognition for my work locally, I wasn’t sure what my next steps were supposed to be. Quit my job and get an MFA? Keep writing while I still had a 401k, potentially to be in the same position ten years later? It seemed that I was constantly weighing my economic security against a desire to improve my writing and to find a community of peers and mentors.
The rest, of course, is history. But I’ve never forgotten what it felt like to crave mentorship, community, and a close reader who could help my writing get to the next level. After responding to writers at all stages of their journeys at The Reading, I now understand this is a natural step in the growth of a writer.
Teaching in the low-residency MFA program that started it all, the MFA Program at Warren Wilson College, has made me especially attuned to the power of individual attention and feedback. The consulting services I offer are designed for writers at those crucial moments when a precise and encouraging reader is needed, whether that’s that moment a pile of poems becomes a collection or the first time new drafts are getting polished for a much-needed residency's application.
The writers I can serve best often remind me of where I was: now past beginners, they have put in the work and gone as far as possible alone. Whether you are an emerging poet or a seasoned one, these are my offerings to ease those bends in the road. I look forward to hearing from you.
Conversations to explore where you want to go and what you want to do next with your writing project, writing routine, or writing career. Available in packs of 1, 3, and 6.
$175 / single session
$450 / 3-session bundle (save $75)
$780 / 6-session bundle (save $270)
For poets seeking close readings on short packets of poems in sets of 4 or 10, appropriate for journal submissions, residency and fellowship applications, or simply a set in need of revision.
$400 / 4 pages
$900 / 10 pages (save $100)
For poets needing a broad understanding of a collection of poems between 20–30 pages.
Starting at $450
For poets needing a broad understanding of a standard collection of poems between 60–90 pages.
Starting at $1200