MANUSCRIPT CONSULTATIONS

We’re pleased to offer personalized, one-on-one manuscript consultations and coaching with our esteemed faculty members. From first chapters, to MFA applications, to full novels, these instructors offer a wide range of services. Instructors can help with line edits, query letters, structure, and more. The items below must be emailed to info@storystudiochicago.org. A credit card will be held on file in case we are unable to reach a client at time of payment.

DETAILS

We’ll screen your application and coordinate with your requested author(s) over consultation possibility. Once all parties are in agreement, we will connect you with your author and you two can set up your dates, times, and any other necessary information to conduct your consultation. We will also send you details about the deposit and credit card capture. At the beginning of each month, we will bill you for the appropriate amount of hours worked in the previous month, after which time you will be required to pay via PayPal or check within 7 days. Each month will be billed for the hours worked, though the consult can last for as long as both parties are willing.

EMAIL US TO GET STARTED: info@storystudiochicago.org

AVAILABLE CONSULTANTS

Services: MFA Application, Poetry Consulting (3-5 poems), Short Lyric Essay (No Longer than 5 pages), Submission Consulting (Poetry Specific), Written Feedback with a One-on-One Meeting
Genre: Poetry and Lyric Essay
Rate: $96/hr
Kenyatta Rogers is a Cave Canem Fellow and has been awarded multiple scholarships from the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference. He has also been nominated multiple times for both Pushcart and Best of the Net prizes. His work has been previously published in or is forthcoming from Jubilat, Vinyl, Bat City Review, The Volta, PANK, MAKE Magazine among others. He is as a co-host of the Sunday Reading Series with Simone Muench, an Associate Editor with RHINO Poetry and currently serves on the Creative Writing Faculty at the Chicago High School for the Arts.

Services: Full manuscript reads, partial reads, one-on-one coaching, in-person and/or virtual meetings, line editing, guidance in applying to grants/awards
Genres: short stories and novels including the following: literary, historical, speculative/science fiction.
Rate: $120/hr
Michael Zapata is a founding editor of MAKE Literary Magazine and the author of the novel The Lost Book of Adana Moreau, winner of the 2020 Chicago Review of Books Award for Fiction, finalist for the 2020 Heartland Booksellers Award in Fiction, and a Best Book of the Year for NPR, the A.V. Club, Los Angeles Public Library, and BookPage, among others. He is a recipient of a Meier Foundation Artist Achievement Award and the DAG Prize for Literature.  He is on the faculty of StoryStudio Chicago and the MFA faculty of Northwestern University. As a public-school educator, he taught literature and writing in high schools servicing drop out students. He currently lives in Chicago with his family.

Services: Online/video/phone meeting; Coaching; Full manuscript reads; Partial reads; Written feedback; Outline or synopsis reads
Genres: Poetry; Short stories; Novels; Memoir; Historical; Nonfiction; Literary journalism; Book proposals; Personal essay; Screenwriting; Thriller; Translation; Travel; Hybrid
Rates: $144/hr
Sarah Valentine’s memoir, When I Was White, was an Amazon #1 Bestseller and a must-read from Essence, Bookriot, The Millions, PureWow, and Bustle. Kirkus Review called it “Deftly written… A valuable contribution to the literature of race.” Valentine has taught literature and creative writing at Princeton, UCLA, UC-Riverside, and Northwestern University. In 2013 she won a Lannan Foundation Writing Residency and Prairie Schooner’s Best Emerging Writer Award. Her work has appeared in Waveform: Twenty-First Essays by Women, diode, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and more. Valentine holds a Ph.D. in Russian literature from Princeton University.

Services: full reads, partial reads, written feedback, in-person or virtual meetings, one-on-one coaching, line editing

Genre: Novels and short stories

Rate: $120/hr per meeting

Lindsay Hunter is the author of two story collections and three novels. Her most recent  novel, Hot Springs Drive, won the Chicago Review of Books award for fiction and was named a top thriller of the year by the Washington Post. She lives in Chicago with her family and teaches the Novel in a Year: First Draft program at StoryStudio.

Services: full manuscript reads, partial reads, written feedback, in-person meetings, outline or synopsis reads, copyediting, and line editing
Genres: poetry, short stories, memoirs general and speculative fiction (no fantasy or sci-fi), personal essays, screenplays, hybrid works, book reviews, and thrillers
Rate: $108/hr
Vincent Francone is the author of the memoir Like a Dog and the essay collection The Soft Lunacy. His work has appeared in Three Percent, New City Magazine, Rhino, and other journals. He is at work on a collection of poems and stories. He hosts a podcast called Drinking and Talking. Visit www.vincentfrancone.com to find out more.

Services: full or partial manuscript reads; written feedback; meetings (in-person or virtual); feedback on outline, pitch, and synopsis; developmental coaching; copyediting and line editing
Genres: short stories, literary novels, personal essays, application materials
Rate: $108/hr estimated at an average of 10 manuscript pages per hour
Sara Cutaia is the Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine Arcturus; an Editor-at-Large for the Chicago Review of Books; a graduate of the MFA program at Columbia College Chicago where she received the Graduate Merit Award; and has published fiction and nonfiction in South 85 Journal, 805 Lit, Punctuate. Magazine, the Chicago Review of Books, and elsewhere. She is an instructor and the Director of Signature Programs at StoryStudio Chicago.

Services: Full manuscript reads, partial reads, written feedback, in-person meetings and/or phone conversations, one-on-one coaching.
Genres: Novels and short stories.
Rate: $95/hr
Abby Geni is the Chicago-based author of the novels The Wildlands and The Lightkeepers, as well as a short story collection, The Last Animal. Her books have been translated into seven languages and have won the Barnes & Noble Discover Award and the Chicago Review of Books Awards, among other honors. Her latest novel, The Wildlands, was named one of the best books of 2018 by Kirkus and Buzzfeed and was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize. Geni is a core faculty member at StoryStudio Chicago and recently served as Visiting Associate Professor of Fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. 

Services: coaching, full manuscript reads, partial manuscripts reads, written feedback, outline/synposis reads, submission consulting
Genres: short stories, romance, historical, personal essay, performance writing
Rate: $102/hr
Jennifer Coffeen writes historical romance with The Wild Rose Press (Priceless Deception, A Deal with Lord Devlin), along with short stories and flash fiction. Her short story “Tooth” was nominated for a 2017 Pushcart Prize. She is a founding member of the kates and performed with Live Lit shows including Write Club, Story Club, Serving the Sentence, and Guts & Glory. Jennifer is currently working on Season 2 of Creepy History, a weekly podcast she co-hosts with Fraser Coffeen. She is a writing instructor and the Festival Director for StoryStudio Chicago.

Services: Developmental editing, line editing, copyediting, fact-checking/research, authenticity reading, submission consulting, one-on-one coaching, full or partial manuscript review, written feedback, meeting via phone/Skype
Genres: Short fiction, novels, travel essays and articles, personal essays, memoir
Rate: $96/hr
Dika was an assistant editor, production editor, and social media manager for Frommer’s travel guides and has worked as a freelance copy editor for clients such as Condé Nast (Epicurious and Brides). Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in This Is Not Chick Lit (Random House), A Stranger Among Us (OV Books), Scribner’s Best of the Fiction Workshops, American Fiction Vol. 12 (New Rivers Press), One Story, The Rumpus, Frommers.com, and elsewhere. Her book reviews have appeared in The Nervous Breakdown and The Cincinnati Review. A New York Times Fellow in New York University’s MFA program, she also earned a BA in comparative literature from Cornell University. She has received awards and residencies from the Sewanee and Bread Loaf writers’ conferences, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Ragdale Foundation, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. She won the Bronx Writers Center Chapter One Fiction Competition and first prize in the American Fiction Contest.

Services: Full Play/Screenplay/Teleplay critiques. One-on-one coaching sessions for adapting novels/memoirs into drama in any of its iterations, with developing original ideas into viable plays and screenplays, and help with drama structure, outlines, TV pitch documents, screenplay formatting. One-on-one personalized writing courses and submission consulting. Written feedback, Zoom meet ups (my account), phone consulting, and in-person meetings.
Genres: Plays/screenplays/teleplays — Comedy, drama, dramedy, musical theater books
Rate: $120/hr
Mary Ruth Clarke co-wrote and starred in the original Meet the Parents and co-adapted it into the blockbuster version, starring Robert De Niro. Her dramedy teleplay Broadway, Ohio is under a short option, and has also advanced to the second round at the Sundance Episodic Lab 2020. Her play Bonhoeffer’s Cost just finished a run at The Agape Actors Co-op in Austin, Texas and has been produced at the Beacon Theater in Philadelphia, and the Provision Theater in Chicago. Mary Ruth is a screenplay consultant for clients in LA and Chicago, and she has critiqued about a gazillion plays and screenplays. She is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists, where she teaches screenwriting and TV writing, and also teaches screenwriting at Story Studio. She’s a regular guest lecturer at the Chicago Screenwriter’s Network monthly meet up and the Off Campus Writer’s Group. She’s been a guest artist at the Story Studio Writers Festival, Chicago Independent Film Project, Renaissance Theaterworks Milwaukee, and the Michigan City library. She is a member of the Writer’s Guide of America East and the Dramatists Guild.

Services: coaching, full manuscript reads, partial reads, written feedback, one-on-one online meetings, outline or synopsis reads, MFA application consulting
Genres:short stories, novels, memoir, query letters, speculative, book proposals, personal essay, travel, thriller, hybrid, magazine writing
Rate: $90/hr

Content edit: Full-length Manuscript: $600 + reading fee ($5/1000 words)
Short stories/essays: $240 flat rate, max 25 pages
Blair Hurley received her A.B. from Princeton University and her M.F.A. from NYU. She is the author of THE DEVOTED, published by W.W. Norton, which was longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. Her work is published or forthcoming in Electric Literature, The Georgia Review, Ninth Letter, Guernica, Paris Review Daily, West Branch, and elsewhere. She received a 2018 Pushcart Prize and two Pushcart Prize nominations in 2019. Blair teaches creative writing at Grubstreet, Catapult, and elsewhere. She is the host of the Writerly Bites podcast.

Services: Read first 20 pages of manuscript and written feedback, in-person meetings or via skype
Genres: historical fiction; crime fiction (any genre); fantasy/sci-fi/dystopian
Rate: $120/hr
Susanna Calkins writes the Lucy Campion historical mysteries set in 17th century London and the Speakeasy Murders set in 1920s Chicago (Minotaur/St. Martin’s). Her fiction has been nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award, the Agatha, the Bruce Alexander Historical Mystery (Lefty) and the Anthony, and was awarded a Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award (the Macavity). Born and raised in Philadelphia, she lives in the Chicago area now, with her husband and two sons. Check out her website at www.susannacalkins.com.

Services: Manuscript Assessments (includes in-text comments and a detailed editorial letter addressing structure, voice, pacing, thematic cohesion, and revision strategy; line editing not included); Full manuscript reads; Partial reads; Written feedback; One-hour virtual or in-person meetings; Astro-informed submission timing; Tarot-based career consultations; MFA and grant application review; Query letter and pitch development; Outline and synopsis reads; Platform-building and career coaching.
Genres: Full-length poetry manuscripts; Lyric memoir; Creative nonfiction; Personal essays; Hybrid/experimental forms; Interdisciplinary nonfiction; Justice-impacted narratives; Visual-textual literary work; Literary journalism.
Rates: $240/hr
Equity Pricing: A limited number of scaled-rate sessions are available for LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, justice-impacted, and disabled writers. Please inquire directly for availability.

Faylita Hicks is a poet, memoirist, interdisciplinary artist, and spiritual practitioner with more than twenty years of experience supporting writers and creative practitioners. They are the author of HoodWitch—a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, the Julie Suk Award, and the Balcones Poetry Prize—and A Map of My Want, winner of the Midwest Book Award and a finalist for the CHIRBy Award and the Chicago Writers Association 2025 Book of the Year Award. Their memoir, A Body of Wild Light, is forthcoming from Haymarket Books. Hicks’ writing has appeared in The New York Times, Longreads, Poetry, Kenyon Review, American Poetry Review, Hyperallergic, Lit Hub, Texas Observer, and the Academy of American Poets. Their text-based and interdisciplinary artwork has been featured in national group exhibitions with the Ford Foundation, the 5×5 Billboard Project, and the Center for Art and Advocacy, and will be at the center of a solo exhibition—The Digital Archives of the Unseen: Poetry and Portraits from the Age of Censorship and Detention—opening at Chicago’s Walls Turned Sideways in January 2026. A Grammy-nominated and Voting Member of the Recording Academy in the Spoken Word Poetry and Audiobook categories, Hicks serves on the Songwriters & Composers Committee, the Membership Engagement Committee, and the District Advocacy Committee. They are the Board Chair of the Guild Literary Complex, a 2024 Newcity Lit 50 honoree, and a 2024 Best of Chicago Poet nominee. Hicks is the recipient of major national awards and fellowships from the Art for Justice Fund, the Haymarket Writing Freedom Fellowship, the Gwendolyn Brooks Legacy Award, and programs with the Black Mountain Institute, Right of Return, Ragdale, Tin House, Lambda Literary, and others. They teach poetry in the University of Nevada–Reno’s Low-Residency MFA Program.

Services: memoir coaching, developmental editing, full or partial manuscript review with in-person or written feedback, MFA application consulting, line editing, one-on-one personalized writing courses
Genres: memoir, personal essays, literary short fiction, novels, hybrid forms, op-eds, long-form journalism, narrative non-fiction
Rate: $180/hr
Kim Brooks is the author of Small Animals: Parenthood in the Age of Fear, an NPR Best Book of the Year, described by the National Book Review as “an impassioned, smart work of social criticism and a call for support and empathy.” Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Chicago Magazine, Salon, Buzzfeed, and other publications. She has spoken as a guest on CBS This Morning, PBS Newshour, 20/20, NPR’s All Things Considered, Good Morning America, the Brian Lehr Show, and many other radio shows and podcasts. Her novel, The Houseguest, was published in 2016. She lives in Chicago.

Services: One-on-one customized coaching, partial and full manuscript consultation reads, developmental editing, line editing, MFA application consulting, querying, phone or video consultation and coaching calls
Genres: novels and short stories across genres (open to middle-grade, young adult, and adult), personal essay, memoir
Rate: $108/hour for reading, material review, written feedback (inquire about cost of full manuscript reads and editing services)
Denise Santomauro is a writer, editor, author coach, and teaching artist. She has worked with writers across genres and styles of writing, everything from middle-grade grief novels and young adult mysteries to literary historical fiction and sweeping multi-book series to heart-wrenching personal essays and memoirs. As an educator, she has taught fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and playwriting classes, in addition to extensive work as a teaching artist using the performing arts to help young people tell their stories. In her writing, she has contributed content to many blogs, been published in the Dear Sister anthology, developed plays and scenes for young people, written novels for all ages, and performed in live lit around Chicago. She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is an editor with Angelella Editorial. She is a Core Faculty Member in Young Adult/Middle Grade literature for StoryStudio Chicago.

Services: creative coaching, developmental editing, full and partial manuscript reads, written feedback including line editing, one-on-one personalized writing courses, in-person/phone/zoom meetings, outline or synopsis reads, MFA application consulting and portfolio feedback, submission consulting, agent coaching including query letter and synopsis edits, teen writing help
Genres: Open. Including but not limited to novels, short stories, memoirs, personal essays, plays, hybrid works
Rate: $114/hr (inquire about need-based sliding scale)
Sarah Terez Rosenblum is Pushcart Prize nominated. Her work has appeared in literary magazines such as Third Coast, Underground Voices, Carve and The Boiler. She has written for sites including Salon, The Chicago Sun Times, The Satirist, and Pop Matters. She was shortlisted for Zoetrope All Story’s 2016 Short Fiction Contest, receiving an honorable mention. Most recently, Sarah was a runner-up for Prairie Schooner’s annual summer Creative Nonfiction Contest and her work will be forthcoming in their Summer 2020 issue. Sarah holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and teaches creative writing at The University of Chicago Writer’s Studio. Her 2012 novel, Herself When She’s Missing, was called “poetic and heartrending” by Booklist.

Services: full reads, partial reads, written feedback, in-person or virtual meetings, one-on-one coaching, line editing 
Genres: short stories or novels in the following genres: literary, speculative/sci-fi, historical, magical realism/low fantasy; query letters
Rate: $138/hr
Julia Fine is the author of What Should Be Wild, which was shortlisted for the Bram Stoker Superior First Novel Award and the Chicago Review of Books Award. Her second novel, The Upstairs House, is forthcoming from Harper in February 2021. She has taught writing at Columbia College Chicago and DePaul University, as well as with Catapult and StoryStudio Chicago. She lives in Chicago with her husband and children. Check out her website at www.julia-fine.com

Services: Coaching, full manuscript reads, partial manuscript reads, written feedback, line editing, in-person meetings, submission consulting, award/residency application consulting, research, preparing for literary performances/readings
Genres: Short stories, novels, literary fiction, speculative fiction, historic fiction; book reviews, lyric essay, food writing
Rate: $120/hr estimated at an average of 3500-3750 words per hour
Anca L. Szilágyi is the author of the novels Daughters of the Air, which Shelf Awareness called “a striking debut from a writer to watch” and Dreams Under Glass, which Buzzfeed Books called “a novel for our modern times.” Her writing appears in Newsweek, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Orion Magazine, among other publications. She is the recipient of awards and fellowships from Lilith Magazine, Vermont Studio Center, Artist Trust, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, 4Culture, Hugo House and the Jack Straw Cultural Center. Originally from Brooklyn, she has lived in Montreal, Seattle, and now Chicago. Find her at ancawrites.com.

Services: coaching, full manuscript reads of picture books and early readers, and partial reads or full manuscript critiques of middle grade and YA drafts, written feedback, in-person meetings when safe to do so, outlines, synopsis reads, MFA application consulting, editing, and submission consulting
Genres: kidlit (all writing for children through young adult and new adult), query letters, and essays for university or college admissions
Rate: $120/hr
Juliet C. Bond, LCSW is an award winning writer and Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She writes kidlit (from picture books to YA novels and plays.) Juliet’s first book, Sam’s Sister, was published in 2005, and has sold over 50,000 copies. In 2014, Juliet collaborated with Newbery winner, Joyce Sidman, to publish the stage adaptation of, This is Just to Say. The play was produced by Mudlark Children’s Theatre in Evanston, IL. She then completed a playwriting residency at Ragdale, and fully staged a production of her play, Affluenza, in 2018, at Piven Theatre. Juliet’s, Jazzy’s Quest, early-reader series started as a collaboration with co-author and best-selling author, Carrie Goldman. Juliet’s shorter works can be found online in the, SCBWI Prairie Wind, Chicken Soup for the Soul, (Middle Grade and Tough Times,) and The Copperfield Review. Juliet is proud to be a core member of the teaching staff at StoryStudio Chicago and honored by her volunteer awards, including: a 2014, city-wide Volunteer Recognition Award from Northwestern University, the Evanston Community Foundation, and Evanston Township High School; a 2019, distinguished alumni award from the University of Illinois School of Social Work; and a 2019, Daily Points of Light Award. 

Services: Full reads, partial reads, written feedback, in-person or virtual meetings, one-on-one coaching, line editing
Genres: Short story, novel, personal essay, memoir
Rate: $96/hr estimated at an average of 10 manuscript pages per hour. Clients will receive written feedback, plus a 30-minute zoom or in-person meeting to discuss the project at no additional charge.
Steve Trumpeter’s short fiction has appeared in Southern Review, The Chicago Tribune, Salamander, American Fiction, The Chicago Reader, Chicago Quarterly Review and others. He was the co-host of Fictlicious, a popular live lit show in Chicago, and earned his fiction writing degree from Northwestern University. He was a finalist for the Chicago Tribune’s 2019 Nelson Algren award and placed second in the 2019 Zoetrope All-Story Short Fiction competition.

Services: Editing and review at all stages of work, from conceptualization to final polish, online and in person coaching
Genres: Fiction, poetry, non-fiction, theatre 
Rate: $96/hr
Kathryn Kruse is the director of Residency on the Farm, an interdisciplinary artists residency, and holds an MFA from UNLV. She has years of experience in education and excels in creating collaborative, supportive, participant-centered learning spaces that foster growth and confidence. Her work, among other places, has appeared in the pages of Indiana Review, The Manchester Review, Interim, and The Adirondack Review, on the walls of the I Hope You Are Feeling Better Collaborative Art Exhibition, and on the stages of the San Francisco Olympians Festival. Her short story collection, To Receive My Services You Must By Dying and Alone was a Black Lawrence Press finalist and is forthcoming from Jackleg Press.

Services: One-on-one creative coaching; creative coaching over email; MFA, grant, and residency applications; pitching to magazines; submitting to journals; starting and maintaining a Substack or newsletter; development edits; language edits; manuscript consultations. 
Genres: Fiction, personal essays, magazine articles, hybrid works.
Rate(s): $90/hour
Sarah Kokernot is a fiction writer and essayist. Her work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The New York Times, Tricycle, EPOCH, Michigan Quarterly Review, Crazyhorse, Front Porch, West Branch, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, and other publications. She works as a grant writer and nonprofit consultant for StoryStudio and has been a teacher for twenty years. She is currently revising her first novel and working on a memoir-in-essays. You can visit her website at sarahkokernot.com. If you are interested with Sarah, please feel free to reach out to the studio for a free fifteen-minute trial session to see if it’s a good fit.

Services: full manuscript reads, partial manuscript reads, submissions coaching, sensitivity reads, MFA applications; provides thorough feedback letter; optional coaching meeting is extra
Genre: Fiction (all genres), young adult, middle grade, personal essays, op-eds
Rate: $180/hr per meeting
Mathangi Subramanian is an award winning neurodiverse South Asian American writer and educator who uses she/they pronouns. Her books have been longlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Prize and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award, and won the South Asia Book Award. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in The Washington Post, Harper’s Bazaar, Ms.Com, Kirkus, Bomb, The San Francisco Chronicle and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, among other publications. An educator with 20+ years of experience, she holds a doctorate in communication and education from Columbia Teachers College, and is able to provide accommodations for neurodiverse writers, BIPOC, queer, and otherwise marginalized writers.