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Mentoring Program
Writers at every level can use guidance when it comes to shaping and refining their work. The Creative Nonfiction Mentoring Program pairs you with one of our seasoned, professional editors and writers who will design a program around your writing needs.
Our Mentors can:
- Develop your technique and approach to creative nonfiction composition
- Review your manuscript and offer a detailed evaluation and plan of action
- Help you revise, edit and shape your manuscript from the first page to the last
- Assign and evaluate writing assignments crafted to cultivate your strengths and address your weaknesses
- Recommend options for publishing your polished work
Whether you’re trying to publish, find your voice as a writer or receive specific feedback, let Creative Nonfiction's mentors create a program that’s right for you. (Note: all registration fees include a 4-issue subscription to CNF.)
***Attn: Creative Nonfiction is now offering online courses.***
Creative Nonfiction Mentoring Program Offerings
New Writer’s Review - $275
This mentorship is intended for writers who are new to the art of creative nonfiction. Your mentor will review and critique up to 25 typed, double-spaced pages of your writing. This mentorship is meant to advise you on general writing technique and goals. The session includes written commentary on the pages, a general evaluation and a follow-up phone call or e-mail with your mentor. |
Pre-publication Review - $275
This unit is designed to help writers who have a project that needs final polishing before submission for publication. This single session module will focus on fine-tuning up to 25 double-spaced pages of a single manuscript and offer suggestions for where and how to submit it. The review includes written commentary on the pages and a broad evaluation. This package also includes a follow-phone call or e-mail with the mentor. |
Mini-Mentor Program - $1500
These five sessions are the equivalent of half of an individualized graduate level course. This includes an overview of the genre, directed readings based on your needs, intensive conversations about the readings, specific writing assignments determined by you and your mentor, and focused, graduate workshop-level reviews of what you’ve written. Registration fee also includes a copy of Keep It Real: Everything You Need to Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction. |
Total Mentor Program - $2500
A full-fledged, ten-session individualized course that includes an overview of the genre, directed readings based on your needs, intensive conversations about the readings, specific writing assignments determined by you and your mentor, and focused, graduate workshop-level reviews of what you have written. This course is equivalent to a non-credit M.F.A. course. Registration fee also includes a copy of Keep It Real: Everything You Need to Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction. |
Customized Module - flexible pricing
We allow for alternative mentoring structures and prices based on individual needs. Writers of all levels can use a push in the right direction, and our skilled mentors will build a flexible module around your writing needs.
You may request a mentor, and we will honor that request based on availability and the mentor’s experience in your area of writing. We ask for full tuition payment when you sign up, but flexible payment arrangements can be requested.
Please note: all tuition is non-refundable after you have been assigned a mentor, and course requirements must be completed within one year. |
The Creative Nonfiction Mentors
Creative Nonfiction's mentors teach everything from technique and writing methods to confidence and professionalism. These experienced writers and editors aren't looking for typos. They're looking for promise and potential.
| Mary Jo Cartledgehayes: Freelance writer and author of Grace: A Memoir and To Love Delilah; Founding director of the Mentoring Program. |
| Anita Diggs worked on dozens of acclaimed memoirs as a senior editor for Random House, Time Warner Trade Publishing and Thunder’s Mouth Press. She has lectured across the country on the topics of non-fiction writing, novel writing, book proposal development and how to get a literary agent, and Columbia Journalism Review placed Ms. Diggs on their “The Shapers” list for the year 2000--a list of prominent New Yorkers who shape the national media agenda. |
| John Falk is an award winning freelance magazine writer and editor who has led various workshops and seminars in creative nonfiction. He has written feature stories for Esquire, Vanity Fair, Details Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, GQ, Radar, Outside Magazine, among others. He is also the author of the memoir, Hello to All That (Henry Holt/Picador 2005). He is a scriptwriter and member of the Writer's Guild of America/East, with several of his peices having been adapted into feature films, including the recent movie, The Hunting Party, starring Richard Gere and Terrence Howard. |
| Diana Hume George: Author of The Lonely Other: A Woman Watching America, she writes about gender, race, travel and contemplative practices. Teaches in the Creative Nonfiction MFA program at Goucher College and at the Writer’s Center in Chatauqua. |
| Rebecca Godfrey is the author of two books. Her most recent, Under The Bridge, a blend of literary narrative and investigative journalism, was awarded Canada's largest award for literary non-fiction. Godfrey's articles and essays have appeared in numerous anthologies, newspapers and magazines, and prior to her publications, she was an editor at Alfred A. Knopf Canada and has since worked as a freelance editor on projects published by Random House (U.S.). |
| Judith Kitchen: Author of two creative nonfiction books, editor of the creative nonfiction anthologies In Short and In Brief, poetry reviewer for The Georgia Review. |
| Karen A. Livecchia is a publishing consultant and literary coach. She has worked as managing editor of Cosimo Books and as a developmental editor at Managing Editorial Services in New York and is the recent past president of the New York City Chapter of The Women's National Book Association. She has an A.L.B. in history and government, cum laude, from Harvard University and an M.S. in publishing from New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Education. Karen is currently at work on her first e-books project for a small, independent publisher in NYC. |
| Sam MacDonald has a BA in history and economics from Yale University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Pittsburgh. His memoir, The Urban Hermit, was published by St. Martin’s Press in November 2008. His first book, The Agony of an American Wilderness (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005) explored a growing environmental conflict in northwestern Pennsylvania. A former journalist, his work has appeared in Reason, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pittsburgh City Paper, Western Pennsylvania History Magazine, Preservation and other outlets. He was formerly a Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellow. |
| Kat Meads isthe author of the creative nonfiction collection Born Southern and Restless and teaches in Oklahoma City University’s low-residency MFA program. Her work has received two Notable Essay citations in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Best American Essays series and nonfiction awards from New Letters, Drunken Boat and Lyra Magazine. Her creative nonfiction has also appeared in Agni, Crazyhorse, American Letters and Commentary, The Southern Review, Chautauqua, Crab Orchard Review and other literary journals. |
| Dinty W. Moore: Author of The Accidental Buddhist, Between Panic and Desire and a textbook, The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction, professor of creative writing at Ohio University, and editor of Brevity. |
| Irene Prokop: Freelance writer, editor and publishing consultant. Former Editor-in-Chief of Jeremy P. Tarcher, a division of Penguin/Putnam, and Senior Editor at Crown/Random House and Perigee Books. |
| Lisa Roney: Author of the memoir Sweet Invisible Body, her writing focuses on health, illness, place, home, and cultural commentary. She is on the MFA faculty at the University of Central Florida. |
| Mike Rosenwald: Staff writer at the Washington Post, he is also an accomplished magazine writer whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, Esquire, Smithsonian and Popular Science. He has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award in feature writing. |
| Leslie Rubinkowski: Author of Impersonating Elvis, professor at the University of Pittsburgh and in Goucher College's MFA Program in Creative Nonfiction. Worked for six newspapers over a twenty-year journalism career. Has also taught at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies. Essays have appeared in Harper's, River Teeth and Chautauqua. |
| Sarah Saffian is an author, a journalist, and a teacher. Her memoir, Ithaka, was reviewed by The New York Times, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, Slate, and others, and is over a decade in print. A member of the faculty at NYU's Jounalism Institute, Sarah also teaches memoir each year at the Iowa Summer Writing Festtival. Previously, she has worked as a journalism professor at the New School, the editorial director of She Writes, a senior editor for Entertainment Weekly, a senior writer for Us, and a staff writer for The New York Daily News, and contributes to publications such as The New York Times, Smithsonian, Yoga Journal, The Village Voice, The San Francisco Chronicle, Redbook, and Slate. |
| Rebecca Skloot: Freelance writer and contributing editor at Popular Science, she also writes for the New York Times Magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine, Discover and others. Her first book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, is forthcoming from Crown. Teaches creative nonfiction in the MFA program at the University of Memphis, where she directs the River City Writers Series |
| Kathleen Tarr teaches creative writing at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and works in the Creative Writing & Literary Arts Department as Program Coordinator of the low-residency MFA program. She received her MFA in nonfiction from the University of Pittsburgh. Her work has appeared in The Anchorage Press, America Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, Nidus, Anchorage Daily News, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, and various magazines. |
| Susan Zakin is the author of Coyotes and Town Dogs: Earth First! and the Environmental Movement (Viking), described by The Christian Science Monitor as “brilliant and irreverent….the most thorough and thoughtful survey of the American environmental movement.” Zakin’s work spans the nonfiction genre, including books, literary essays, and political columns. She is a nationally recognized environmental writer, but in recent years her work has focused on globalization and civil society, particularly in Africa. She is at work on a novel. |
Online Courses
 CNF SPRING CLASSES
March 26 - June 3
(registration closes Mar. 19th)
$425 (if registered by 03/05/2012); $475 (after 03/05/2012)
Sign-up with a friend and save an additional $25. To find out how, click here.
Our writing classes offer an opportunity to learn the literary and research techniques of creative nonfiction, and participants receive professional feedback on their work. Class members work with a widespread community of writers to learn new writing strategies and refine their work in a supportive environment. Classes include written lectures, online discussions, suggested readings, and peer review (in addition to instructor review).
Classes include:
Writing the Personal Essay
Advanced Memoir and Personal Essay
Immersion Writing
Foundations of Creative Nonfiction
Writing Medical Narratives
Questions? Check out our FAQ page, or please direct them to Anjali Sachdeva at sachdeva [at] creativenonfiction.org.
Registration includes a 4-issue subscription to Creative Nonfiction.
Please note: due to space limitations, registrants may withdraw anytime until March 23, 2012, but will forfeit a non-refundable application fee of $50. Complete refund policy is available here.
Creative Nonfiction Online Course Offerings
WRITING THE PERSONAL ESSAY
Class starts Mar. 26, 2012
In this class we'll take a close look at the writing and research skills needed to write a memoir or personal essay, and refine them over the course of 10 weeks. We'll discuss how to best use essential literary elements such as detail, dialogue, structure, and description, as well as how to collect information through interviews, research, and other methods. Participants will complete three essays, and will also be given optional shorter exercises that can later be developed into longer works. There will be substantial time spent on revision, that magical process that takes a pleasant anecdote and turns it into a breathtaking essay. Participants will receive personal feedback on their work from the instructor and feedback from other class members via Group Review sessions.
Week 1: The Ground Rules of Memoir (and when to break them)
Week 2: Detail and Description
Week 3: From Caricature to Human Being
Week 4: Revision #1
Week 5: Researching Your Memories
Week 6: Point of View
Week 7: Compression and Expansion
Week 8: Incorporating Information
Week 9: Experimenting with Structure
Week 10: Revision #2
For a full course description or to register, click here.
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ADVANCED MEMOIR & PERSONAL ESSAY
Class starts Mar. 26, 2012
This class is designed for those who have already explored the basics of personal writing and wish to move on to a larger project or more challenging forms. Participants can choose one of two paths, working either on sections of a memoir or on personal essays in a variety of styles. Class members will learn how to structure their chapters or essays, how to incorporate research into personal writing, how to develop character, how to use descriptive language effectively, and more. We will examine personal essays and memoir chapters from published authors to analyze their writing techniques, and discuss ways to use those techniques in our own writing. If participants wish to submit work that does not strictly fit the assignments given they can arrange to do so with the instructor.
Week 1: Planning Your Writing Project
Week 2: Intertwining Narratives
Week 3: Writing with Multiple Storylines
Week 4: Conducting Research
Week 5: Non-Narrative Elements
Week 6: Writing with Research
Week 7: Revision
Week 8: Non-Chronological Structure
Week 9: Writing Out of Order
Week 10: Preparing fro Publication
For a full course description or to register, click here.
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IMMERSION WRITING
Class starts Mar. 26, 2012
In this class students will immerse themselves entirely in the genre of immersion writing, in which the writer observes, participates, interviews, and otherwise intimately explores his or her subject. Over the course of 10 weeks, we will take an in-depth look at the history and craft of this style of nonfiction writing that was revolutionized over four decades ago by trailblazers such as Gay Talese, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe. Students will learn important fly-on-the-wall techniques such as sharp observation, skillful note taking, laidback interviewing, and how to organized and structure immersion stories. Students may choose to write three immersion articles or just one longer piece. Additional course work includes weekly readings, discussion forums, and optional writing exercises. Participants will also receive feedback from both the instructor and other class participants.
Week 1: What is Immersion Writing?
Week 2: Research Techniques/How to be a Fly on the Wall
Week 3: Ethics/Writing the Immersion Essay
Week 4: Interviewing and Beyond: The In-Depth Profile
Week 5: Writing the In-Depth Profile
Week 6: Techniques for Lengthy Immersions
Week 7: Weaving the Facts with Fly-on-the-Wall Techniques
Week 8: Delving Deeper/Advanced Immersion Techiques
Week 9: Revision
Week 10: The Immersion Writing Marketplace
For a full course description or to register, click here.
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FOUNDATIONS OF CREATIVE NONFICTION
Class starts Mar. 26, 2012
This ten-week online class (formerly Basics in a Nutshell) will introduce writers to the fundamentals of creative nonfiction, exploring both the techniques used to gather information and the literary skills needed to turn bare facts into personal and compelling essays. Participants will learn the basics of interviewing, immersion, research, and other reporting skills, will write three different types of essays, and will recieve feedback on their work from the instructor and from each other.
Week 1: What is CNF?
Week 2: Research Techniques for Memoir
Week 3: Writing Memoir/Personal Essays
Week 4: Research Techniques for Interviewing
Week 5: Research Techniques for Immersion
Week 6: Writing the Immersion or Profile Essay
Week 7: Characterization and Ethics
Week 8: Research Techniques for the "Fact-Heavy" Essay
Week 9: Writing the "Fact-Heavy" Essay
Week 10: Revision
For a full course description or to register, click here.
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WRITING MEDICAL NARRATIVES
Class starts Mar. 26, 2012
This twelve-week online class will guide all types of medical professionals (doctors, nurses, researchers, aides, social workers, etc.) through the various skills needed to write and publish narratives--personal stories of their experiences (and those of others in the field). We will cover every step in the writing process, fromm brainstorming to researching to writing to revising, as well as the steps needed to pitch and publish an article or essay. Our instructors--experienced writers of medical narratives and creative nonfiction--will communicate with participants through a combination of written lectures, written feedback, and email. In addition, the class will include 3 live online chats with Manoj Jain and guest lectures.
Week 1: What is Creative Nonfiction?
Week 2: Reading Like a Writer
Week 3: Shaping Your Narrative
Week 4: The People at the Heart of the Narrative
Week 5: Incorporating Research
Week 6: Using Detail Effectively
Week 7: Incorporating a Theme
Week 8: Writing a Pitch
Week 9: Ethical and Legal Concerns
Week 10: Your Writing and Revision Process
Week 11: How to Write in Medicine Without Losing Your Job
Week 12: Publishing and Marketing Your Work
The course will include three (3) live online chats on dates TBA.
For the Spring 2012 class, instructors include:
TBA
For a full course description or to register, click here.
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BRING A FRIEND
Save an additional $25!
Come learn with us--and bring a friend. For our fall classes, Creative Nonfiction is offering a $25 discount for both you and a friend when you sign up together.
To receive the discount, each of you should type the name of your sign-up friend in the "Comments" box at checkout (the two orders do not have to be made at the same time). You will be charged the normal amount for your class at checkout but will each receive a $25 refund before classes begin.
Questions? Check out our FAQ page, or please direct them to Anjali Sachdeav at sachdeva [at] creativenonfiction.org.
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The Creative Nonfiction Online Instructors
Manoj Jain, MD MPH, is an infectious disease physician, a writer, and a national leader in healthcare quality improvement. Dr. Jain writes regularly for the Washington Post and the Commercial Appeal (Memphis newspaper). His writings also appear in the New York Times and the Times of India. He received his engineering, doctorate, and public health degree from Boston University. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank on HIV and has been interviewed by CNN and National Public Radio. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Jain has given over 150 talks and published numerous scientific articles, chapters, and books. |
Leslie Rubinkowski: Author of Impersonating Elvis, professor at the University of Pittsburgh and in Goucher College's MFA Program in Creative Nonfiction. Worked for six newspapers over a twenty-year journalism career. Has also taught at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies. Essays have appeared in Harper's, River Teeth and Chautauqua. |
| Anjali Sachdeva worked forfive years as a journalist in the United States and the Republic of Ireland before earning her MFA from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. She now teaches English and Creative Writing, and is a regular instructor at both the Iowa Summer Writing Festival and the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio. Her recent work has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Sonora Review, and Gulf Coast, and is forthcoming in the Alaska Quarterly Review. |
Stephanie Susnjara has been working as a freelance journalist and nonfiction writer for 10 years. Her essays and reviews have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies including: Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers, Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, Italian Americana, Our Roots are Deep with Passion: Creative Nonfiction Collects Essays From Italian American Writers (Other Press), Women Who Eat: A New Generation of the Glory of Food (Seal Press), etc. She is a content writer for The Dr. Oz Show website, and writes for several Westchester-based newspapers. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College and a certificate in Food Journalism from the French Culinary Institute. |
Make an investment in your writing career!
For more information, please contact the Mentoring Director, Stephen Knezovich, with your specific questions.
Email: information [at] creativenonfiction.org
Telephone: 412-688-0304 |
