Prose Manuscript Consultation with Jonathan Escoffery
Prose Manuscript Consultation with Jonathan Escoffery
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.
Jonathan Escoffery is the author of the critically acclaimed debut story collection If I Survive You (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), a finalist for the 2023 Booker Prize, a September 2022 IndieNext Pick, also named a Best Book of September by Amazon and Apple Books. His next book is the forthcoming novel, Play Stone Kill Bird. Both books will be published in the UK and Commonwealth by 4th Estate Books, in Canada by McClelland and Stewart, and will be published in translation in France by Albin Michel and in Germany by Piper Verlag.
Escoffery is the winner of The Paris Review’s 2020 Plimpton Prize for Fiction and is the recipient of a 2020 National Endowment for the Arts (Prose) Literature Fellowship. His story “Under the Ackee Tree” was among the trio that won the Paris Review the 2020 ASME Award for Fiction from the American Society of Magazine Editors, and was subsequently included in The Best American Magazine Writing 2020. His most recent stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, Zyzzyva and American Short Fiction.
Escoffery has taught creative writing and seminars on the writer’s life at Stanford University, the University of Minnesota, the Center for Fiction, Tin House, Writers in Progress, and at GrubStreet in Boston, where, as former staff, he founded the Boston Writers of Color Group, which currently has more than 2,000 members. He has received support and honors from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, Aspen Words, Kimbilio Fiction, the Anderson Center, and elsewhere.
