Prose Manuscript Consultation with Ru Freeman
Prose Manuscript Consultation with Ru Freeman
Short stories, Personal Essays, Memoir
Me; I have taught for decades in the US (across the country and at a range of institutions including Columbia University and CCNY) and abroad, published collections of stories, essays, and novels, and produced anthologies of seminal work on issues of social justice including Palestine and world activism. I have also published poetry and work as a freelance journalist, and served as a judge for prestigious awards including the PEN Hemingway Prize. I meet writers where they are, with regard for who they are as people, what has moved them to write, and with a view to helping them go further. I help writers to lean into the emotional truths that underlie their writing, to draw on their strengths, and to develop under-utilized aspects of their repertoire. As a veteran in the literary world, I have an extensive network of contacts across the media and publishing industries. I routinely connect my students to industry professionals when I feel their projects are ready.
You: Are not mainstream in your outlook. Your vision is wide, and you are moved to write a work that has deep resonance for your community, your environment, your country, your world. Your work could be intimate and personal or complex and global or all these things. I like to work with writers who have a complete project in hand. Please provide a work sample of up to 10 pages for review to evaluate fit.
For full-length manuscripts (novels, short-story collections and memoirs), the rate is $4,000, which includes the following:
Line-edits
Feedback letter of 5-10 pages, addressing elements of prose writing including beginnings/endings, voice, character development, plot/structure, narrative distance, authenticity, language, point of view, setting, and scene.
2 hour long conversations during and after the review
For shorter work, my starting hourly rate is $150, which includes a feedback letter between 2-3 pages.
Having served as a juror for some of the most competitive conferences and residencies in the United States, I am happy to review personal statements and writing samples and provide guidance with applications. The fee for coaching at this level is $150/hour.
Ru Freeman is a Sri Lankan and American writer, poet, and activist whose work appears internationally in English and in translation. She is the author of the short-story collection, Sleeping Alone (2022), and the forthcoming essay collection, Bon Courage (2023) and the novels A Disobedient Girl (2009) and On Sal Mal Lane (2013), a New York Times Editor's Choice Book. She is the editor of the anthology, Extraordinary Rendition: American Writers on Palestine (2015) and co-editor of Indivisible: Global Leaders on Shared Security (2018). She writes for the UK Guardian, the New York Times, and the Boston Globe. She is a winner of the Mariella Gable Award for Fiction, and the JH Kafka Prize for Fiction by an American Woman. She teaches creative writing in the US and abroad.
