Our Writing Coaches
Rosalind Brackenbury has published ten novels and five collections of poetry. In 2006 she was Creative Writing Fellow at the College of William & Mary. Her short stories have won the Stand International Short Story Contest and the Alternative Chicago Magazine Contest and twice been short-listed for the U.K.’s Bridport Competition. Her new novel, Becoming George Sand, is published in the U.S. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), Canada (Doubleday), Holland (Artemis) and Italy (Piemme). London-born, Rosalind is a graduate of Cambridge University (M.A.) and London University, (Dip. Ed). Find out more at www.RosalindBrackenbury.com. Visit her blog, “In So Many Words.”
Rick Skwiot is the author of three novels: Key West Story, published January 2012 by Antaeus Books; the Hemingway First Novel Award winner Death in Mexico (first published as Flesh), and the Willa Cather Fiction Prize finalist Sleeping With Pancho Villa. He has also published the critically acclaimed childhood memoir Christmas at Long Lake, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico: Memoir of a Sensual Quest for Spiritual Healing. He has taught creative writing at Washington University in St. Louis and served as the 2004 Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. More info at www.RickSkwiot.com.
What others say…
“Roz Brackenbury offered crucial criticism in helping me ready my novel for publication—even after I had written probably 20 drafts of it. Making the characters more flesh-and-blood, refining their motivations, adding a few scenes to better prepare the reader for new plot developments, and cutting some overwritten bits that I couldn’t recognize for being too close to the work—all that figured into it. Bottom line: my publisher liked the revisions and became enthusiastic about the book’s possibilities.”
“I asked Rick Skwiot to read and comment on my novel-in-progress, as I was particularly confused about how the novel began. Rick suggested that the novel really “began” several chapters in. So I tried cutting off the first quarter of the novel. It immediately began to look more lively. But what to do with all the information I wasn’t giving now? As he had suggested, I worked through the rest of the book, feeding it in, in increments, much more unobtrusively. A simple suggestion had transformed the shape of the book and it now was far more streamlined and succinct.”
“Rosalind Brackenbury’s tenure as Writer-in-Residence at the College of William and Mary was especially rewarding for students and colleagues alike. She is a warm and gifted teacher and a remarkable writer of both poetry and fiction—inventive, lyrical, sophisticated, and wise.”
“Rick Skwiot provided invaluable, practical coaching in his editing of my early draft book manuscript. His insightful suggestions covered both concept and composition—all related to making the book interesting to readers.”
“…When teaching Fiction Writing at Washington University, Rick Skwiot was clear and concise, and he connected with students. I learned the basics for structuring a novel and began turning an idea into a book…He is generous with encouragement and advice, but more to the point, his advice is always sound.”