The Masters Review Summer Workshop returns for its tenth year! Participants will receive personalized feedback on a story or essay of up to 7,000 words, with detailed suggestions for improvement, and resources for submitting—all from an experienced editor. Our asynchronous workshop allows writers to work with editors remotely and is an excellent way to improve their literary craft and prepare a manuscript for submission. Enrollment is open until August 31, 2024.
Registrations open through August 31!
Writers are invited to submit manuscripts of fiction or creative nonfiction of up to 7,000 words. In their cover letters, writers should include a brief introduction to their story, any specific feedback they’re looking for on the manuscript, as well as any specific challenges they’re facing in revision. Writers may indicate their three preferred guest editors, and we will do our best to accommodate. Earlier registrants are more likely to match with one of their preferred editors.
Writers will receive feedback no later than October 30, 2024, in addition to a packet of craft essays from The Masters Review on editing, revision, and submitting for publication.
Participants receive:
- an editorial letter from their editor with specific suggestions and developmental analysis;
- marginal notes that will help elevate their story to the next level;
- suggestions on literary magazines and contests that would be a good fit for their work;
- a PDF of materials including craft essays from The Masters Review, deep dives on archival pieces, and information on submission strategies;
- a free submission to one of our upcoming contests;
- and an archived copy of an anthology from The Masters Review.
Guidelines:
- Submissions must be under 7,000 words.
- All submissions must be double-spaced with one-inch page margins, clearly paginated, and use Times New Roman or Garamond 12.
- All genres and styles of fiction or creative nonfiction are welcome. Please do not submit poetry manuscripts.
- Novel excerpts are accepted but not recommended, as our guest editors are selected for their expertise on short forms. Consider submitting to our Novel Workshop in the spring instead.
- Please submit a single manuscript per submission.
- Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis.
- All participants will receive feedback no later than October 30, 2024.
About the Guest Editors:
Sacha Idell is coeditor and prose editor of The Southern Review. His original stories appear in Ploughshares, Narrative, and Gulf Coast. His translations from the Japanese include stories by Kyūsaku Yumeno and Toshirō Sasaki. Writing he has acquired and edited has been selected for inclusion in the Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories, and Best American Mystery and Suspense anthologies, among others. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Jennifer Maritza McCauley is a writer, poet, professor, and editor. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Kimbilio, CantoMundo, and Sundress Academy for the Arts. A multigenre writer, she is the author of three books (SCAR ON/SCAR OFF, WHEN TRYING TO RETURN HOME, and KINDS OF GRACE). She is presently fiction editor at Pleiades and was previously poetry editor and contest editor at The Missouri Review, a staff member for Gulf Stream Magazine, poetry editor at Origins Literary Journal, and a contributing reviews editor at The Florida Book Review. She teaches in the MFA program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and has taught at the Yale Writer’s Conference, Yale Young Writers’ Workshop, and the University of Houston-Clear Lake, amongst other places. She received her MFA from Florida International University and her PhD from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her work has been called a New York Times Editors’ Choice, Best Short Fiction Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, Most Anticipated by Today, and she has been longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize. She lives and writes in Kansas City, Missouri.
Katie Sticca has been the managing editor of Salamander since 2011. A graduate of Emerson College’s Creative Writing MFA in fiction, she has previously worked with Redivider, Ploughshares, Post Road, and Crazyhorse (now swamp pink). Writers she has worked with at Salamander have had their work republished in Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery and Suspense, The O. Henry Prize Winners anthology, and Best Debut Short Stories, among other collections. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with her family.
Kalpana Negi has a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Edinburgh and an MFA from the University of Memphis. During her time at the University of Memphis, she taught fiction and read for the literary magazine The Pinch. She has attended the Tin House Workshop and Lighthouse Writers Workshop. Her fiction has appeared in TriQuarterly, Five Points, EVENT Poetry and Prose, and the University of Memphis Magazine, among other journals. Kalpana is Senior Editor at The Adroit Journal.
