Summer Workshop: August 1 – August 31

Registrations for the 2024 Summer Workshop open August 1!

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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.

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 is an Indian-American writer living in the United States. She has a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Edinburgh and an MFA from the University of Memphis, where she received the William and Martha Donigan Scholarship. 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, Lighthouse Writers Workshop’s Writing in Color Retreat, and the Kettle Pond Writers’ Conference where she worked with Rebecca Makkai, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, and Naomi Jackson. She is also a 2022 Asian Women Writers mentee.

Her stories have been shortlisted for fiction contests by The Chattahoochee Review, Third Coast, and Ruminate Magazine. She was also nominated for the AWP Intro Journal Awards and her short fiction has appeared in TriQuarterly, Five Points, EVENT and the University of Memphis Magazine, among other journals. Her work was longlisted for the Wigleaf Top 50 in 2023.

Kalpana is Senior Editor at The Adroit Journal.

“I workshopped two stories with you/The Masters Review last year, and I wanted to let you know that revised versions of those stories helped me earn an acceptance to the University of Arizona, where I’ll be an MFA candidate in fiction this fall. Thank you so much for your feedback and for running such a wonderfully supportive publication and platform for emerging writers. ” –Josh, Summer Workshop

“I found the comments made by Adeena Reitberger regarding my story to be hugely helpful. Once again I am very pleased with your summer workshop.” – Abby, Summer Workshop

“Thank you so much for the feedback letter plus manuscript markups. I couldn’t be more thrilled. I can’t remember ever having an editor look at my work and so clearly understand what I’ve tried to convey on the page. I had the immediate sense that Nate had truly given my story a thorough read, making his compliments feel sincere and suggestions for improvement feel well worth considering from start to finish.” –Royce, Summer Workshop

“Adeena’s comments are both incisive and insightful. It is one of the best critiques I have ever received, and it will serve as my guide when I revise. I agree completely with what she said.” –John, Summer Workshop

“You’ve done it again, everyone! What a brilliant workshop! Thank you so much for the incredible opportunity to work with you and Adeena Reitberger. I can put each of her comments to work immediately (even the compliments I guess I fished for, ha-ha!, as mood boosters), read/re-read the stories/writers she’s recommended, and order samples of the journals she’s recommended as a fit for my story so I can sniff them out—the prospects of which has got me doing a jig in the living room (try not to picture someone more jiggle than jig), and excited about my next editing move with my story (dip or dive?—but not abandon, hallelujah!)… True brilliance!” –Meredith, Summer Workshop

“I wanted to thank you for passing along Lauren’s feedback on my story. I thought her comments were concise and specific, and I appreciated her efforts to excavate what’s at the core of the story I’m trying to tell. I have some work ahead of me, for sure, but that’s a good thing. I agree with Lauren’s assessment of where the piece is falling short, I have a clear path to revision, and I’m overall very grateful for her astute observations and careful attention. Many thanks again!” –Nicole, Summer Workshop

“I would like to thank Michelle Wildgen for her very helpful comments. She made the effort to understand what I was attempting to do with my short story, and pointed out quite clearly where it fell short and how it could be improved. Her feedback was professional, specific, and, to my great appreciation, positive. I am eager to get back to work.” –Gary, Summer Workshop