Author to Author: Mentorship and Editorial Program

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Author to Author: Mentorship and Editorial Program

w/ Kaaron Warren, Lauren Aimee Curtis, and others

Project plan your manuscript with one-on-one consultations with a leading writer.

You will be paired with a leading author for a series of fortnightly one-on-one consultation sessions to discuss your work, and help you negotiate the roadblocks and challenges you might be facing.

Flexible dates

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Choose the length of program to suit your needs.

5 x fortnightly meetings (10 weeks): $1900 full price / $1615 alumni
Includes 2 rounds of edits on a piece up to 3000 words

10 x fortnightly meetings (20 weeks): $3230 full price / $2745.50 alumni
Includes 2 rounds of edits on a piece up to 6000 words

Apply Now

This is an opportunity to forge ahead with your work in progress. You will be paired with a leading author for a series of fortnightly one-on-one consultation sessions to discuss your work, and help you negotiate the roadblocks and challenges you might be facing. The sessions provide a forum to keep you accountable for producing work to regular deadlines. Consider the author we connect you with as a partner to provide guidance and important feedback.

The writer will review a sample of your work and help you build a project plan, discuss your work in progress and provide rolling feedback as each fortnight you submit a new piece of writing. Meetings will be held face-to-face via video conferencing.

This specialist service will also include a professional copy edit of your work in progress from an experienced editor. You will receive two rounds of edits on a piece of 3000 words, getting it in shape ahead of potential submissions.

This program is designed for a writer looking to develop the start of their manuscript, strengthen a single chapter or to work on a standalone longform work.

This opportunity would be ideal for a writer of literary fiction or literary nonfiction.

Writers you'll be working with:

Ceridwen Dovey

Ceridwen Dovey is a writer based in Sydney. She’s the author of several acclaimed works of fiction (Blood Kin, Only the Animals, In the Garden of the Fugitives, Life After Truth, Mothertongues, and the Audible bestseller Once More With Feeling) and non-fiction (On J.M. Coetzee: Writers on Writers and Inner Worlds Outer Spaces). Her non-fiction essays have been published by newyorker.com, the Smithsonian Magazine,…

Harrison Christian

Harrison Christian is a writer from Auckland, New Zealand. He is the author of two acclaimed nonfiction books, Men Without Country (2021), a bestseller in New Zealand, and Should We Fall to Ruin (2022). His third book, Terra Nova, is forthcoming from Ultimo Press in 2024. His nonfiction focuses on the history of the Pacific….

Lauren Aimee Curtis

Lauren Aimee Curtis is the author of the novels Dolores and Strangers at the Port. In 2023, she was named on Granta’s once-in-a-decade Best of the Young British Novelists list. Her writing has appeared in The White Review, Catapult, Sydney Review of Books, Best Summer Stories, and New Australian Fiction 2021, among other publications. Her…

Dr Sophia Barnes

Dr Sophia Barnes is a writer and professional editor with over a decade of experience working with authors of fiction and memoir, including many who have been commercially published. She has been a member of the Lifestories editing team since 2013, providing manuscript assessment and development support, structural and copyediting services and mentoring. She has…

Kaaron Warren

Shirley Jackson award-winner Kaaron Warren published her first short story in 1993 and has had fiction in print every year since. She was recently given the Peter McNamara Lifetime Achievement Award and was Guest of Honour at World Fantasy 2018, Stokercon 2019 and Geysercon 2019. She has also been Guest of Honour at Conflux in…

J.S. Breukelaar

J.S. Breukelaar is an Australian-American author living in Sydney. She is the author of three novels, most recently The Bridge, and two collections of short stories, in addition to essays, poems and fiction appearing in numerous publications and several Years Bests. Her work has won or been a finalist for multiple national and international awards,…

Lloyd Jones

Lloyd Jones is a writer based in New Zealand and Melbourne. His work has been translated into many languages. He has written across all genres – novels, short stories, memoir, and poetry, and nonfiction. His novels include The Book of Fame, Mister Pip, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and was shortlisted for The Booker…

Course outline

When applying choose the mentor that suits your needs.

Please research the work of the writer you are applying for to find the best fit.

Choose the length of program to suit your needs.

5 x fortnightly meetings (10 weeks): $1900 full price / $1615 alumni
Includes 2 rounds of edits on a piece up to 3000 words

10 x fortnightly meetings (20 weeks): $3230 full price / $2745.50 alumni
Includes 2 rounds of edits on a piece up to 6000 words

Praise for this course

‘Ceridwen is an incredible mentor. I’m greatly enjoying my time with her, and the work is really coming along under her support, insight and guidance.’

‘The Author to Author program was exactly what I needed. Having a full draft I found I’d gone blind to why my plot was “off”. The mentor untangled the knot I’d got myself in so I could move on – thrilled.’

‘I found it inspiring, motivating and validating, and for one of the first times, felt as if my writing project might actually be worthwhile.’

How to Apply

Please submit a 1500-word writing sample from your work in progress, a brief synopsis of the project and a short biography for the mentor to assess before committing to the sessions.

Use this link to make your submission.

Payment details:

Successful applicants will be asked to pay a deposit to commence the program. The balance of the fee, will be payable in two further instalments. In the week leading up to these dates you will be sent a payment link. Refunds are not available to those who miss sessions or drop out.

For the 5 x fortnightly meeting (10 week) program the deposit upon acceptance is $ 900/ $ 765 alumni. Two further payments of $ 500/$ 425 alumni will be due at week 4 and week 8 of your program.

For the 10 x fortnightly meeting (20 week) program the deposit upon acceptance is $ 1230/ $ 1045.50 alumni. Two further payments of $ 1000/ $ 850 alumni will be due at week 8 and week 16 of your program.