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Author to Author: Mentorship and Editorial Program

w/ Ceridwen Dovey, Mireille Juchau, Harrison Christian or Lauren Aimee Curtis

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

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


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 at Allen & Unwin. 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,…

Mireille Juchau

Mireille Juchau is a novelist, essayist and Walkley Award winning critic. Her third novel, The World Without Us, was published internationally with Bloomsbury and won the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. Her essays and reviews are published in newyorker.com, LA Review of Books, Bomb Magazine, LitHub, The Monthly, Best Australian Essays and more. Mireille has a PhD in literature and has…

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…

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.