"There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you."  – Zora Neale Hurston

Are you burning with a story you must tell, but don’t know how or where to begin?

Are you stuck in the middle of a book project—halfway through the manuscript, or four drafts in, but something’s still not working—and you need someone to help you find the path to completion? Has your MFA thesis been approved to meet your program’s academic requirements, but now it’s time to revise and refine it into the book you’d imagined it could be? Is this the year you’ve vowed to finally finish, or start, or restart your novel or memoir?

Despite the ubiquity of creative writing programs and the fact that most of them expect MFA candidates to produce a publishable manuscript in two to three years, few of those programs recognize that making art is not an endeavor that conforms to academic calendars; even fewer are designed to support writers as they continue to work on long-form narratives. Writers have been toiling away in solitude since the beginnings of literacy, but does that mean we cannot find ways to make it easier and less solitary?

Birds & Muses mentorship offers sustained, bespoke mentorship to writers of literary fiction, creative nonfiction, and mixed genre works who are committed to their projects, whether they are in the beginning stages of turning an idea into a book or far along in the process of completing a multiply-drafted manuscript. 

A mentor is more than an editor or a teacher: a mentor identifies, supports, and shows you how to enhance your writing process & practice as much as she helps to guide and refine the actual product of your effort. A mentor understands and shares your vision and believes in your potential to fulfill it. A mentor offers expertise and honesty, and invests, with your open invitation, in your writing and in you as a writer beyond the fulfillment of a single project or program or class.

Think of a mentor as more like a personal trainer or private athletic coach: you may have an immediate goal you’re reaching for, but your mentor (trainer, coach) understands your long-term goal and how today’s goal fits into tomorrow’s plan. As your mentor, Kate will keep you accountable to your project while nurturing your broader growth as a writer. Like a midwives, she will encourage you, anticipate the next stage of your labor, and give you periodic updates on your progress—and she will also tell you when it’s time to push through the pain.

Together you and your mentor will create a strategic plan for completing your writing project. Kate will promptly read & respond to your work during intentionally long and thorough (both panoramic and finely focused in scope) one-on-one conferences on Zoom or phone, with supplemental audio recordings and transcriptions as well as manuscript annotations. She will direct you toward readings, writers, writing exercises, and other practices chosen for your interests and challenges. And she welcomes ongoing contact beyond conferences throughout the term of mentorship, whether for advice, feedback, questions, or literary chat.

Mentorship is available for a minimum six-month commitment, repeatable in increments. How you proceed during those six months will be personalized to your goals and availability. The status of your project and your desired level of interaction—as intensive as a weekly, personalized MFA-level tutorial, as streamlined as a once-a-month 3-hour conference, or anything between—will dictate the fee (sample fee schedule available by request).

A second option for those interested in individual mentorship and also desire the energy of a group to stay motivated is the year-long Bookgardan program, launched in 2018 and now in its fourth year. Bookgardan is both an individual mentorship and a selective, master-class level course in developing a book-length literary narrative with the support and camaraderie of an intimate cohort of up to 6 writers. Running October to October, the Bookgardan year begins and ends with an intensive week at Craigardan, an interdisciplinary artists’ residency program in the majestic Adirondacks in upstate New York. In addition to the two weeks in group residency (the first to prepare for the year of writing ahead, the second focused on the unique desires of the cohort) and 11 monthly, one-on-one manuscript conferences and weekly group meetings, Bookgardan includes a monthly craft topic and group reading, visiting guest writers and publishing professionals, and invitations to literary events. A culminating full manuscript review is included as part of the program, and Bookgardan writers who work with Kate through the completion of their manuscripts are eligible to have their work submitted to Birds & Muses’ partnering agents.

Note: The 2021-22 Bookgardan has been modified to allow for hybrid or all-virtual attendance, based on recommendations from the CDC. Details regarding the 2022-23 Bookgardan program will be posted in March 2022.

Want more information? Tell us about yourself, your project, and what you’re looking for in a mentorship here. More information about the Bookgardan program can be found here.