FICTION CONSULTATIONS with AMELIE PRUSIK
.jpg)
Amelie Prusik is the author of the novel LIGHT SISTER, DARK SISTER (Random House) and has published short fiction in The North American Review, America West, Bosque, Lantern Journal, and The Copenhagen Review.
Her chapbook, OCTAVIA STREET, excerpted from her novel of the same title, was published in 2017 by WTAW Press.
Her poetry has appeared in Antaeus and Intro 8. A graduate of the Warren Wilson Program For Writers, she teaches at DePaul University in Chicago.
AMELIE PRUSIK will critique novel and novella manuscripts during the month of February (deadline Feb. 28). Space is limited; don't delay!
​
Novel, up to 300 pages in length, $750. SUBMIT HERE.
GUIDELINES
* Submit up to 300 pages of one novel, double-spaced, formatted with a 12-point standard font.
* Please do not exceed the page limits, as your manuscript won’t be read if you do.
* If your novel is less than 300 pages, please do not add other material, as it will be disregarded.
* Include a cover letter in the field that asks for it. Feel free to include goals and concerns about your writing.
* You will receive your critique by thirty days after you submit your manuscript.
​
Novella, up to 100 pages in length, $250. SUBMIT HERE.
GUIDELINES
​
​
Amelie Prusik's Statement of Purpose
“Honest writing forces itself to find words for those parts of our experience that is crouched and silent. On one hand, a good story—or to put it better, the kind of story I like best—narrates an experience—for example, friendship—following specific conventions that render it recognizable and riveting; on the other hand, it sporadically reveals the magma running beneath the pillars of convention.”—Elena Ferrante
I am drawn to the phrase “crouched and silent,” in Ferrante’s description of the writing process because it strikes me as exactly what many writers are searching for when they work. Those parts of experience that are crouched and silent draw us because they are half-known, and often out of reach of our conscious minds. Writers can learn craft techniques—and these are crucial—but that which is crouched and silent in our experience is what I believe readers crave.
When I work with another writer on a manuscript I read for character and voice, as well as elements like point of view, structure, and pacing. I work to help the writer develop their particular strengths in the service of the story or novel. I also look for what may be missing, what has not yet shown up on the page, but what could be vital to the whole.
We focus on two facets: where is the most powerful writing, and is it being manifest clearly enough? When looking at character, I suggest specific ways the writer might go deeper. When looking at plot, I pay attention both to the action plot and the emotional plot, to see how well the dynamic between them shapes the story. When looking at language, I pay particular attention to sound, rhythm, sentence structure, and word choice. Voice comes from these, and from other places.
I want most to reflect back to you my experience of reading your work because the hardest thing to know is how your story has affected a reader. I want you to be amazed, to be struck again by the fire that sparked your piece to begin with, so that when you go back to it in revision, or read it aloud later to an audience, that original spark burns brighter. It is a privilege to be a reader who is allowed to comment, to engage with the writer in the service of making a clearer and more fully realized version of the draft.
​