FICTION CONSULTATIONS with JENNY WU
Jenny Wu is the author of NoNo, a WTAW Features Limited Edition Chapbook (2017), excerpted from her novel of the same title.
She teaches fiction writing at Washington University in St. Louis.
She is also the 2018-2019 WashU Senior Fiction Fellow and was the 2016 Humanities Honors Fellow at the Bill & Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry.
Her stories can be found in The Collagist, wildness, Hobart, and others. Read an interview with her online here.
JENNY WU will critique fiction chapbook, novel, and novella manuscripts during the month of February (deadline Feb. 28). Space is limited; don't delay!
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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.
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Novella, up to 100 pages in length, $250. SUBMIT HERE.
GUIDELINES
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Fiction Chapbook, up to 40 pages in length, $150. SUBMIT HERE.
GUIDELINES
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Jenny Wu's Statement of Purpose
What is the shape of your mind? Is it a tent with many tent poles? Is it a set of Russian nesting dolls? Is it a mountain, or is it a mosaic? As a reader and as a fiction writing teacher, I am interested in the mind at work behind the words, and how that mind shines through—or could shine through—the pragmatic storefront of words.
I want to help you find the form that best reflects the landscape of your mind. To do so, I’ll look at craft elements, such as the shapes of your characters—round? flat?—the shape of your plot—linear? modular?—and the various tropes and genre constraints that you are working with as you construct your unique vision.
Part of my role as helper involves pointing you toward other works that will feed your writing. I believe that when you put a magnifying glass to the sentences and plots of authors you admire, you are actually standing on the shoulders of giants. In other words, writing is a communal act—only by noting the landscapes of other minds can you begin to see the shape of your own in context. To quote my favorite craft book, Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, “Your ability to love another’s writing means those capabilities are awakened in you.”
In helping you navigate your inner landscape alongside a broader literary landscape, I promise to treat your manuscript with care, which means (1) Trusting your authorial voice: reading closely for details, nuances, and codes that will guide both of us into the kernel of your story; and (2) Never settling for so-so: I understand that no novel is ever “finished” and that you must write several drafts, pull back several veneers, before you find the story you’re trying to tell.