Fresh-Cut Lit & More
NONFICTION CLINIC
WITH SYDNEY TAMMARINE
& ANDREA CASWELL*
Here is your opportunity for one-on-one editorial feedback on a work-in-progress.
*December 1, 2025 through June 1, 2025
Writer Dinty W. Moore once said that creative nonfiction equals curiosity plus truth. CNF comes in a variety of forms: from expansive memoir to intimate personal essay to the lightbulb “eureka!” of flash. But in any form, nonfiction seeks a deeper understanding of ourselves and our world. It requires a well-told narrative, conflict, careful pacing, and a dynamic mind thinking on the page. Whether you have an essay near completion to submit to journals or programs, or have written a draft and don’t know what to do next, an experienced editor will offer the guidance and encouragement necessary to realize your best work.
Creative nonfiction writer and editor Sydney Tammarine will read your essay (up to 5500 words) and offer constructive written feedback regarding what’s working, what needs attention, and how to improve in key craft areas. Feedback will be returned within 21 days; expedited turnaround is also available. You may add an optional video conference with Sydney to discuss your work further and ask questions about next steps for revision.
Submission Guidelines
– Creative Nonfiction Clinic is open to all nonfiction writers
– 5500 words maximum; one piece per submission
– Please double-space your manuscript and use Times New Roman or a similar font
– You may include specific questions for feedback in the cover letter section when you submit
– Category may close if editor’s capacity is reached; it will reopen the following month
Cost
Sydney Tammarine‘s work has appeared in Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, and other journals, including Notables in Best American Essays 2021 and 2024. She is the translator of Christian Formoso’s Pavilion of the Names (Cuadernos de Casa Bermeja and MAGO Editores). She is Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Davis & Elkins College and teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing program at West Virginia Wesleyan College. She serves as senior creative nonfiction editor for Cleaver.
Andrea Caswell teaches WEEKEND WRITING and SHORT STORY CLINIC. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Tampa Review, The Coachella Review, River Teeth, The Normal School, Columbia Journal, and others. She holds an MFA in fiction and nonfiction from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She’s a senior fiction editor at Cleaver Magazine, and is the founder of Lime Street Writers, a monthly workshop north of Boston. She’s an alum of the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Originally from Los Angeles, Andrea now lives and teaches in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Contact her at www.andreacaswell.com.