Polish Your Writing with a Professional
One-on-One Services
Editing
For writers who have a work-in-progress—whether a short story, a group of poems, a novel, a personal essay, or a memoir—and would like feedback on higher order concerns such as theme, style, structure, and voice. Line-editing may also be included.
Mentoring & Coaching
For writers who are stuck or overwhelmed, who would like to find joy and inspiration in their writing practice, or who want thorough guidance and feedback on their writing with the opportunity to establish an ongoing working relationship with a professional writer.
MFA Guidance
For writers who would like coaching and consultation during the MFA selection and application process. Instructors will offer feedback on the application packet as well as on any personal statements or accompanying critical essays.
Writing Salon@Your Work
This branch of The Writing Salon will come to you wherever you are in the Bay Area. Experienced creative writing teachers offer classes and training sessions to private groups, small businesses, and large companies. Chances are if you have a group of people looking to spark creativity on the page, we can meet your needs.
Review Our Consultants & Services
Editing
- John J. Geoghegan
John J. Geoghegan
John J. Geoghegan has worked as an editor, journalist, author and publisher. He began his career in the editorial department of Doubleday, the largest publisher in the U.S. at the time, where he contributed to the editing and marketing of a variety of books. He is also the author of three, commercially-published, non-fiction books with a fourth under contract. In addition to serving as a Special Correspondent for the New York Times, John’s articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, WIRED, the San Francisco Chronicle, Bloomberg’s BusinessWeek, and Smithsonian’s Air & Space magazine among other publications. While nurturing numerous writers to publication, John has taught freelance writing at Fairfield University. His “real world” experience combined with his frank approach to subjects many authors, agents and publishers are reluctant to discuss, are designed to help aspiring authors navigate the arcane ins-and-outs of the literary industry.
CloseJohn J. Geoghegan's Classes in Session:
- Addie Tsai
Addie Tsai
Addie Tsai (any/all) is a queer nonbinary artist and writer of color. They collaborated with Dominic Walsh Dance Theater on Victor Frankenstein and Camille Claudel, among others. Addie has an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College and a PhD in Dance from Texas Woman’s University. She is the author of the queer Asian young adult novel Dear Twin. Unwieldy Creatures, their adult queer biracial retelling of Frankenstein, is forthcoming from Jaded Ibis Press in August 2022. They are the Fiction Co-Editor and Editor of Features & Reviews at Anomaly, Staff Writer at Spectrum South, and Founding Editor & Editor in Chief at just femme & dandy.
CloseAddie Tsai's Classes in Session:
- Jeff Chon
Jeff Chon
Jeff Chon is the author of the novel Hashtag Good Guy with a Gun, which New York Magazine called “sick and nasty and funny until page 247, which is the last one,” and praised in The New York Times, The Irish Times, The Scotland Herald, and The Times of London. His stories and essays have appeared in The Seneca Review, The North American Review, Barrelhouse, Best Small Fictions 2021, and many others. This Is the Afterlife, his short story collection, will be available in December of 2022.
CloseJeff Chon's Classes in Session:
No Current Classes
- Preeti Vangani
Preeti Vangani
Preeti Vangani is a poet and personal essayist. Born and raised in Mumbai, she is the author of Mother Tongue Apologize (RLFPA Editions), her first book of poems (selected as the winner of RL India Poetry Prize.) Her work has been published in BOAAT, Gulf Coast, Threepenny Review, among other journals. She is the Assistant Poetry Editor for Glass Journal, a Poet Mentor at Youth Speaks, and holds an MFA (Writing) from University of San Francisco.
ClosePreeti Vangani's Classes in Session:
No Current Classes
- Shelby Hinte
Shelby Hinte
Shelby Hinte has led and supported writing workshops at San Francisco State University and in the community, including teaching creative writing to incarcerated adults and youth on juvenile probation. She is the Associate Editor of Write or Die Magazine where she edits essays and interviews. She has served as a reader and intern at various independent presses including ZYZZYVA, Split/Lip Press, and No Contact. Her work has been featured in BOMB, ZYZZYVA, SmokeLong Quarterly, Hobart, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.
CloseShelby Hinte's Classes in Session:
- Kilby Blades
Kilby Blades
Kilby Blades is a USA Today Bestselling author of Romance and Women’s Fiction. Her debut novel, Snapdragon, was a HOLT Medallion finalist, a Publisher’s Weekly BookLife Prize Semi-Finalist, and an IPPY Award medalist. Kilby was honored with an RSJ Emma Award for Best Debut Author in 2018, and has been lauded by critics for “easing feminism and equality into her novels” (IndieReader) and “writing characters who complement each other like a fine wine does a good meal” (Publisher’s Weekly). Kilby is a feminist, an oenophile, a cinephile, a social-justice fighter, and above all else, a glutton for a good story.
CloseKilby Blades's Classes in Session:
No Current Classes
- Thea Matthews
Thea Matthews
Thea Matthews is a poet, author, and educator originally from San Francisco, California. She holds an MFA in poetry from New York University; and her work has appeared in Southern Indiana Review, Interim, Aster(ix) Journal, Tahoma Literary Review, The New Republic, and others. Her first book Unearth [The Flowers] (Red Light Lit Press, 2020) was listed as part of Kirkus Reviews’s Best Indie Poetry of 2020. She lives in Brooklyn.
CloseThea Matthews's Classes in Session:
- Alan Chazaro
Alan Chazaro
Alan Chazaro is the author of This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album (Black Lawrence Press, 2019) and Piñata Theory (Black Lawrence Press, 2020). He is a graduate of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley and a former Lawrence Ferlinghetti Fellow at the University of San Francisco. He is currently a creative writing adjunct professor in the Bay Area, and the co-founding editor at HeadFake. Find him on Twitter @alan_chazaro.
CloseAlan Chazaro's Classes in Session:
No Current Classes
- Maw Shein Win
Maw Shein Win
Maw Shein Win’s poetry chapbooks are Ruins of a glittering palace (SPA/Commonwealth Projects) and Score and Bone (Nomadic Press). Invisible Gifts: Poems was published by Manic D Press in 2018. Win is the first poet laureate of El Cerrito, California (2016 – 2018). Her full-length poetry collection, Storage Unit for the Spirit House (Omnidawn), was long listed for the PEN America Open Book Award, nominated for a Northern California Book Award for Poetry, and short listed for the California Independent Booksellers Alliance’s Golden Poppy Award for Poetry for 2021. She often collaborates with visual artists, musicians, and other writers and was a Spring 2021 ARC Poetry Fellow at UC Berkeley.
CloseMaw Shein Win's Classes in Session:
No Current Classes
- Jessica Litwak
Jessica Litwak
Jessica Litwak, Ph.D, is an award-winning playwright and actor. She has written over 40 plays which have been produced throughout the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. Her work is published by No Passport Press, Smith & Krause, Applause Books and The New York Times. She is a Drama Therapist, puppet builder and recognized leader in the field of socially engaged theatre, Artistic Director of The H.E.A.T. Collective, core member of Theatre Without Borders, and a Fulbright Scholar. She has taught acting and playwriting at SF State, LA City College, Naropa, Whitman College, Columbia University, and NYU.
CloseJessica Litwak's Classes in Session:
Catalina Baker, Incoming Student at the University of Montana’s MFA Program
Received MFA guidance from Cary Groner
Felicia Gustin
Received Coaching from Alison Luterman
Robin Silverman, Author of Lemon Reef
Received Mentoring from Karen Bjorneby