One-on-one coaching for students at every level — online, at your pace
Writing is a skill, not a talent — which means it can be taught, practiced, and genuinely improved. I work with students one-on-one to build the specific abilities they need, whether that’s getting comfortable with essay structure, developing a stronger voice, or learning to approach a blank page without freezing up.
I’ve taught writing at the university level, worked in a university Writing Center providing individual feedback to students at every stage of the writing process, and tutored students from middle school through college. I bring both the patience of an experienced teacher and the perspective of a working writer who has wrestled with the same problems my students face — including, I’ll admit, freezing up on impromptu writing myself, and having to work out the techniques to get past it.
Structure, argumentation, clarity, and voice. Academic essays, analytical writing, and personal essays. All levels from middle school through college.
Finding the specific, honest story that makes an application memorable. Moving past generic toward something genuinely personal and compelling.
Fiction and nonfiction. Voice, structure, point of view, pacing, revision. For students developing a practice or working on a specific project.
Close reading, literary analysis, and essay writing in response to texts. Understanding what a work is doing and how to write about it clearly and insightfully.
Building a reliable process for on-demand writing — identifying what a prompt is asking, structuring a response under pressure, developing ideas without locking up.
Short stories, novel chapters, and longer projects. Craft-focused feedback on structure, character, dialogue, and the sentence-level work that makes fiction come alive.
I hold an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, where I taught undergraduate composition, literature, and creative writing. I have worked in a university Writing Center and tutored students privately at the middle school, high school, and college levels. My own writing has been recognized with fellowships from Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony, a Pushcart Prize nomination, and selection for Best American Essays.
Sessions are conducted online via Zoom or Google Meet, making them available to students anywhere. I work with students at their current level — not where I think they should be — and focus on the specific skills and challenges each student brings to the session.
For ongoing students I typically assign short practice exercises between sessions and provide written feedback on drafts. For one-time sessions focused on a specific piece or problem, we work through the material together in real time.