Since 1995, the Hub City Writers Project has been dedicated to nurturing writers in all stages of the writing process through workshops, contests, book publications, and gatherings in order to build a community of writers across Upstate South Carolina. Hub City continues this mission with the launch of the new Open Door Critique Program.
The Open Door Critique Program matches emerging writers with experienced authors to help achieve their writing goals for a manuscript. It is ideal for writers who have a complete manuscript and would benefit from an experienced author’s close reading and critique of the work. Critiques are available in mainstream and literary fiction, creative nonfiction/memoir, young adult literature, and poetry.
“We’re always looking for new ways to serve the Upstate writing community,” said assistant director Kari Jackson. “A lot of writers have told us their number one need is a trusted way to get a manuscript critiqued, so we called on respected writers and editors in the area to step in and help us establish this new program.”
After some initial information and a sample of the manuscript, Hub City will match a writer with a critiquer. Within two months, writers will receive their manuscript with line-editing, marginal notes, and copy-editing throughout, as well as a detailed critique letter with overall comments and specific suggestions for revision. They then will meet with the critiquer face-to-face for at least one hour. Open Door writers will be invited to quarterly public readings at the Hub City Bookshop to share their progress on the manuscript.
The cost to submit a manuscript is $3 per text page plus $50 per hour meeting.
Open Door critiquers are published novelists, journalists, poets, essayists, short story writers, and editors who are excited about helping emerging writers achieve their writing goals. They include Beth Beasley, G.M. Frazier, Mindy Friddle, Luke Hankins, Lyn Riddle, Alan Rossi, Jan Scalisi, and Patrick Whitfill.
The program’s name derives from a quote by Stephen King in his memoir “On Writing”: “Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.”
“Writing is hard, and revising is hard,” Jackson said. “Many times you have to reach out toward the end of the writing process to get a different perspective on your work. We thought King’s advice was quite appropriate for the spirit of the program.”
For more information, visit the program page.
(Image provided by Hub City Writers Project.)
Looking for more happenings in the area? Check out spartanburg.com’s comprehensive visitor center.