Creative Nonfiction Consultations with Christopher Locke
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Christopher Locke is the author of 12 books and chapbooks. His latest collection of poetry Music for Ghosts (New York Quarterly Books) and memoir Without Saints (Black Lawrence Press) were both released in 2022. He received the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Award, and grants in writing from Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain), the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize many times. Chris teaches English and creative writing at SUNY Plattsburgh in the Adirondacks.
Chris is accepting everything from flash-length essays to full-length manuscripts. The fees and parameters for each of these categories are as follows:
- Flash Essays, up to 2 pages in length, $25
- Essays, up to 20 pages in length, $55
- Chapbooks, up to 40 pages in length, $275
- Manuscripts, up to 180 pages in length, $550
- Long Manuscripts, up to 300 pages in length, $795
Chris will provide detailed comments on your manuscript as well as a cover letter. After receiving these files, participants who submit chapbooks and full-length manuscripts may also book phone/video conferences with Chris at no additional charge.
All manuscripts should be double spaced and formatted in 12-point font.The deadline to submit work for this consultation program is June 30. Chris will complete his work and respond to all participants by July 31.
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Christopher Locke's Statement of Purpose
We each have a story to tell; that’s the easy part. Yet how do we move beyond the familiar “Write what you know” into “Write what you know has meaning”? For personal writing to resonate, it certainly must be honest, but that does not mean its validity resides solely in autobiographical details; it means our work helps readers experience the small miracle of transformation—we have shifted our lives into theirs. Because even though we want our work to communicate the lived and the universal, our work also must convey surprise and emotional risk that feels more than just engaging: it feels earned.
As nonfiction writers, we should always address questions such as “What does authenticity mean?” But when completing a draft, we should also consider: “What have I revealed by what I’ve chosen to exclude?” This is critical. It is usually when we begin to feel the pull to retreat that we should put our head down and bravely proceed. And it doesn’t mean we crash our winding memories without regard, but that we enter those rooms thoughtfully, with a listening heart.
Careful writing that begs approval and always behaves usually never satisfies, (ourselves or the world). I will help you not only strengthen your own unique voice, but also help you dive deeper in your writing so you’ll look beneath the underneath you already thought you’d discovered. I will read and respond to your work in a safe, supportive atmosphere where risk is championed. Your experience level is not important—only your desire to allow your story to become deeper, richer, and more complex.