Fiction Consultations with Gwendolyn Paradice

Gwendolyn Paradice is the author of the short story collection More Enduring for Having Been Broken (Black Lawrence Press, 2021), winner of the 2019 The Hudson Prize, & the co-authored chapbook Carnival Bound (or, please unwrap me) (The Cupboard Pamphlet, 2020). Their work has appeared in Booth, Zone 3, ANMLY, Tin House Online, The Journal of American Folklore,  & others. Gwendolyn is a queer, disabled, enrolled citizen of the  Cherokee Nation, & their prose often explores form and personal  identity. They are currently an Assistant Professor of English and  Philosophy at Murray State University where they direct the Creative  Writing Program.

Gwen is accepting everything from flash fiction to full-length novels. The fees and parameters for each of these categories are as follows:

• Flash fiction, up to 2 pages in length, $25
• Short stories, up to 20 pages in length, $55
• Chapbooks, up to 40 pages in length, $275
• Novellas, up to 100 pages in length, $425
• Short story collections, up to 180 pages in length, $550
• Novels, up to 300 pages in length, $795

Gwen 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 Gwen 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 December 31, 2024. Gwen will complete their work and respond to all participants by January 31, 2025.

-----------------------

Gwendolyn Paradice's Statement of Purpose

I’m a writer and reader who is always looking for stories that feel like they’re doing something new. I get excited by strangeness, experimentation, and work that flirts with showing me its construction, because I am also someone who is fascinated by structure. For me, structure is what makes a story. A short story, novel, or flash piece could have the most original conflict, characters, or command of language I’ve ever seen, but if the structure isn’t benefitting the story—if I can’t come up with a single argument for how structure and story are well-paired—then I have a problem. Even a narrative that’s familiar in its telling can find new life with a new structure. Structure is my map, my anchor, and in some of the short stories and novels I love most, it’s cause for the ways I’m most significantly surprised and moved. 

When working writers on their manuscripts, I like to find out what stage an author is at with their work and use this as a guide for how I initially read and respond. Some writers are working with new rough drafts, other writers feel like their work is almost finished, and still others are trouble-shooting why completed pieces aren’t finding homes with journals or presses. Each of these circumstances can benefit from a specific editorial approach. 

At the same time, I also think from an independent perspective informed by over a decade of work with students, literary journals, and crafting my own prose. I believe that in order to successfully consult on a work, a fellow writer needs an editorial eye, but also insight into craft and execution from a writer’s perspective. I look for craft that’s currently in service to a narrative, I also look for craft that could benefit from revision or re-thinking, and I also explore how craft elements might work together in more effective ways. I like to know what a writer’s current concerns and thoughts are on the craft in their work so that I can also provide feedback in response to specific points a writer would like addressed. 

In my own fiction—both short form and longform—I gravitate to the speculative. Magical realism, weird fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, historical fiction, and revisionist fiction are all sub genres I work in. That said, I read very widely across time, place, and sub-genre. New friends and students are often surprised to hear that one of my favorite novels is Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and that one of my favorite stories is Guy de Maupassant’s “La Maison Tellier,” which was published in 1881. I also like to play with structure (though admittedly, I do this more in my nonfiction than my fiction), and I’m often inspired by unique imagery and rhythms of prose. I also consider myself a place writer—my work informed by the constant reminder that the United States is occupied land, and my writing tends to skew towards thematic conversations about race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and disability. As a queer, disabled, Cherokee-Caucasian writer, identity usually finds its way into story, or if not that, at least the initial brain-storming process. Because I know identity is often a part of process, I especially look forward to having conversations with writers about the lifespan of their work, not just the finished product.