Hurston/Wright 2024 Individual Coaching Sessions

January 2024-December 2024

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The Hurston/Wright Foundation’s mission is to honor, discover and mentor Black writers. We do that by providing services, supports and opportunities that provide community and recognize accomplishments. Our community resources include in-person workshops and classes that have been our signature offering for almost 30 years. Workshops and courses are taught by award-winning authors and serve emerging and midcareer adult writers. More than a thousand Black writers have taken our classes since the first one in 1996, increasing diversity in the cultural community as they have gone on to create books and careers as professors, local cultural workers, and national thought leaders. We look forward to receiving your application. 

For inquiries regarding the application, email us at programs@hurstonwright.org. 

About the coach

B. Sharise Moore is an award-winning author, curriculum developer, workshop facilitator, Poetry Editor for FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, and the 2023 Writer in Residence for The Hurston Wright Foundation. In 2021, she released her YA magical realism novel, Dr. Marvellus Djinn’s Odd Scholars and in 2022, she curated and edited Conjuring Worlds: An Afrofuturist Textbook for Middle and High School Students. 

Moore’s forthcoming books include Fangs, Feathers, and Folklore, a middle grade field guide of African mythological creatures from Hachette Book Group/Algonquin Young Readers (2025), Fatimah’s Fantastic City, and Golden: a Story of Yaa Asantewaa from HarperCollins (2025, 2026). She lives in Baltimore, MD with her husband and their two children. B. Sharise is represented by Laurie McLean, partner agent at Fuse Literary. 

Coaching description:

A significant portion of the writing process involves shaping a manuscript into a polished piece worthy of presenting to the literary market. As with any product that requires refinement, expert feedback is used as a tool to hone, mold, and produce a quality product. Similarly, coaching sessions with B. Sharise Moore will provide you with an expert review of your children’s, YA, or adult fiction manuscripts in the following stages of your process:

• Editing, development, and revision 
• Composing a query letter
• Outlining publishing expectations
• Finding an agent
• Deciding to self-publish vs. traditionally publish your manuscript

Process

To schedule coaching, participants must have a completed manuscript or 750 words for a children’s book. 

• Submit 750 words of your manuscript to submittable. 
• B. Sharise will review the first 20 pages of your manuscript. 
• An email with a link to schedule will be emailed to you, as well as a needs assessment. The assessment will be used to design a session that is tailored to your writerly needs. 
• The scheduled time will be at the convenience of writer and coach.

Cost 

$250 per hour

Submission Format:

• 20 pages maximum, using Times New Roman, 12-point type, double-spaced with 1-inch margins.
• Provide a title page with the author’s name and contact information.
• Include a cover letter with information about your writing life and citations of any published work.

Cancellation Policy: Please note that is service is non-refundable. If you must cancel after paying the coaching fee and scheduling, you must provide 48-hour notice to reschedule.  In addition, Hurston/Wright reserves the right to cancel a session based on submission details and policies. Submitters will be notified immediately to reschedule.