Editing | Natalia Sylvester

EDITING

Manuscript consultations and developmental edits for novels-in-progress are available on a limited, case-by-case basis.

This process involves a thorough reading of your manuscript for elements such as character development, plot, pacing, conflict, setting, and all other elements of story. Comments and feedback are provided on the manuscript itself, as well as in an editorial letter. All editing services include a 1-hour Skype consultation to discuss your work and any questions you have regarding feedback.

2 OPTIONS AVAILABLE:

First Words: A close read of the first 100 pages of your manuscript with an eye for the promise in your premise. This is great for those starting out in a new work and needing some guidance, or for those looking for a more economical option. Read more & request to book here.

Full MS consult: for more information and to receive a quote for your full manscruipt, please fill out this form.

OTHER EDITORIAL SERVICES

Query letter reviews
6-month, 1-on-1 mentorship
Private workshops for writing groups (via Skype or in-person locally)

For quotes on these and other services, contact Natalia.

ABOUT

Natalia Sylvester is the award-winning author two novels for adults and a forthcoming young adult novel. CHASING THE SUN was named the Best Debut Book of 2014 by Latinidad and EVERYONE KNOWS YOU GO HOME won an International Latino Book Award and the 2018 Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters. Her third novel, RUNNING will be out in July 2020 from Clarion Books/HMH. A fourth, untitled novel is forthcoming in Spring 2022.

Born in Lima, Peru, Natalia came to the U.S. at age four. During her time studying creative writing at the University of Miami, she completed her senior thesis: a series of linked short stories that evolved into a novel that, eight years and countless rewrites later, was published as her debut novel.

Natalia was a mentor in fiction at the low-residency MFA program at Regis University, a revision mentor at Salem College, and is currently a thesis reader for Texas State University's MFA program. She has also taught creative writing through the Writers' League of Texas, Austin Bat Cave, and the Writing Barn.

Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, Bustle, Catapult, Electric Literature, Latina magazine, and McSweeney's Publishing. They have also been anthologized in A MAP IS ONLY ONE STORY (Catapult) and are forthcoming in A MEASURE OF BELONGING: WRITERS OF COLOR ON THE NEW AMERICAN SOUTH (Hub City Press) and AOC: THE FEARLESS RISE AND POWERFUL RESONANCE OF ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (St. Martin's Press). She has poetry forthcoming in Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review.

MISCELLANEA

Greatest writing influences: Cristina Garcia and Eduardo Galeano
Approach to teaching + editing: to empower writers to tell the stories they're meant to tell
Passionate about: amplifying the work of marginalized writers
Fascinated by: the role of truth in fiction and fiction in truth
Constantly questioning: the roles of power and privilege in how we teach creative writing