Poetry Manuscript Coaching

Fully customizable poetry manuscript coaching

As a poet, I know how you pour yourself into your poetry. I've felt the same way. Once you've written a group of poems that will hopefully comprise a full-length published collection, I can organize your poems into a cohesive whole. At the end of my manuscript coaching, my promise is that your poems will be in thematic conversation with each other and reveal deeper layers of meaning that would otherwise be hidden. I can also offer revision suggestions to elevate specific poems within your collection.

I'm excited to guide you through a process of taking your group of poems into a connected polished collection.

About Me

In 2018, a published poet in southern California coached me on organizing one of my own poetry manuscripts. Through this experience, I learned a lot about how to cohesively organize a poetry collection. I applied this teaching into organizing Oakland, I'm Not Dead, The Boy Born with a Pinhole Heart, and The Cosmos is Alive.

From 2016 - 2022, I served as a poetry judge for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. Each year, after I read twenty poetry books, I selected the three books that I believed were the best among the selection. From reading these collections, I continued to learn about what makes a poetry collection effective from start to finish.

Moreover, I've been in many poetry workshop environments. I participated in numerous workshops as an undergraduate student at Baker University and a graduate student at San Francisco State University and Emerson College. Presently, I regularly attend poetry workshops through the Poetry Connected and Poets Wanted Meetup.com groups.

I love understanding how a poem is working on the page, and then articulating specific suggestions in order to elevate the poem to the next level.

Testimonial

“Working with Keith has been a delight. His feedback, thoughtful and considerate, shed light on how my manuscript was working as a whole and suggested various approaches for ordering the work to its best effect. I look forward to working with him again in the future.”
— Dawn B., San Francisco Bay Area

After I guide you through the process of creating a cohesive poetry collection, you can apply this overarching framework of organizational / revisional teachings into your future poetry collections. I'm so excited to help you become more confident with both writing poetry and compiling collections.