Bill Roorbach



Private Study with Bill Roorbach
In response to your queries: Yes, I do take on clients for private study and editorial consultation. E-mail me at bill@billroorbach.com for more information.

"I would never have written word one without Bill Roorbach. It's as simple as that." --Abigail Thomas, author of AN ACTUAL LIFE, GETTING OVER TOM, and HERB'S PAJAMAS.

"Bill Roorbach is the smartest, gentlest, most helpful editor and teacher I've ever had." --Greg Martin Makepeace

Writing a memoir or personal essay? Here's a good place to start.

Editing, Consultation, and Private Study

Now that I'm out of the university, I do a certain amount of consultation, editing, and private study. My clients tend to be good writers who've hit a snags in their careers: first book's been published, second book blues. Or, MFA in hand, and nothing's happening: why not? Or, your agent seems to have given up selling your new book. Or, you've gotten a disappointing reading from your agent or editor, and want a second opinion. Or, you've got a good book manuscript written, but no one's biting. Or, you've got all these stories (or essays) and can't seem to fit them all into a saleable (or prize-winning) book. Or, you're applying to MFA programs or residencies or grants, and want a sharp look at your application. Or,you're looking for the cure for writer's block. Or, you've decided to self-publish and know you need a real editor. I give a complete, close, heartfelt reading, offer content and line edits, structural analysis, written commentary, phone consultation, blunt advice, all on a fee basis, short work or long (including collections). I can also design a private correspondence course tailored to the needs and experience of newer writers. For all consultation, note that I'm selective, taking on only about one in ten requests, and only when the fit seems good, and I genuinely think I have something to offer. Also, I want to keep my turnaround time at about thirty days. Email me at bill@billroorbach.com for more information.



Books by Bill Roorbach
[scroll down for quick links]

Coming July 26 from Dial Press!
Temple Stream
A quest for the headwaters of a small stream in Maine becomes an obsession bound up in a celebration of life. --Kirkus Reviews
Essays
A Place on Water (with Robert Kimber and Wesley McNair)
Tilbury House: May, 2004. Three essays, three writers, one jewel of a Maine pond.
Into Woods
University of Notre Dame Press, 2002
Fiction
The Smallest Color: A Novel
Counterpoint Press, 2001 (paperback 2003)
Big Bend: Short Stories
(Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Prize for Short Fiction)University of Georgia Press, 2001, paperback: Counterpoint Press, 2003
Memoir/Nature Writing
Summers With Juliet
Houghton Mifflin, 1992. Paperback: Ohio State University Press, 2000.
Teacherly Tomes



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