Strengthen your craft and deepen your writing with our Online Writing Critique service. Get supportive, insightful feedback without leaving the comfort of your home.
The critique service format is convenient, the feedback is thorough and each time I learn a new trick I can use to improve future writing. The last poem I had critiqued was published within two weeks and then nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Thanks for setting up a great service!
~ John, Bridgeton, NJ
ABOUT
We offer Online Writing Critique services to assist you with your revision process by providing you with a new perspective on your writing.
How it works:
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Prepare your poetry or prose submission. See guidelines below.
- Register online to secure your spot.
- Once we receive your registration, we will begin contacting our faculty to match you with a Reader. You can typically expect to hear from the faculty we have matched you with within 7-10 days after you register.
- Most critiques will be completed within a month—possibly longer or shorter depending on faculty availability and the length of your work.
Critiques for all projects will include constructive written feedback that will motivate you to begin your next draft.
Submission Guidelines
Poetry
- Format: Single-spaced, 12-point font, one poem per page in a single Word document (.doc or .docx). If a poem goes a little onto the next page, that’s okay.
- If you choose to include a brief one-paragraph description of your goals, place it on the first page of your Word document.
- We are unable to accept snail mail submissions.
Prose (fiction and nonfiction, including memoir, essays, op-eds, etc.)
- Format: Double-spaced, 12-point font Word document (.doc or .docx).
- If you choose to include a brief one-paragraph description of your goals, place it on the first page of your Word document.
- Excerpts of longer pieces and multiple smaller pieces are acceptable. If you are submitting more than one piece, make sure each piece has a title and begins on a new page.
- We are unable to accept snail mail submissions.
Faculty readers
After you register, we will pair your work with one of our faculty listed below, according to availability and the individual needs of your project. You will be able to select preferences upon registration. Look below a Reader’s bio to see if they are available to critique longer projects.
These readers will change periodically. Email us if there is someone you would like to work with who is not listed.
Poetry Readers
Luray Gross is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Lift from Ragged Sky Press. A storyteller as well as a writer, she works extensively throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania as an Artist in Residence. She was the recipient of a Fellowship in Poetry from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and named one of their Distinguished Teaching Artists. She was the 2002 Poet Laureate of Bucks County and resident faculty at the 2006 Frost Place Festival and Conference on Poetry in Franconia, NH. Her poem, “The Perfection of Zero,” was featured by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book’s Public Poetry Project in 2008. Read some of her poems from The Perfection of Zeros and read another one of her poems here.
*Luray is available to read standalone poems.*
Lois Marie Harrod’s 18th poetry collection Spat was published in May 2021. Previous collections include Woman (2020), Nightmares of the Minor Poet (2016), And She Took the Heart (2016), Fragments from the Biography of Nemesis (2013) and How Marlene Mae Longs for Truth (2013). Lois has received five fellowship/residencies from the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and three fellowships from the New Jersey Council on the Arts. A Dodge poet and a life-long educator, she has spent the last fourteen years teaching creative writing at The College of New Jersey and literature courses at the Evergreen Forum in Princeton, as well as offering poet-in-the-classroom residencies and online workshops. Find out more on her website.
*Lois is available to read standalone poems, chapbooks and manuscripts.*
Celeste Doaks is the author of Cornrows and Cornfields (Wrecking Ball Press, UK, 2015). She is also the editor of—and contributor in—the poetry anthology Not Without Our Laughter: Poems of Humor, Joy, and Sexuality (Mason Jar Press, 2017). Her chapbook, American Herstory, was Backbone Press’s 2018 first prize chapbook winner. Her journalism and reviews have appeared in Ms. Magazine, Huffington Post, Village Voice, Time Out New York and The Millions. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems have been published in multiple online and print publications such as The Rumpus, Chicago Quarterly Review, Asheville Poetry Review, Baltimore Magazine and many others. Celeste currently teaches creative writing at Stevenson University. For more visit www.doaksgirl.com or find her on Instagram and Twitter at @thedoaksgirl.
*Celeste is available to read standalone poems, chapbooks and manuscripts.*
Prose Readers
Roberta Clipper has published two novels-in-stories under the name Robbie Clipper Sethi, The Bride Wore Red (Picador) and Fifty-Fifty (Silicon Press), as well as short stories in The Atlantic Monthly, Mademoiselle, the Philadelphia Inquirer and a number of literary magazines and anthologies. Her fiction has won a National Endowment for the Arts award and two fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. On a Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship, she spent a “monsoon semester” teaching creative writing at the International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad, India, and in the summer of 2019, she taught English in Prague, Czech Republic. She is currently Professor Emerita (retired) from Rider University, where she taught fiction, poetry, expository writing and literature. Most recently she had a story published in More Challenges for the Delusional. To read some of her work, visit robbieclippersethi.com.
*Robbie is available to read standalone prose, manuscripts and manuscript excerpts. She specializes in fiction and memoir.*
Juliet Fletcher has worked as a reporter and editor for more than twenty years. Her reportage, narrative features and criticism have appeared in The Herald (Glasgow, U.K.), Philadelphia City Paper, The Record of Bergen County and elsewhere, and have been syndicated nationwide in dozens of US news outlets. Her narrative reporting has received awards from chapters of the Society for Professional Journalists and the Pennsylvania News Association. She has contributed personal essays most recently to TueNight.com and her fiction has been published in the recent volume, Words After Dark: A Lyrics, Lit & Liquor Anthology (Lucid River Press). For five years, she stewarded the internship program at City Paper, helping young journalists to write their way to publication. You can follow her on Twitter at @JulietFletcher or come say hi at Murphy Writing’s online Write Times, which she hosts each Wednesday evening.
*Juliet is available to read standalone prose, manuscripts and manuscript excerpts. She specializes in fiction, memoir and nonfiction, including op-eds, personal essays and freelance features.*
Pricing + registration
Poetry and prose differ in many ways; therefore, poetry and prose projects have different needs. Our critique structure and pricing reflect this.
Examples of “standalone” pieces include short stories, short essays, op-ed pieces and single poems. Chapbooks and manuscripts are longer works intended as part of a collection, like a full-length book of poetry or a book-length memoir.
Poetry
As indicated below, standalone poems will receive line edits. Poetry critique fees for collections include:
- constructive written feedback that will motivate you to begin your next draft
- suggestions for improvement on craft elements such as dialogue, setting, syntax and figurative language
- evaluation of form, structure and organization of your work as a whole
| Standalone poems | Price |
| 3-5 poems with line edits | $140 |
| Poetry collections | Price |
| Chapbook (up to 30 pages) | $510 |
| Manuscript (up to 70 pages) | $995 |
Prose
We can accommodate fiction and nonfiction including memoir, personal essays, op-eds and more. Prose critique fees include:
- constructive written feedback that will motivate you to begin your next draft
- suggestions for improvement on craft elements such as dialogue, setting, syntax and figurative language
- evaluation of form, structure and organization of your work as a whole
| Standalone prose | Price |
| Up to 1,999 words | $197 |
| 2,000-5,000 words | $297 |
| Manuscript excerpts | Price |
| Up to 5,000 words | $360 |
| Manuscript-length prose | Price |
| Up to 34,999 words | $850 |
| 35,000-49,999 words | $1,220 |
| 50,000-74,999 words | $1,820 |
| 75,000-100,000 words | $2,420 |
Optional Phone Call Add-on
Phone calls are not included in the pricing above. You may wish to schedule a follow-up call with your Reader to ask them any questions you might have about their written feedback, or even request general craft advice. How you use your phone time is up to you. You will be able to add this on to your registration during the online process.
Price: $65 for up to 30 minutes
frequently asked questions
What has changed about the Online Writing Critique?
We have created a system that better matches project needs, especially lengthier projects. We have adjusted prices accordingly to balance affordability with appropriate compensation for our faculty, who are generous with their time and feedback. Phone calls are now an optional add-on.
Can I choose which Reader I want to critique my work?
You can indicate your faculty preference(s), if any, when you register, and we will do our best to accommodate your requests. Be sure to check what faculty are available to read under their bio above.
Will the faculty Readers listed on this page rotate?
Yes. Our Readers will be listed on this page according to their availability. Some intend to read work cycle after cycle, but it’s possible that they will take cycles off. Be sure to refresh this page to double check who is on the lineup.
I don’t have Microsoft Word. What should I do?
Most programs allow you to save documents as Word files. A quick Google search will provide articles with instructions on how to do this.
More questions?
Call 609-626-3594 or email info@murphywriting.com.
The page by page critique enabled me to re-think the way I wrote my memoir. My story was long and I got more than I bargained for, but that was a good thing. My faculty reader actually persuaded me to “kill my darlings,” so I rewrote parts and supplied dialogue to show, not tell.
~ Joan, Egg Harbor Township, NJ
