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Acceptance decisions are made on a rolling basis.

Please do not pay for the mentorship until you receive a formal acceptance notification via email.

Click HERE to Apply. Early applications are encouraged as space is limited.

Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button (lower left) to talk with us.

Mentor Samantha Ladwig is a longtime book critic for BUST whose writing has appeared in publications such as The Cut, Vulture, Literary Hub, Vice, HuffPost, Real Simple, Bustle, Vox, and Brevity, among many others. She is a two-time Centrum Residency recipient and a 2025 Tin House Winter Workshop alum. Over the years, her work has provided her opportunities to attend and/or cover the Academy Awards, Telluride Film Festival, AFI Fest, and the Seattle International Film Festival. She lives on a small island in the Salish Sea.

This mentorship is designed for writers seeking guidance on how to write effective essays that show the reader the meaning of a moment, an event, a conversation, or whatever else is pulling you to investigate.

During our time together, we will meet bi-weekly over Zoom for an hour, with email check-ins in between as needed. Our first meeting will center on identifying the areas you’d like to work on throughout the mentorship, whether that’s understanding the art of personal essay writing, feedback on drafted work, building your newsletter, learning how to edit your own work, creating a maintainable writing life, and/or pitching you essay for publication. I will then tailor a framework, outlining clear goals and expectations, for the weeks ahead based on those needs.

The goal of this mentorship is to help writers better understand the essay craft, learn how to turn their ideas into completed pieces, edit their work, build a writing life, and find creative momentum. If publishing is the goal, we can incorporate that into the mentorship.

Assigned Craft Essays & Articles will be determined depending on the needs of individual writers.

Program Outline:

Month 1: Our initial Zoom meeting will focus on identifying areas related to essay writing that you want to sink deeper into. Students will that initial meeting with a framework of the next three months. Depending on whether you’re wanting to generate new work or submitting a draft for feedback, our second meeting will center on craft.

Month 2: Students will continue forward with a focus on generating new work and learning how to edit new drafts. If building a platform or newsletter is a goal, we will incorporate that into those discussions.

Month 3: Month three will be spent polishing work, strategizing a writing routine that you can carry with you after the mentorship, and discussing pitching guidelines such as identifying potential magazines for your piece and do’s and don’ts. We will work together to create a memorable pitch that will catch an editor’s eye.

Mentorship Takeaways:

• Learn how to mine your experiences for ideas and turn those moments into essays
  Develop strategies for editing your work.
  
• Feedback on draft(s) submitted to both strengthen the piece and prepare it for submission
  
• The in’s and out’s of Substack and other newsletter platforms
  
• Learn the ins and outs of pitching to editors with the intention of sending a completed pitch during the third month.

TESTIMONIALS

"Sam brings a genuine curiosity and openness to different writing styles and creative goals. She really thinks about her students as individuals, and tries to understand where each is with their work and what they are needing in order to continue and develop. She works to meet them there, sharing her expertise and perspective, but steering clear of applying her own agenda or preferences on their writing." -Student

"Samantha is a confident teacher and deftly and respectfully manages group classes. She's supportive of her students’ writing. She has a gift for editorial insight and feedback—she just sees things, and very quickly, and couches her critiques positively in terms of possibility and growth. She’s helped create a sense of community with her students." -Student

• Mentor: Samantha Ladwig

• Apply Now!

• The Mentorship is fully online and students may participate from anywhere.

• NOTE: Shifting some dates around may be necessary but any changes will be communicated well in advance, if possible.