Coaching & Editing

I coach adult writers looking to take their craft to the next level. I do one-on-one sessions and run a yearlong four-person poetry tutorial. While my main focus is poetry, I have also worked with novelists and essayists as they’ve taken their books from the early stages to completion. Poets I’ve worked with have written their first poems with me while others have published their first books, and all stages in between. I love to do this work and collaborate with each of my students to design a learning experience that’s right for them.

Please contact me for sliding scale fees and to commit to a weekly or bimonthly meeting schedule, or to apply for the next yearlong tutorial, to begin in September 2023. I look forward to getting to know you and your writing! 

Testimonials:

Some mystical force must have brought me to Jeanine Walker.  During a period of writer’s block, Jeanine helped me unearth unseen potential in my half-finished manuscript.  She has invested deeply in my novel, and together we’ve uncovered powerful elements within the story.  With Jeanine I’ve found many storytelling tools that I will treasure through what I hope to be a long career in writing.  Her specific assignments inspire me to write every day, and her feedback has given me the confidence that I needed to begin sharing my work.  Education doesn’t get better than this. – Neema Atri

Thank you for your response to my work. It means so much to me coming from you. You always demand that your students do their best work and I feel I have not disappointed you. You have been a big part of my journey -- and continue to be so from afar. I am in two poetry groups now with other former students of yours, and we are always referring to what ‘Jeanine said’ and what ‘Jeanine would say.’ – Cindy Buchanan (author of the chapbook Learning to Breathe, Finishing Line Press)

The class was great! Intensive, supportive, interesting, varied, fun. Jeanine is a wonderful teacher -- organized, flexible, and inspiring. She gives extensive and astute feedback on all individual poems and manuscripts. She selects readings that are challenging, interesting, and diverse. I really appreciated the inclusion of so many BIPOC and LGBTQ+ writers (both poets and essayists). Jeanine supports each student so that they can develop into the best poet they were meant to be. – Bill Hollands (winner of Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge and finalist for New Ohio Review’s poetry prize) 

I got so many new poems written and learned a great deal about giving and receiving constructive feedback. My chapbook and full-length manuscripts exist only because of our workshop. 50% of your tutorial students have had their chapbooks either accepted or chosen as a finalist. That’s an amazing track record. – Kimberly Kralowec, author of We retreat into the stillness of our own bones (Tolsun Books, 2022) and The Saplings Think of Us as Young (Kelson Books, forthcoming, 2023)