MANUSCRIPT EVALUATIONS

*kitty in photograph is not part of manuscript evaluation team

For an additional $50 fee, you can receive feedback on your work by a member of our Manuscript Evaluation Team!*

The $50 fee covers a 15-minute appointment with a member of the Manuscript Evaluation Team who has read your work before the appointment. Because of time constraints, each member of the Manuscript Evaluation Team will evaluate a limited number of manuscripts. Manuscripts will be accepted on a “first-come” basis and manuscript evaluation materials must be received by July 1, 2025.

Your selected evaluator will look at up to five pages plus a one-page synopsis of a manuscript, completed or in progress. The Team Member will determine the day/time of each appointment. Schedules will be emailed prior to conference and posted near the Registration Table.

Formatting your materials

Manuscript submissions–up to five pages–should be typed and double-spaced.
The synopsis must be single-spaced and should detail your work from beginning to end.
The Query Letter critique includes query letter and first page of manuscript for review. Query Letter should be one page, single-spaced.
For all materials, use this format:
- LEFT CORNER: your name, address, phone, email
- RIGHT CORNER: Manuscript Evaluator’s name; page number

Submitting your materials

Send your materials as attachments midwestwritersworkshop@gmail.com
Title the email “Manuscript Evaluation: Team Member Name”
Submit all materials must be received by July 1, 2025

Please have your manuscript evaluation materials turned in by July 1, 2025

Manuscript Evaluation Team

MWW25 Faculty

Jessica Berg, Query Letters The Query Letter critique includes query letter and first page of manuscript for review. Query Letter should be one page, single-spaced.
Thomas Kneeland, Poetry
Robin Lee Lovelace, Fiction (via Zoom)
Rebecca McKanna, Fiction
Kay Shanee, Romance/Children’s

Writing Services Team*

Melissa Fraterrigo (Creative Nonfiction)
Melissa Fraterrigo is the author of the novel Glory Days (University of Nebraska Press, fall 2017) and the short story collection The Longest Pregnancy (Livingston Press). Her fiction and nonfiction has appeared in more than forty literary journals and anthologies from Shenandoah and The Massachusetts Review to storySouth, and Notre Dame Review. She has been a finalist for awards from Glimmer Train on multiple occasions, twice nominated for Pushcart Awards, and was the winner of the Sam Adams/Zoetrope: All Story Short Fiction Contest. She teaches classes on the art and craft of writing at the Lafayette Writers’ Studio in Lafayette, Indiana.
Chadwick Gillenwater (children’s)
Chadwick Gillenwater (also known as Professor Watermelon) is an experienced school librarian, children’s book author and creative writing teacher. Along his journey, he has collected the essential tools to teach his students the elements of writing for children. He knows what makes characters memorable, he understands what makes scenes and settings captivating, and he has discovered what simmers and twists a good plot. As Professor Watermelon, Chadwick has written three middle grade novels. He is on the board of the Indiana Writers Center, and he lives in Indianapolis with his husband, two dogs and one bearded dragon. Find out more about his work at www.professorwatermelon.com.
Jack Heffron (essays, short stories, non-fiction)
Jack Heffron has been a professional editor for more than 20 years, during which he has worked on well over a thousand projects. He has published hundreds of magazine articles, columns, and short stories, for which he has won numerous awards. He has written and ghostwritten nearly a dozen books. He is currently editorial director of Clerisy Press, a columnist for Cincinnati magazine, a frequent contributor to manofthehouse.com, and an instructor in the journalism program at the University of Cincinnati. He also teaches annually at the Writing it Real conference. Jack lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.
J.R. Jamison (memoir, young adult)
J.R. Jamison is the award-winning and bestselling author of the memoir Hillbilly Queer, and host of the NPR podcast and radio show The Facing Project (recorded and produced at Indiana Public Radio). He is also a founder of the national Facing Project network, a nonprofit in 20 states and over 100 communities that creates a more understanding and empathetic world through stories that inspire action, where he serves as president of the organization.J.R. has written for The Huffington Post, Pangyrus, Writer’s Digest, and various other print and web publications. His work has been covered by outlets such as The Guardian, Harlem World Magazine, PBS, Runner’s World, and The Statesider, among others. In addition, his memoir received starred reviews from Library Journal and Foreword Reviews Magazine, and was selected as one of the “Top 10 Best Audiobooks of 2023” by Library Journal (which was narrated by J.R.). Currently, he is writing his debut young adult novel.J.R. is a two-time graduate of Ball State University with a B.S. in Cultural Geography and Creative Writing and an M.A.Ed. in Student Affairs Administration. He lives in Muncie, Indiana, with his husband Cory and their loveable and always ready-for-the-camera Boston-Pit mix, J.J.When not writing and recording, J.R. can be found long-distance running, sipping coffee in a deck lounger, catching up on his favorite NPR shows (This American Life, American Routes, and You Bet Your Garden), or binge watching Netflix, Hulu, and Showtime (currently, his favorite shows include Yellowjackets, Stranger Things, and Under the Bridge).
Michelle McGill-Vargas (general fiction, not YA)
Michelle McGill-Vargas writes speculative historical fiction, short stories, and flash fiction. Her work has appeared in Splickety Magazine, the Copperfield Review, and Typehouse. She is a member of the Highland Writers Group and the Valparaiso Writers Group, has served as vice president of the Indiana Writers’ Consortium, and is currently on the board of Midwest Writers Workshop and the Historical Novel Society. She currently resides in the Midwest with her husband and fur babies. American Ghoul is her first novel.
Lylanne Musselman (poetry)
Lylanne Musselman is an award-winning poet, playwright, and visual artist. Her work has appeared in Pank, The New Verse News, Flying Island, Rose Quartz Magazine, Last Stanza Poetry Journal and The Ekphrastic Review, among others. Recently, one of her poems was selected as the featured poem in Tipton Poetry Journal, Issue # 48 Spring 2021. Musselman’s work has appeared in many anthologies, including The Indianapolis Anthology (Belt Publishing, 2021). She is the author of six chapbooks, including Paparazzi for the Birds (Red Mare 16, 2018) and is the co-author of Company of Women: New and Selected Poems (Chatter House Press, 2013), and is author of the full-length poetry collection, It’s Not Love, Unfortunately (Chatter House Press, 2018). Musselman is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, and her poems are included in the Inverse Poetry Archive, a collection of Hoosier poets, housed at the Indiana State Library. Musselman is currently working on several chapbooks and a new manuscript.
Kelly O’Dell Stanley (nonfiction: inspirational or memoir)
Kelly O’Dell Stanley is a graphic designer and writer who delights in creating…well, anything. Author of four traditionally published books on faith and creativity, she recently released a memoir, The Artist, Ladoga, Indiana. It’s the story of moving into the studio of her dad, watercolorist Rob O’Dell, after he passed, and discovering what art can teach us about a life well lived. Her awards include first place in the Writer’s Digest Inspirational Writing contest. She and her husband, Tim, live in a tiny Indiana town, which she loves to call home when not traveling to visit her three adult kids and three adorable grandchildren.
Larry D. Sweazy (fiction)
won the WWA (Western Writers of America) Spur award for Best Short Fiction in 2005 and for Best Paperback Original in 2013. He also won the 2011 and 2012 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction for books in the Josiah Wolfe series. He was nominated for a Derringer award in 2007 (for the short story “See Also Murder”) and was a finalist in the Best Books of Indiana literary competition in 2010. Larry was awarded the Best Books of Indiana in 2011 for The Scorpion Trail. And in 2013, Larry received the inaugural Elmer Kelton Fiction Book of the Year for The Coyote Tracker, presented by the AWA (Academy of Western Artists). He also won the 2019 Willa Literary Award (Best Original Softcover), and was shortlisted for 2020 Indiana Authors Award, Genre category–both for See Also Proof. He won the 2020 WF Peacemaker Best Western Award for The Return of the Wolf. His first Trusty Dawson novel, Lost Mountain Pass was a 2022 WWA Spur Award finalist, a 2022 WF Peacemaker Award finalist, and a 2022 Will Rogers Medallion Award finalist. Winter Seeks Out the Lonely was a 2022 Will Rogers Medallion Award medalist and was shortlisted for the 2022 Indiana Authors Award. His books have been translated by major publishers in Italy and Turkey. Larry has also published forty short stories, and they have appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine; The Adventure of the Missing Detective: And 25 of the Year’s Finest Crime and Mystery Stories!; Boys’ Life; Hardboiled, Hoosier Noir, and several other publications and anthologies. He lives in Noblesville, Indiana with his wife, Rose, and is hard at work on his next story.