Meet your writing coach
Meet your
writing coach
With decades of experience in the industry, we provide the highest quality coaching services to our clients. We aren’t just professional writers, we’re also the most effective coaches online.
With decades of experience in the industry, we provide the highest quality coaching services to our clients. We aren’t just professional writers, we’re also the most effective coaches online.
Our coaches
Veronica Ciastko
Writing coach
Veronica Ciastko is an experienced educator, writer, and comics-artist. She has worked with students of all ages, from first graders to Ph.D. candidates, and is passionate about helping her students communicate clearly and effectively through writing.
Veronica’s teaching experience began with AmeriCorps’ City Year program, where she served sixth graders in a low-income literacy classroom. Following this experience, Veronica continued to serve students often left behind in traditional educational settings. She taught both academic and creative writing with the Boys and Girls Club, the Writer’s Exchange, and Stratford Academy. In each of these roles, Veronica honed her skills for building strong relationships with students and teaching effectively.
Veronica attended college at the University of British Columbia, where she was the recipient of the International Leader of Tomorrow Award, a prestigious scholarship that fully funded her degree and honored her skills in leadership and community service. At UBC, Veronica studied Education and Creative Writing. She was honored with the TREK Excellence Award for graduating at the top of her class and the Grant McWhirter Poetry Prize for excellence in the Creative Writing program. While at UBC, Veronica also worked as a Writing Peer with the Center for Writing and Scholarly Communication, where she coached college-age students writing across a wide array of disciplines. In the summer of 2023 Veronica attended the Soaring Gardens Artist Residency, funded through the Ora Lerman Trust. She is a regular participant in writing workshops across NYC, including with the Writer’s Rock. She loves one-on-one coaching (with both kids and adults!) because she loves to see students find their voice and recognize their own brilliance.
In her free time, Veronica is writing a novel about the Midwest, playing with her cat, and making visual art. She’s excited to be a writing coach with Hewes House.
Show more
Ky Huynh
Writing coach
Ky Huynh is an educator, world traveler, lover of arts, maker of crafts, and writer of stories. In Ky’s extensive teaching and tutoring experience, she has taught English, math, physics, art history, biology, and creative writing to students of all ages.
Ky holds a B.A. in English and Psychology from UC Berkeley and, perhaps unnecessarily, holds two masters degrees, one in Nonprofit Management from Milano Graduate School and one in Education from Hunter College.
Ky is a passionate world traveler, starting with her service in the Peace Corps in Bangladesh where she taught English to primary school teachers. Since then, she has traveled to more than thirty countries, and forty-nine of the fifty United States (I’m coming for you Alaska!).
In her free time, Ky makes tiny paintings, writes short stories, and crochets small animals.
Show more
Porochista Khakpour
Writing coach, editor
Porochista Khakpour has been awarded fellowships from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, Northwestern University, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, MacDowell, Civitella Ranieri, Yaddo, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (twice), and The Ucross Foundation (four times). Her work has been nominated for several Pushcart Prizes. She is the recipient of a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Literature Fellowship in Creative Writing (Prose).
Her debut novel Sons and Other Flammable Objects (Grove/Atlantic, 2007) was a New York Times “Editor’s Choice,” Chicago Tribune “Fall’s Best,” and 2007 California Book Award winner. It also made the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing shortlist, the Dylan Thomas Prize long list, the Believer Book Award longlist, and many others.
Her second novel, The Last Illusion (Bloomsbury, 2014) was a Kirkus Best Book of 2014, a Buzzfeed Best Fiction Book of 2014, an NPR Best Book of 2014, one of Buzzfeed’s 28 Best Books By Women in 2014, an Electric Literature Best Book of 2014, a Volume1 Brooklyn Favorite Book of 2014, a PopMatters Best Book of 2014, one of Refinery29’s 2015 Books to Read in 2015, and one of Largehearted Boy’s 11 Favorite Novels of 2014. It was also one of Flavorwire’s 15 “Most Anticipated Books of 2014”, io9.com’s “Mind-Blowing Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Watch Out For in 2015”, The Millions “Most Anticipated” in their “The Great 2014 Book Preview”, Flavorwire’s “50 Excellent Fabulist Novels Everyone Should Read,”, and the Huffington Post’s “30 Books You NEED to Read in 2014.”
Her most widely-read book, the memoir SICK, was published by the Harper Perennial imprint of HarperCollins (2018). It was called “a memoir of chronic illness, misdiagnosis, addiction, and the myth of full recovery, chronicling the long, arduous discovery of her late-stage Lyme Disease.” It was a Best Book of 2018 according to TIME, Real Simple, Entropy, Mental Floss, Bitch Media, Autostraddle, The Paris Reivew, LitHub, and more. It was published by Canongate in the UK.
In May 2020, the Vintage imprint of Knopf Doubleday published her first collection of essays, Brown Album to all starred pre-pub reviews and much critical acclaim.
In June 2024, the Pantheon imprint of Knopf Doubleday published her third novel Tehrangeles. The novel has been a “Most Anticipated/Best” book in lists by TIME, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, W, The New York Post, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Nylon, The National, The Seattle Times, Library Journal, Alta Journal, and more. It was also a June 2024 Indie Next Pick, an NPR Book of the Day, and a Best Book of 2024 by Vogue, W, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, and more. Kevin Kwan endorsed the novel: “Like Little Women on an ayahuasca trip, Tehrangeles is delightfully twisted and heartfelt. If you set a TikTok mukbang at a Crazy Rich Persian wedding, you’d still have a long way to go to capture the extravagant eccentricities of the Milani sisters. Porochista Khakpour is a satirist extraordinaire who astutely captures the zeitgeist of a culture and a place where “reality” is just something you livestream and truth is a billion times stranger than fiction. The antics and agonies of the Milani family had me googling pet psychics and turning the pages gleefully—at turns surprised and horrified, but always charmed and laughing so hard.” She and the book made it on the longlist of the 2025 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award as well as the longslist of the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize.
She penned the following forwards/introduction: a new English edition of one of the greatest modern Iranian novels of all time, Sadegh Hedayat’s The Blind Owl (Grove, 2010); a novel by Chinese experimental writer Can Xue, Frontier (Open Letter, 2017); New Yorker writer Alison Rose’s rereleased memoir Better Than Sane (Godine, 2023), and Kurdish writer Farad Pirbal’s short story collection The Potato Eaters (Deep Vellum, 2024).
Her other writing (essays, features, reviews, cover stories, and columns) have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Esquire, Conde Nast Traveler, The Financial Times, The Daily Beast, The Village Voice, The Chicago Reader, Bookforum, BOMB, Al Jazeera America, Vogue Arabia, Vice, GQ, The Paris Review Daily, Elle, Spin, Slate, Salon, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Guernica, Departures, Paper, Flaunt, Nylon, Bidoun, Alef, Canteen, Granta.com, Newyorker.com, and many other magazines and newspapers around the world.
She regularly gives talks, lectures, and readings at festivals, universities, conventions, and conferences all over the country, from a keynote speech at the University of Cincinnati’s Rope Lecture Series to the PEN/Faulkner Reading Series (with Achy Obejas and Danzy Senna) to the Lannan Reading Series (in conversation with Karen Russell). She has been a presenter at various book festivals all over the country, such as the Brooklyn Book Festival, the Los Angeles Times Book Festival, the Texas Book Festival, and PEN World Voices. She has also presented at international book festivals such as the Perth and Adelaide Book Festivals in Australia (2015) and the Ubud Writers Festival in Bali (2015). She was most recently a speaker at the Women Deliver conference in Kigali, Rwanda (2023).
She has been on a jury member, judge, reader, etc for PEN (PEN/Open Book, PEN/Faulkner, & PEN/Saul Bellow), the NEA, the Neustadt Prize, The Berlin Prize, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Rona Jaffe Foundation prizes, Asian American Writers Workshop writing contests, and many more.
She has taught creative writing and literature at Bard College (where she was Writer-in-Residence from 2014-2017), Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, Wesleyan University, Sarah Lawrence College, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Hofstra University, Fordham University, Bucknell University, Santa Fe University of Art and Design, Fairfield University’s MFA program, Stonecoast’s low-residency MFA, the University of Leipzig (where she was a Picador Guest Professor), the Bruce High Quality Foundation, the Gotham Writers Workshop, The Center for Fiction, Corporeal Writing, and The Shipman Agency Work Room. She is currently teaching at Ashland University’s low-residency MFA program.
Additionally, she has been guest faculty at the Yale Writers Conference, Cleveland State University’s Imagination Conference, Taos Summer Writers’ Conference, Grub Street Muse & Marketplace Conference, Kundiman Conferences, and many more.
Khakpour was one of Dazed’s “Top 10 American Writers You Need to Read This Year,” one of Buzzfeed’s 32 Essential Asian-American Writers You Need to Be Reading, a Buzzfeed Community/OpenRoadMedia “10 Amazing Female Novelists Under 50,” and one of Entropy’s “Literary Advocates.”
She was a literary criticism columnist for The Virginia Quarterly Review , a senior editor at Los Angeles Review of Books, and contributing editor at The Offing. She edited a digital zine for Medium in 2018, co-edited Evergreen Review’s December 2022 Theresa Hak Kyung Cha/Dictee special issue, and guest-edited of Guernica‘s Iranian-American issue, which came out in November 2011.Most recently, she was the editor of Evergreen Review’s first Iran issue (spring 2023). She also served on the advisory board of the University of Iowa Press’s The Iowa Review Series in Fiction. She is currently a contributing editor at The Evergreen Review.
She lives in New York City’s Harlem.
Show more
Maggie Sadler
Writing coach, editor
Maggie Sadler is a dynamic and intentional writing coach, editor, and literary agent dedicated to helping her clients plumb the depths of their potential as writers. Maggie marries her unique energy with a growth-minded mentorship approach to guide and support clients through their adventures in writing.
Maggie’s professional journey has been distinct and varied, first beginning in the freelance space as a self-starting editor, where she developed a keen passion for teaching authors how to further develop their craft with detailed developmental feedback. Building on this experience, Maggie lends her eye for artful prose to a boutique agency as a literary agent. Championing debut authors has been the most inspiring aspect of Maggie’s work in the literary sphere. These complimentary experiences inform her mentorship practice, which is steeped in productive critique, industry integrity, creative curiosity, and positive encouragement. Above all, Maggie values the small moments—the discovery of a particularly beautiful word, a client having the courage to read their writing aloud for the first time, or a client feeling genuine pride in their work— that arise during a client’s creative journey.
Maggie earned her joint Masters with honors in Comparative Literature and English from the historic University of St Andrews and her Masters in Literary Studies from Memorial University of Newfoundland. As a student, she honed her diverse literary interests in folklore retellings, nineteenth-century maritime adventure fiction, and audience reception across creative mediums. Her scholarly work has been featured in Inquiries and Coriolis journals.
A writer herself, Maggie draws inspiration from folklore, sweeping landscapes, and untamed femininity as she scribbles away at her debut novel. When not reading or writing, Maggie can usually be found exploring astride her rascally horse or admiring various species of moss on hikes with her partner.
Show more
Darina Sikmashvili
Writing coach, editor
Darina (Dasha) Sikmashvili was born in Lubny, Ukraine and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She received her MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan and has worked in film production for over a decade. Her fiction, essays, and screenplays have won the Hopwood Prize, the Kasdan Scholarship, and the Henfield Prize, among others. She is the recipient of scholarships from Can Serrat Residency, Laimun Residency, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Her recent writing appears in The Common, Fence, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. A complete list of her publications and more information is available at: sikmashvili.com
Show more
Eva Warrick
Writing coach, editor
Eva Warrick is a fiction writer, educator and visual artist. She enjoys working with people and projects at all stages of development, from students writing for the first time to professionals honing skills. For all types of writing, she helps clients gain confidence, enjoy writing, and unlock blocks by starting with permission, play and creative brainstorming. She values encouragement, trust and developing long-term rapport with her clients.
Eva has worked with a variety of clients in professional and corporate capacities on projects including internal communications, reports, sales communiqués, web content and skills refreshers. Her business writing coaching emphasizes audience-specific content written with concision and clarity. As an editor she has broad genre experience, from literary fiction manuscripts to architecture, graphic novel, fantasy, and memoir. Other experience includes academic writing, college application essays, and contest and grant applications.
Over fifteen years of teaching experience, she has taught academic and creative writing at the University of Michigan, and worked remotely with international students based in Shanghai. Prior to this, she taught visual art and design for several years at various universities. Eva earned an MFA in painting at Indiana University and an MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan in 2022. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Granta, A Public Space and The Southern Review and has been financially supported by the Helen Zell Writers Program, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation & Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Tin House and Yaddo.
Eva lives in the Pacific Northwest and Amsterdam as a resident of the Netherlands. She is currently writing a story collection and a novel, and continues to paint.
Show more
Jonathan Zelinger
Writing coach
Jonathan Zelinger is a writer, work-shopper, facilitator, and matchmaker. He is a former high school English teacher, essay retreat leader, florist, corporate copywriter, and letter writing advocate. Currently, he works for StoryCorps as a writer and field producer. He lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and is the host of the Paired Down Podcast. He is also the writer of many essays, many of which can be found at jonathanzelinger.com.
Jonathan works with writers of all ages. He is a great resource for Creative Nonfiction, college admissions, speechwriting, and process building. He prides himself on creating a non-judgemental and safe environment for his clients to comfortably think out loud.
Show more
Lucy K Shaw
Publishing coach
Lucy K Shaw is a writer, editor, publisher and teacher from England. She founded the independent press, Shabby Doll House in 2012 and has published work by hundreds of writers and artists from around the world, first online and now in print books. She is the author of five books of prose and has been published extensively in anthologies and journals. She teaches regular online writing workshops through Shabby Doll House. She lives in France.
Show more
Josh Boardman
Founder
Josh Boardman is from Michigan. He has worked as a writing coach and tutor in the elite spheres of New York City, and his writing has appeared in numerous outlets, both online and in print. He is the author of the chapbook Plantain (West Vine Press, 2018) and conducted the Latin translation project We, Romans (2015). His stories have appeared in journals such as New York Tyrant, Catapult, and Dandruff Magazine. He lives in Beacon, New York, where he is working on his first novel and a collection of stories about his hometown. You can find more of his work here: joshboardman.com
Show more
Ben Griffin
Founder
Ben Griffin is one of the co-founders of Hewes House, and brings a lifetime of enthusiasm for literature and the arts to his role at the company. He has over a decade of experience creating kinetic sculpture, as well as a background writing short stories and poetry. Ben’s experience in software design and business operations has enabled him to handle much of the back-office work at Hewes House. Ben is based in the East Village, New York City and can be found reading in cafes, picnicking in parks, and traveling the globe in his free time.
Show more
Veronica Ciastko
Writing coach
Veronica Ciastko is an experienced educator, writer, and comics-artist. She has worked with students of all ages, from first graders to Ph.D. candidates, and is passionate about helping her students communicate clearly and effectively through writing.
Veronica’s teaching experience began with AmeriCorps’ City Year program, where she served sixth graders in a low-income literacy classroom. Following this experience, Veronica continued to serve students often left behind in traditional educational settings. She taught both academic and creative writing with the Boys and Girls Club, the Writer’s Exchange, and Stratford Academy. In each of these roles, Veronica honed her skills for building strong relationships with students and teaching effectively.
Veronica attended college at the University of British Columbia, where she was the recipient of the International Leader of Tomorrow Award, a prestigious scholarship that fully funded her degree and honored her skills in leadership and community service. At UBC, Veronica studied Education and Creative Writing. She was honored with the TREK Excellence Award for graduating at the top of her class and the Grant McWhirter Poetry Prize for excellence in the Creative Writing program. While at UBC, Veronica also worked as a Writing Peer with the Center for Writing and Scholarly Communication, where she coached college-age students writing across a wide array of disciplines. In the summer of 2023 Veronica attended the Soaring Gardens Artist Residency, funded through the Ora Lerman Trust. She is a regular participant in writing workshops across NYC, including with the Writer’s Rock. She loves one-on-one coaching (with both kids and adults!) because she loves to see students find their voice and recognize their own brilliance.
In her free time, Veronica is writing a novel about the Midwest, playing with her cat, and making visual art. She’s excited to be a writing coach with Hewes House.
Show more
Ky Huynh
Writing coach
Ky Huynh is an educator, world traveler, lover of arts, maker of crafts, and writer of stories. In Ky’s extensive teaching and tutoring experience, she has taught English, math, physics, art history, biology, and creative writing to students of all ages.
Ky holds a B.A. in English and Psychology from UC Berkeley and, perhaps unnecessarily, holds two masters degrees, one in Nonprofit Management from Milano Graduate School and one in Education from Hunter College.
Ky is a passionate world traveler, starting with her service in the Peace Corps in Bangladesh where she taught English to primary school teachers. Since then, she has traveled to more than thirty countries, and forty-nine of the fifty United States (I’m coming for you Alaska!).
In her free time, Ky makes tiny paintings, writes short stories, and crochets small animals.
Show more
Porochista Khakpour
Writing coach, editor
Porochista Khakpour has been awarded fellowships from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, Northwestern University, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, MacDowell, Civitella Ranieri, Yaddo, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (twice), and The Ucross Foundation (four times). Her work has been nominated for several Pushcart Prizes. She is the recipient of a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Literature Fellowship in Creative Writing (Prose).
Her debut novel Sons and Other Flammable Objects (Grove/Atlantic, 2007) was a New York Times “Editor’s Choice,” Chicago Tribune “Fall’s Best,” and 2007 California Book Award winner. It also made the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing shortlist, the Dylan Thomas Prize long list, the Believer Book Award longlist, and many others.
Her second novel, The Last Illusion (Bloomsbury, 2014) was a Kirkus Best Book of 2014, a Buzzfeed Best Fiction Book of 2014, an NPR Best Book of 2014, one of Buzzfeed’s 28 Best Books By Women in 2014, an Electric Literature Best Book of 2014, a Volume1 Brooklyn Favorite Book of 2014, a PopMatters Best Book of 2014, one of Refinery29’s 2015 Books to Read in 2015, and one of Largehearted Boy’s 11 Favorite Novels of 2014. It was also one of Flavorwire’s 15 “Most Anticipated Books of 2014”, io9.com’s “Mind-Blowing Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Watch Out For in 2015”, The Millions “Most Anticipated” in their “The Great 2014 Book Preview”, Flavorwire’s “50 Excellent Fabulist Novels Everyone Should Read,”, and the Huffington Post’s “30 Books You NEED to Read in 2014.”
Her most widely-read book, the memoir SICK, was published by the Harper Perennial imprint of HarperCollins (2018). It was called “a memoir of chronic illness, misdiagnosis, addiction, and the myth of full recovery, chronicling the long, arduous discovery of her late-stage Lyme Disease.” It was a Best Book of 2018 according to TIME, Real Simple, Entropy, Mental Floss, Bitch Media, Autostraddle, The Paris Reivew, LitHub, and more. It was published by Canongate in the UK.
In May 2020, the Vintage imprint of Knopf Doubleday published her first collection of essays, Brown Album to all starred pre-pub reviews and much critical acclaim.
In June 2024, the Pantheon imprint of Knopf Doubleday published her third novel Tehrangeles. The novel has been a “Most Anticipated/Best” book in lists by TIME, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, W, The New York Post, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Nylon, The National, The Seattle Times, Library Journal, Alta Journal, and more. It was also a June 2024 Indie Next Pick, an NPR Book of the Day, and a Best Book of 2024 by Vogue, W, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, and more. Kevin Kwan endorsed the novel: “Like Little Women on an ayahuasca trip, Tehrangeles is delightfully twisted and heartfelt. If you set a TikTok mukbang at a Crazy Rich Persian wedding, you’d still have a long way to go to capture the extravagant eccentricities of the Milani sisters. Porochista Khakpour is a satirist extraordinaire who astutely captures the zeitgeist of a culture and a place where “reality” is just something you livestream and truth is a billion times stranger than fiction. The antics and agonies of the Milani family had me googling pet psychics and turning the pages gleefully—at turns surprised and horrified, but always charmed and laughing so hard.” She and the book made it on the longlist of the 2025 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award as well as the longslist of the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize.
She penned the following forwards/introduction: a new English edition of one of the greatest modern Iranian novels of all time, Sadegh Hedayat’s The Blind Owl (Grove, 2010); a novel by Chinese experimental writer Can Xue, Frontier (Open Letter, 2017); New Yorker writer Alison Rose’s rereleased memoir Better Than Sane (Godine, 2023), and Kurdish writer Farad Pirbal’s short story collection The Potato Eaters (Deep Vellum, 2024).
Her other writing (essays, features, reviews, cover stories, and columns) have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Esquire, Conde Nast Traveler, The Financial Times, The Daily Beast, The Village Voice, The Chicago Reader, Bookforum, BOMB, Al Jazeera America, Vogue Arabia, Vice, GQ, The Paris Review Daily, Elle, Spin, Slate, Salon, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Guernica, Departures, Paper, Flaunt, Nylon, Bidoun, Alef, Canteen, Granta.com, Newyorker.com, and many other magazines and newspapers around the world.
She regularly gives talks, lectures, and readings at festivals, universities, conventions, and conferences all over the country, from a keynote speech at the University of Cincinnati’s Rope Lecture Series to the PEN/Faulkner Reading Series (with Achy Obejas and Danzy Senna) to the Lannan Reading Series (in conversation with Karen Russell). She has been a presenter at various book festivals all over the country, such as the Brooklyn Book Festival, the Los Angeles Times Book Festival, the Texas Book Festival, and PEN World Voices. She has also presented at international book festivals such as the Perth and Adelaide Book Festivals in Australia (2015) and the Ubud Writers Festival in Bali (2015). She was most recently a speaker at the Women Deliver conference in Kigali, Rwanda (2023).
She has been on a jury member, judge, reader, etc for PEN (PEN/Open Book, PEN/Faulkner, & PEN/Saul Bellow), the NEA, the Neustadt Prize, The Berlin Prize, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Rona Jaffe Foundation prizes, Asian American Writers Workshop writing contests, and many more.
She has taught creative writing and literature at Bard College (where she was Writer-in-Residence from 2014-2017), Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, Wesleyan University, Sarah Lawrence College, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Hofstra University, Fordham University, Bucknell University, Santa Fe University of Art and Design, Fairfield University’s MFA program, Stonecoast’s low-residency MFA, the University of Leipzig (where she was a Picador Guest Professor), the Bruce High Quality Foundation, the Gotham Writers Workshop, The Center for Fiction, Corporeal Writing, and The Shipman Agency Work Room. She is currently teaching at Ashland University’s low-residency MFA program.
Additionally, she has been guest faculty at the Yale Writers Conference, Cleveland State University’s Imagination Conference, Taos Summer Writers’ Conference, Grub Street Muse & Marketplace Conference, Kundiman Conferences, and many more.
Khakpour was one of Dazed’s “Top 10 American Writers You Need to Read This Year,” one of Buzzfeed’s 32 Essential Asian-American Writers You Need to Be Reading, a Buzzfeed Community/OpenRoadMedia “10 Amazing Female Novelists Under 50,” and one of Entropy’s “Literary Advocates.”
She was a literary criticism columnist for The Virginia Quarterly Review , a senior editor at Los Angeles Review of Books, and contributing editor at The Offing. She edited a digital zine for Medium in 2018, co-edited Evergreen Review’s December 2022 Theresa Hak Kyung Cha/Dictee special issue, and guest-edited of Guernica‘s Iranian-American issue, which came out in November 2011.Most recently, she was the editor of Evergreen Review’s first Iran issue (spring 2023). She also served on the advisory board of the University of Iowa Press’s The Iowa Review Series in Fiction. She is currently a contributing editor at The Evergreen Review.
She lives in New York City’s Harlem.
Show more
Maggie Sadler
Writing coach, editor
Maggie Sadler is a dynamic and intentional writing coach, editor, and literary agent dedicated to helping her clients plumb the depths of their potential as writers. Maggie marries her unique energy with a growth-minded mentorship approach to guide and support clients through their adventures in writing.
Maggie’s professional journey has been distinct and varied, first beginning in the freelance space as a self-starting editor, where she developed a keen passion for teaching authors how to further develop their craft with detailed developmental feedback. Building on this experience, Maggie lends her eye for artful prose to a boutique agency as a literary agent. Championing debut authors has been the most inspiring aspect of Maggie’s work in the literary sphere. These complimentary experiences inform her mentorship practice, which is steeped in productive critique, industry integrity, creative curiosity, and positive encouragement. Above all, Maggie values the small moments—the discovery of a particularly beautiful word, a client having the courage to read their writing aloud for the first time, or a client feeling genuine pride in their work— that arise during a client’s creative journey.
Maggie earned her joint Masters with honors in Comparative Literature and English from the historic University of St Andrews and her Masters in Literary Studies from Memorial University of Newfoundland. As a student, she honed her diverse literary interests in folklore retellings, nineteenth-century maritime adventure fiction, and audience reception across creative mediums. Her scholarly work has been featured in Inquiries and Coriolis journals.
A writer herself, Maggie draws inspiration from folklore, sweeping landscapes, and untamed femininity as she scribbles away at her debut novel. When not reading or writing, Maggie can usually be found exploring astride her rascally horse or admiring various species of moss on hikes with her partner.
Show more
Darina Sikmashvili
Writing coach, editor
Darina (Dasha) Sikmashvili was born in Lubny, Ukraine and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She received her MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan and has worked in film production for over a decade. Her fiction, essays, and screenplays have won the Hopwood Prize, the Kasdan Scholarship, and the Henfield Prize, among others. She is the recipient of scholarships from Can Serrat Residency, Laimun Residency, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Her recent writing appears in The Common, Fence, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. A complete list of her publications and more information is available at: sikmashvili.com
Show more
Eva Warrick
Writing coach, editor
Eva Warrick is a fiction writer, educator and visual artist. She enjoys working with people and projects at all stages of development, from students writing for the first time to professionals honing skills. For all types of writing, she helps clients gain confidence, enjoy writing, and unlock blocks by starting with permission, play and creative brainstorming. She values encouragement, trust and developing long-term rapport with her clients.
Eva has worked with a variety of clients in professional and corporate capacities on projects including internal communications, reports, sales communiqués, web content and skills refreshers. Her business writing coaching emphasizes audience-specific content written with concision and clarity. As an editor she has broad genre experience, from literary fiction manuscripts to architecture, graphic novel, fantasy, and memoir. Other experience includes academic writing, college application essays, and contest and grant applications.
Over fifteen years of teaching experience, she has taught academic and creative writing at the University of Michigan, and worked remotely with international students based in Shanghai. Prior to this, she taught visual art and design for several years at various universities. Eva earned an MFA in painting at Indiana University and an MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan in 2022. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Granta, A Public Space and The Southern Review and has been financially supported by the Helen Zell Writers Program, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation & Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Tin House and Yaddo.
Eva lives in the Pacific Northwest and Amsterdam as a resident of the Netherlands. She is currently writing a story collection and a novel, and continues to paint.
Show more
Jonathan Zelinger
Writing coach
Jonathan Zelinger is a writer, work-shopper, facilitator, and matchmaker. He is a former high school English teacher, essay retreat leader, florist, corporate copywriter, and letter writing advocate. Currently, he works for StoryCorps as a writer and field producer. He lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and is the host of the Paired Down Podcast. He is also the writer of many essays, many of which can be found at jonathanzelinger.com.
Jonathan works with writers of all ages. He is a great resource for Creative Nonfiction, college admissions, speechwriting, and process building. He prides himself on creating a non-judgemental and safe environment for his clients to comfortably think out loud.
Show more
Lucy K Shaw
Publishing coach
Lucy K Shaw is a writer, editor, publisher and teacher from England. She founded the independent press, Shabby Doll House in 2012 and has published work by hundreds of writers and artists from around the world, first online and now in print books. She is the author of five books of prose and has been published extensively in anthologies and journals. She teaches regular online writing workshops through Shabby Doll House. She lives in France.
Show more
Josh Boardman
Founder
Josh Boardman is from Michigan. He has worked as a writing coach and tutor in the elite spheres of New York City, and his writing has appeared in numerous outlets, both online and in print. He is the author of the chapbook Plantain (West Vine Press, 2018) and conducted the Latin translation project We, Romans (2015). His stories have appeared in journals such as New York Tyrant, Catapult, and Dandruff Magazine. He lives in Beacon, New York, where he is working on his first novel and a collection of stories about his hometown. You can find more of his work here: joshboardman.com
Show more
Ben Griffin
Founder
Ben Griffin is one of the co-founders of Hewes House, and brings a lifetime of enthusiasm for literature and the arts to his role at the company. He has over a decade of experience creating kinetic sculpture, as well as a background writing short stories and poetry. Ben’s experience in software design and business operations has enabled him to handle much of the back-office work at Hewes House. Ben is based in the East Village, New York City and can be found reading in cafes, picnicking in parks, and traveling the globe in his free time.
Show more
Veronica Ciastko
Writing coach
Veronica Ciastko is an experienced educator, writer, and comics-artist. She has worked with students of all ages, from first graders to Ph.D. candidates, and is passionate about helping her students communicate clearly and effectively through writing.
Veronica’s teaching experience began with AmeriCorps’ City Year program, where she served sixth graders in a low-income literacy classroom. Following this experience, Veronica continued to serve students often left behind in traditional educational settings. She taught both academic and creative writing with the Boys and Girls Club, the Writer’s Exchange, and Stratford Academy. In each of these roles, Veronica honed her skills for building strong relationships with students and teaching effectively.
Veronica attended college at the University of British Columbia, where she was the recipient of the International Leader of Tomorrow Award, a prestigious scholarship that fully funded her degree and honored her skills in leadership and community service. At UBC, Veronica studied Education and Creative Writing. She was honored with the TREK Excellence Award for graduating at the top of her class and the Grant McWhirter Poetry Prize for excellence in the Creative Writing program. While at UBC, Veronica also worked as a Writing Peer with the Center for Writing and Scholarly Communication, where she coached college-age students writing across a wide array of disciplines. In the summer of 2023 Veronica attended the Soaring Gardens Artist Residency, funded through the Ora Lerman Trust. She is a regular participant in writing workshops across NYC, including with the Writer’s Rock. She loves one-on-one coaching (with both kids and adults!) because she loves to see students find their voice and recognize their own brilliance.
In her free time, Veronica is writing a novel about the Midwest, playing with her cat, and making visual art. She’s excited to be a writing coach with Hewes House.
Show more
Ky Huynh
Writing coach
Ky Huynh is an educator, world traveler, lover of arts, maker of crafts, and writer of stories. In Ky’s extensive teaching and tutoring experience, she has taught English, math, physics, art history, biology, and creative writing to students of all ages.
Ky holds a B.A. in English and Psychology from UC Berkeley and, perhaps unnecessarily, holds two masters degrees, one in Nonprofit Management from Milano Graduate School and one in Education from Hunter College.
Ky is a passionate world traveler, starting with her service in the Peace Corps in Bangladesh where she taught English to primary school teachers. Since then, she has traveled to more than thirty countries, and forty-nine of the fifty United States (I’m coming for you Alaska!).
In her free time, Ky makes tiny paintings, writes short stories, and crochets small animals.
Show more
Porochista Khakpour
Writing coach, editor
Porochista Khakpour has been awarded fellowships from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, Northwestern University, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, MacDowell, Civitella Ranieri, Yaddo, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (twice), and The Ucross Foundation (four times). Her work has been nominated for several Pushcart Prizes. She is the recipient of a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Literature Fellowship in Creative Writing (Prose).
Her debut novel Sons and Other Flammable Objects (Grove/Atlantic, 2007) was a New York Times “Editor’s Choice,” Chicago Tribune “Fall’s Best,” and 2007 California Book Award winner. It also made the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing shortlist, the Dylan Thomas Prize long list, the Believer Book Award longlist, and many others.
Her second novel, The Last Illusion (Bloomsbury, 2014) was a Kirkus Best Book of 2014, a Buzzfeed Best Fiction Book of 2014, an NPR Best Book of 2014, one of Buzzfeed’s 28 Best Books By Women in 2014, an Electric Literature Best Book of 2014, a Volume1 Brooklyn Favorite Book of 2014, a PopMatters Best Book of 2014, one of Refinery29’s 2015 Books to Read in 2015, and one of Largehearted Boy’s 11 Favorite Novels of 2014. It was also one of Flavorwire’s 15 “Most Anticipated Books of 2014”, io9.com’s “Mind-Blowing Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Watch Out For in 2015”, The Millions “Most Anticipated” in their “The Great 2014 Book Preview”, Flavorwire’s “50 Excellent Fabulist Novels Everyone Should Read,”, and the Huffington Post’s “30 Books You NEED to Read in 2014.”
Her most widely-read book, the memoir SICK, was published by the Harper Perennial imprint of HarperCollins (2018). It was called “a memoir of chronic illness, misdiagnosis, addiction, and the myth of full recovery, chronicling the long, arduous discovery of her late-stage Lyme Disease.” It was a Best Book of 2018 according to TIME, Real Simple, Entropy, Mental Floss, Bitch Media, Autostraddle, The Paris Reivew, LitHub, and more. It was published by Canongate in the UK.
In May 2020, the Vintage imprint of Knopf Doubleday published her first collection of essays, Brown Album to all starred pre-pub reviews and much critical acclaim.
In June 2024, the Pantheon imprint of Knopf Doubleday published her third novel Tehrangeles. The novel has been a “Most Anticipated/Best” book in lists by TIME, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, W, The New York Post, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Nylon, The National, The Seattle Times, Library Journal, Alta Journal, and more. It was also a June 2024 Indie Next Pick, an NPR Book of the Day, and a Best Book of 2024 by Vogue, W, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, and more. Kevin Kwan endorsed the novel: “Like Little Women on an ayahuasca trip, Tehrangeles is delightfully twisted and heartfelt. If you set a TikTok mukbang at a Crazy Rich Persian wedding, you’d still have a long way to go to capture the extravagant eccentricities of the Milani sisters. Porochista Khakpour is a satirist extraordinaire who astutely captures the zeitgeist of a culture and a place where “reality” is just something you livestream and truth is a billion times stranger than fiction. The antics and agonies of the Milani family had me googling pet psychics and turning the pages gleefully—at turns surprised and horrified, but always charmed and laughing so hard.” She and the book made it on the longlist of the 2025 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award as well as the longslist of the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize.
She penned the following forwards/introduction: a new English edition of one of the greatest modern Iranian novels of all time, Sadegh Hedayat’s The Blind Owl (Grove, 2010); a novel by Chinese experimental writer Can Xue, Frontier (Open Letter, 2017); New Yorker writer Alison Rose’s rereleased memoir Better Than Sane (Godine, 2023), and Kurdish writer Farad Pirbal’s short story collection The Potato Eaters (Deep Vellum, 2024).
Her other writing (essays, features, reviews, cover stories, and columns) have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Esquire, Conde Nast Traveler, The Financial Times, The Daily Beast, The Village Voice, The Chicago Reader, Bookforum, BOMB, Al Jazeera America, Vogue Arabia, Vice, GQ, The Paris Review Daily, Elle, Spin, Slate, Salon, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Guernica, Departures, Paper, Flaunt, Nylon, Bidoun, Alef, Canteen, Granta.com, Newyorker.com, and many other magazines and newspapers around the world.
She regularly gives talks, lectures, and readings at festivals, universities, conventions, and conferences all over the country, from a keynote speech at the University of Cincinnati’s Rope Lecture Series to the PEN/Faulkner Reading Series (with Achy Obejas and Danzy Senna) to the Lannan Reading Series (in conversation with Karen Russell). She has been a presenter at various book festivals all over the country, such as the Brooklyn Book Festival, the Los Angeles Times Book Festival, the Texas Book Festival, and PEN World Voices. She has also presented at international book festivals such as the Perth and Adelaide Book Festivals in Australia (2015) and the Ubud Writers Festival in Bali (2015). She was most recently a speaker at the Women Deliver conference in Kigali, Rwanda (2023).
She has been on a jury member, judge, reader, etc for PEN (PEN/Open Book, PEN/Faulkner, & PEN/Saul Bellow), the NEA, the Neustadt Prize, The Berlin Prize, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Rona Jaffe Foundation prizes, Asian American Writers Workshop writing contests, and many more.
She has taught creative writing and literature at Bard College (where she was Writer-in-Residence from 2014-2017), Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, Wesleyan University, Sarah Lawrence College, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Hofstra University, Fordham University, Bucknell University, Santa Fe University of Art and Design, Fairfield University’s MFA program, Stonecoast’s low-residency MFA, the University of Leipzig (where she was a Picador Guest Professor), the Bruce High Quality Foundation, the Gotham Writers Workshop, The Center for Fiction, Corporeal Writing, and The Shipman Agency Work Room. She is currently teaching at Ashland University’s low-residency MFA program.
Additionally, she has been guest faculty at the Yale Writers Conference, Cleveland State University’s Imagination Conference, Taos Summer Writers’ Conference, Grub Street Muse & Marketplace Conference, Kundiman Conferences, and many more.
Khakpour was one of Dazed’s “Top 10 American Writers You Need to Read This Year,” one of Buzzfeed’s 32 Essential Asian-American Writers You Need to Be Reading, a Buzzfeed Community/OpenRoadMedia “10 Amazing Female Novelists Under 50,” and one of Entropy’s “Literary Advocates.”
She was a literary criticism columnist for The Virginia Quarterly Review , a senior editor at Los Angeles Review of Books, and contributing editor at The Offing. She edited a digital zine for Medium in 2018, co-edited Evergreen Review’s December 2022 Theresa Hak Kyung Cha/Dictee special issue, and guest-edited of Guernica‘s Iranian-American issue, which came out in November 2011.Most recently, she was the editor of Evergreen Review’s first Iran issue (spring 2023). She also served on the advisory board of the University of Iowa Press’s The Iowa Review Series in Fiction. She is currently a contributing editor at The Evergreen Review.
She lives in New York City’s Harlem.
Show more
Maggie Sadler
Writing coach, editor
Maggie Sadler is a dynamic and intentional writing coach, editor, and literary agent dedicated to helping her clients plumb the depths of their potential as writers. Maggie marries her unique energy with a growth-minded mentorship approach to guide and support clients through their adventures in writing.
Maggie’s professional journey has been distinct and varied, first beginning in the freelance space as a self-starting editor, where she developed a keen passion for teaching authors how to further develop their craft with detailed developmental feedback. Building on this experience, Maggie lends her eye for artful prose to a boutique agency as a literary agent. Championing debut authors has been the most inspiring aspect of Maggie’s work in the literary sphere. These complimentary experiences inform her mentorship practice, which is steeped in productive critique, industry integrity, creative curiosity, and positive encouragement. Above all, Maggie values the small moments—the discovery of a particularly beautiful word, a client having the courage to read their writing aloud for the first time, or a client feeling genuine pride in their work— that arise during a client’s creative journey.
Maggie earned her joint Masters with honors in Comparative Literature and English from the historic University of St Andrews and her Masters in Literary Studies from Memorial University of Newfoundland. As a student, she honed her diverse literary interests in folklore retellings, nineteenth-century maritime adventure fiction, and audience reception across creative mediums. Her scholarly work has been featured in Inquiries and Coriolis journals.
A writer herself, Maggie draws inspiration from folklore, sweeping landscapes, and untamed femininity as she scribbles away at her debut novel. When not reading or writing, Maggie can usually be found exploring astride her rascally horse or admiring various species of moss on hikes with her partner.
Show more
Darina Sikmashvili
Writing coach, editor
Darina (Dasha) Sikmashvili was born in Lubny, Ukraine and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She received her MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan and has worked in film production for over a decade. Her fiction, essays, and screenplays have won the Hopwood Prize, the Kasdan Scholarship, and the Henfield Prize, among others. She is the recipient of scholarships from Can Serrat Residency, Laimun Residency, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Her recent writing appears in The Common, Fence, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. A complete list of her publications and more information is available at: sikmashvili.com
Show more
Eva Warrick
Writing coach, editor
Eva Warrick is a fiction writer, educator and visual artist. She enjoys working with people and projects at all stages of development, from students writing for the first time to professionals honing skills. For all types of writing, she helps clients gain confidence, enjoy writing, and unlock blocks by starting with permission, play and creative brainstorming. She values encouragement, trust and developing long-term rapport with her clients.
Eva has worked with a variety of clients in professional and corporate capacities on projects including internal communications, reports, sales communiqués, web content and skills refreshers. Her business writing coaching emphasizes audience-specific content written with concision and clarity. As an editor she has broad genre experience, from literary fiction manuscripts to architecture, graphic novel, fantasy, and memoir. Other experience includes academic writing, college application essays, and contest and grant applications.
Over fifteen years of teaching experience, she has taught academic and creative writing at the University of Michigan, and worked remotely with international students based in Shanghai. Prior to this, she taught visual art and design for several years at various universities. Eva earned an MFA in painting at Indiana University and an MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan in 2022. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Granta, A Public Space and The Southern Review and has been financially supported by the Helen Zell Writers Program, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation & Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Tin House and Yaddo.
Eva lives in the Pacific Northwest and Amsterdam as a resident of the Netherlands. She is currently writing a story collection and a novel, and continues to paint.
Show more
Jonathan Zelinger
Writing coach
Jonathan Zelinger is a writer, work-shopper, facilitator, and matchmaker. He is a former high school English teacher, essay retreat leader, florist, corporate copywriter, and letter writing advocate. Currently, he works for StoryCorps as a writer and field producer. He lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and is the host of the Paired Down Podcast. He is also the writer of many essays, many of which can be found at jonathanzelinger.com.
Jonathan works with writers of all ages. He is a great resource for Creative Nonfiction, college admissions, speechwriting, and process building. He prides himself on creating a non-judgemental and safe environment for his clients to comfortably think out loud.
Show more
Lucy K Shaw
Publishing coach
Lucy K Shaw is a writer, editor, publisher and teacher from England. She founded the independent press, Shabby Doll House in 2012 and has published work by hundreds of writers and artists from around the world, first online and now in print books. She is the author of five books of prose and has been published extensively in anthologies and journals. She teaches regular online writing workshops through Shabby Doll House. She lives in France.
Show more
Josh Boardman
Founder
Josh Boardman is from Michigan. He has worked as a writing coach and tutor in the elite spheres of New York City, and his writing has appeared in numerous outlets, both online and in print. He is the author of the chapbook Plantain (West Vine Press, 2018) and conducted the Latin translation project We, Romans (2015). His stories have appeared in journals such as New York Tyrant, Catapult, and Dandruff Magazine. He lives in Beacon, New York, where he is working on his first novel and a collection of stories about his hometown. You can find more of his work here: joshboardman.com
Show more
Ben Griffin
Founder
Ben Griffin is one of the co-founders of Hewes House, and brings a lifetime of enthusiasm for literature and the arts to his role at the company. He has over a decade of experience creating kinetic sculpture, as well as a background writing short stories and poetry. Ben’s experience in software design and business operations has enabled him to handle much of the back-office work at Hewes House. Ben is based in the East Village, New York City and can be found reading in cafes, picnicking in parks, and traveling the globe in his free time.
Show more
Veronica Ciastko
Writing coach
Veronica Ciastko is an experienced educator, writer, and comics-artist. She has worked with students of all ages, from first graders to Ph.D. candidates, and is passionate about helping her students communicate clearly and effectively through writing.
Veronica’s teaching experience began with AmeriCorps’ City Year program, where she served sixth graders in a low-income literacy classroom. Following this experience, Veronica continued to serve students often left behind in traditional educational settings. She taught both academic and creative writing with the Boys and Girls Club, the Writer’s Exchange, and Stratford Academy. In each of these roles, Veronica honed her skills for building strong relationships with students and teaching effectively.
Veronica attended college at the University of British Columbia, where she was the recipient of the International Leader of Tomorrow Award, a prestigious scholarship that fully funded her degree and honored her skills in leadership and community service. At UBC, Veronica studied Education and Creative Writing. She was honored with the TREK Excellence Award for graduating at the top of her class and the Grant McWhirter Poetry Prize for excellence in the Creative Writing program. While at UBC, Veronica also worked as a Writing Peer with the Center for Writing and Scholarly Communication, where she coached college-age students writing across a wide array of disciplines. In the summer of 2023 Veronica attended the Soaring Gardens Artist Residency, funded through the Ora Lerman Trust. She is a regular participant in writing workshops across NYC, including with the Writer’s Rock. She loves one-on-one coaching (with both kids and adults!) because she loves to see students find their voice and recognize their own brilliance.
In her free time, Veronica is writing a novel about the Midwest, playing with her cat, and making visual art. She’s excited to be a writing coach with Hewes House.
Show more
Ky Huynh
Writing coach
Ky Huynh is an educator, world traveler, lover of arts, maker of crafts, and writer of stories. In Ky’s extensive teaching and tutoring experience, she has taught English, math, physics, art history, biology, and creative writing to students of all ages.
Ky holds a B.A. in English and Psychology from UC Berkeley and, perhaps unnecessarily, holds two masters degrees, one in Nonprofit Management from Milano Graduate School and one in Education from Hunter College.
Ky is a passionate world traveler, starting with her service in the Peace Corps in Bangladesh where she taught English to primary school teachers. Since then, she has traveled to more than thirty countries, and forty-nine of the fifty United States (I’m coming for you Alaska!).
In her free time, Ky makes tiny paintings, writes short stories, and crochets small animals.
Show more
Porochista Khakpour
Writing coach, editor
Porochista Khakpour has been awarded fellowships from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, Northwestern University, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, MacDowell, Civitella Ranieri, Yaddo, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (twice), and The Ucross Foundation (four times). Her work has been nominated for several Pushcart Prizes. She is the recipient of a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Literature Fellowship in Creative Writing (Prose).
Her debut novel Sons and Other Flammable Objects (Grove/Atlantic, 2007) was a New York Times “Editor’s Choice,” Chicago Tribune “Fall’s Best,” and 2007 California Book Award winner. It also made the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing shortlist, the Dylan Thomas Prize long list, the Believer Book Award longlist, and many others.
Her second novel, The Last Illusion (Bloomsbury, 2014) was a Kirkus Best Book of 2014, a Buzzfeed Best Fiction Book of 2014, an NPR Best Book of 2014, one of Buzzfeed’s 28 Best Books By Women in 2014, an Electric Literature Best Book of 2014, a Volume1 Brooklyn Favorite Book of 2014, a PopMatters Best Book of 2014, one of Refinery29’s 2015 Books to Read in 2015, and one of Largehearted Boy’s 11 Favorite Novels of 2014. It was also one of Flavorwire’s 15 “Most Anticipated Books of 2014”, io9.com’s “Mind-Blowing Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Watch Out For in 2015”, The Millions “Most Anticipated” in their “The Great 2014 Book Preview”, Flavorwire’s “50 Excellent Fabulist Novels Everyone Should Read,”, and the Huffington Post’s “30 Books You NEED to Read in 2014.”
Her most widely-read book, the memoir SICK, was published by the Harper Perennial imprint of HarperCollins (2018). It was called “a memoir of chronic illness, misdiagnosis, addiction, and the myth of full recovery, chronicling the long, arduous discovery of her late-stage Lyme Disease.” It was a Best Book of 2018 according to TIME, Real Simple, Entropy, Mental Floss, Bitch Media, Autostraddle, The Paris Reivew, LitHub, and more. It was published by Canongate in the UK.
In May 2020, the Vintage imprint of Knopf Doubleday published her first collection of essays, Brown Album to all starred pre-pub reviews and much critical acclaim.
In June 2024, the Pantheon imprint of Knopf Doubleday published her third novel Tehrangeles. The novel has been a “Most Anticipated/Best” book in lists by TIME, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, W, The New York Post, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Nylon, The National, The Seattle Times, Library Journal, Alta Journal, and more. It was also a June 2024 Indie Next Pick, an NPR Book of the Day, and a Best Book of 2024 by Vogue, W, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, and more. Kevin Kwan endorsed the novel: “Like Little Women on an ayahuasca trip, Tehrangeles is delightfully twisted and heartfelt. If you set a TikTok mukbang at a Crazy Rich Persian wedding, you’d still have a long way to go to capture the extravagant eccentricities of the Milani sisters. Porochista Khakpour is a satirist extraordinaire who astutely captures the zeitgeist of a culture and a place where “reality” is just something you livestream and truth is a billion times stranger than fiction. The antics and agonies of the Milani family had me googling pet psychics and turning the pages gleefully—at turns surprised and horrified, but always charmed and laughing so hard.” She and the book made it on the longlist of the 2025 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award as well as the longslist of the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize.
She penned the following forwards/introduction: a new English edition of one of the greatest modern Iranian novels of all time, Sadegh Hedayat’s The Blind Owl (Grove, 2010); a novel by Chinese experimental writer Can Xue, Frontier (Open Letter, 2017); New Yorker writer Alison Rose’s rereleased memoir Better Than Sane (Godine, 2023), and Kurdish writer Farad Pirbal’s short story collection The Potato Eaters (Deep Vellum, 2024).
Her other writing (essays, features, reviews, cover stories, and columns) have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Esquire, Conde Nast Traveler, The Financial Times, The Daily Beast, The Village Voice, The Chicago Reader, Bookforum, BOMB, Al Jazeera America, Vogue Arabia, Vice, GQ, The Paris Review Daily, Elle, Spin, Slate, Salon, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Guernica, Departures, Paper, Flaunt, Nylon, Bidoun, Alef, Canteen, Granta.com, Newyorker.com, and many other magazines and newspapers around the world.
She regularly gives talks, lectures, and readings at festivals, universities, conventions, and conferences all over the country, from a keynote speech at the University of Cincinnati’s Rope Lecture Series to the PEN/Faulkner Reading Series (with Achy Obejas and Danzy Senna) to the Lannan Reading Series (in conversation with Karen Russell). She has been a presenter at various book festivals all over the country, such as the Brooklyn Book Festival, the Los Angeles Times Book Festival, the Texas Book Festival, and PEN World Voices. She has also presented at international book festivals such as the Perth and Adelaide Book Festivals in Australia (2015) and the Ubud Writers Festival in Bali (2015). She was most recently a speaker at the Women Deliver conference in Kigali, Rwanda (2023).
She has been on a jury member, judge, reader, etc for PEN (PEN/Open Book, PEN/Faulkner, & PEN/Saul Bellow), the NEA, the Neustadt Prize, The Berlin Prize, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Rona Jaffe Foundation prizes, Asian American Writers Workshop writing contests, and many more.
She has taught creative writing and literature at Bard College (where she was Writer-in-Residence from 2014-2017), Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, Wesleyan University, Sarah Lawrence College, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Hofstra University, Fordham University, Bucknell University, Santa Fe University of Art and Design, Fairfield University’s MFA program, Stonecoast’s low-residency MFA, the University of Leipzig (where she was a Picador Guest Professor), the Bruce High Quality Foundation, the Gotham Writers Workshop, The Center for Fiction, Corporeal Writing, and The Shipman Agency Work Room. She is currently teaching at Ashland University’s low-residency MFA program.
Additionally, she has been guest faculty at the Yale Writers Conference, Cleveland State University’s Imagination Conference, Taos Summer Writers’ Conference, Grub Street Muse & Marketplace Conference, Kundiman Conferences, and many more.
Khakpour was one of Dazed’s “Top 10 American Writers You Need to Read This Year,” one of Buzzfeed’s 32 Essential Asian-American Writers You Need to Be Reading, a Buzzfeed Community/OpenRoadMedia “10 Amazing Female Novelists Under 50,” and one of Entropy’s “Literary Advocates.”
She was a literary criticism columnist for The Virginia Quarterly Review , a senior editor at Los Angeles Review of Books, and contributing editor at The Offing. She edited a digital zine for Medium in 2018, co-edited Evergreen Review’s December 2022 Theresa Hak Kyung Cha/Dictee special issue, and guest-edited of Guernica‘s Iranian-American issue, which came out in November 2011.Most recently, she was the editor of Evergreen Review’s first Iran issue (spring 2023). She also served on the advisory board of the University of Iowa Press’s The Iowa Review Series in Fiction. She is currently a contributing editor at The Evergreen Review.
She lives in New York City’s Harlem.
Show more
Maggie Sadler
Writing coach, editor
Maggie Sadler is a dynamic and intentional writing coach, editor, and literary agent dedicated to helping her clients plumb the depths of their potential as writers. Maggie marries her unique energy with a growth-minded mentorship approach to guide and support clients through their adventures in writing.
Maggie’s professional journey has been distinct and varied, first beginning in the freelance space as a self-starting editor, where she developed a keen passion for teaching authors how to further develop their craft with detailed developmental feedback. Building on this experience, Maggie lends her eye for artful prose to a boutique agency as a literary agent. Championing debut authors has been the most inspiring aspect of Maggie’s work in the literary sphere. These complimentary experiences inform her mentorship practice, which is steeped in productive critique, industry integrity, creative curiosity, and positive encouragement. Above all, Maggie values the small moments—the discovery of a particularly beautiful word, a client having the courage to read their writing aloud for the first time, or a client feeling genuine pride in their work— that arise during a client’s creative journey.
Maggie earned her joint Masters with honors in Comparative Literature and English from the historic University of St Andrews and her Masters in Literary Studies from Memorial University of Newfoundland. As a student, she honed her diverse literary interests in folklore retellings, nineteenth-century maritime adventure fiction, and audience reception across creative mediums. Her scholarly work has been featured in Inquiries and Coriolis journals.
A writer herself, Maggie draws inspiration from folklore, sweeping landscapes, and untamed femininity as she scribbles away at her debut novel. When not reading or writing, Maggie can usually be found exploring astride her rascally horse or admiring various species of moss on hikes with her partner.
Show more
Darina Sikmashvili
Writing coach, editor
Darina (Dasha) Sikmashvili was born in Lubny, Ukraine and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She received her MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan and has worked in film production for over a decade. Her fiction, essays, and screenplays have won the Hopwood Prize, the Kasdan Scholarship, and the Henfield Prize, among others. She is the recipient of scholarships from Can Serrat Residency, Laimun Residency, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Her recent writing appears in The Common, Fence, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. A complete list of her publications and more information is available at: sikmashvili.com
Show more
Eva Warrick
Writing coach, editor
Eva Warrick is a fiction writer, educator and visual artist. She enjoys working with people and projects at all stages of development, from students writing for the first time to professionals honing skills. For all types of writing, she helps clients gain confidence, enjoy writing, and unlock blocks by starting with permission, play and creative brainstorming. She values encouragement, trust and developing long-term rapport with her clients.
Eva has worked with a variety of clients in professional and corporate capacities on projects including internal communications, reports, sales communiqués, web content and skills refreshers. Her business writing coaching emphasizes audience-specific content written with concision and clarity. As an editor she has broad genre experience, from literary fiction manuscripts to architecture, graphic novel, fantasy, and memoir. Other experience includes academic writing, college application essays, and contest and grant applications.
Over fifteen years of teaching experience, she has taught academic and creative writing at the University of Michigan, and worked remotely with international students based in Shanghai. Prior to this, she taught visual art and design for several years at various universities. Eva earned an MFA in painting at Indiana University and an MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan in 2022. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Granta, A Public Space and The Southern Review and has been financially supported by the Helen Zell Writers Program, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation & Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Tin House and Yaddo.
Eva lives in the Pacific Northwest and Amsterdam as a resident of the Netherlands. She is currently writing a story collection and a novel, and continues to paint.
Show more
Jonathan Zelinger
Writing coach
Jonathan Zelinger is a writer, work-shopper, facilitator, and matchmaker. He is a former high school English teacher, essay retreat leader, florist, corporate copywriter, and letter writing advocate. Currently, he works for StoryCorps as a writer and field producer. He lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and is the host of the Paired Down Podcast. He is also the writer of many essays, many of which can be found at jonathanzelinger.com.
Jonathan works with writers of all ages. He is a great resource for Creative Nonfiction, college admissions, speechwriting, and process building. He prides himself on creating a non-judgemental and safe environment for his clients to comfortably think out loud.
Show more
Lucy K Shaw
Publishing coach
Lucy K Shaw is a writer, editor, publisher and teacher from England. She founded the independent press, Shabby Doll House in 2012 and has published work by hundreds of writers and artists from around the world, first online and now in print books. She is the author of five books of prose and has been published extensively in anthologies and journals. She teaches regular online writing workshops through Shabby Doll House. She lives in France.
Show more
Josh Boardman
Founder
Josh Boardman is from Michigan. He has worked as a writing coach and tutor in the elite spheres of New York City, and his writing has appeared in numerous outlets, both online and in print. He is the author of the chapbook Plantain (West Vine Press, 2018) and conducted the Latin translation project We, Romans (2015). His stories have appeared in journals such as New York Tyrant, Catapult, and Dandruff Magazine. He lives in Beacon, New York, where he is working on his first novel and a collection of stories about his hometown. You can find more of his work here: joshboardman.com
Show more
Ben Griffin
Founder
Ben Griffin is one of the co-founders of Hewes House, and brings a lifetime of enthusiasm for literature and the arts to his role at the company. He has over a decade of experience creating kinetic sculpture, as well as a background writing short stories and poetry. Ben’s experience in software design and business operations has enabled him to handle much of the back-office work at Hewes House. Ben is based in the East Village, New York City and can be found reading in cafes, picnicking in parks, and traveling the globe in his free time.
Show more
You must write it.
You must write it.
At Hewes House, we’ve helped hundreds of writers and professionals achieve their potential.
I’m proud of the tools we have created to create accountability, provide craft knowledge borne from experience, and personalize our approach to writing instruction. At Hewes House, we’re writers first; familiar as I am with the satisfaction earned through completing a stressful project, I want you to achieve the one-of-a-kind experience of finishing your book.
Toni Morrison said, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” If writing calls you, we’re here to help you rise to the occasion.
See you at the writing desk,
At Hewes House, we’ve helped hundreds of writers and professionals achieve their potential.
I’m proud of the tools we have created to create accountability, provide craft knowledge borne from experience, and personalize our approach to writing instruction. At Hewes House, we’re writers first; familiar as I am with the satisfaction earned through completing a stressful project, I want you to achieve the one-of-a-kind experience of finishing your book.
Toni Morrison said, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” If writing calls you, we’re here to help you rise to the occasion.
See you at the writing desk,
Josh Boardman
Founder
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Josh Boardman, Founder
Ben Griffin, Founder