River Styx Writing Workshops

River Styx Online Writing Critiques

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We now offer Online Individual Critiques and Online Workshop Critiques. Instead of complicated conference calls, video chats, or a group board discussion online, we are reimagining online workshops and critiques with a simple direct system that allows you to choose your online workshop mates from our own River Styx family. Not only do we have award-winning writers and editors to select from, but also emerging writers and peer editors who might better add to a beginning writer’s workshop class or an individual peer-to-peer review. You can read through the bios of our editors below and select the ones who best complement your writing needs. Here’s how it works: 

 

ONLINE INDIVIDUAL CRITIQUES

Individual Poetry Critiques

Submit up to three poems in a single Word Doc via Submittable. Each poem’s length should be limited to two pages or fewer. After submitting your work, you will receive a 150-to-250-word critique for each poem within 10 business days, from the editor you have selected. Critiques will comment on poetry elements such as sound, image, form, pacing, themes, subject matter, and more.

Individual poetry critiques are $50 for a submission of one poem, $75 for two poems, and $100 for three poems. 

Individual Fiction and Nonfiction Critiques

For fiction and nonfiction, submit one manuscript up to 6,000 words in a Word Doc via Submittable. You will receive a 250-to-400-word critique within 10 business days of submission. These critiques will comment on prose elements such as imagery, pacing, point of view, structure, theme, motivation, conflict, background, scenes, and more.

Individual prose critiques are $125 for each submission of 2,000-to-6,000 words. Alternatively, you may submit two or three flash fiction pieces (up to 1,000 words each) for the same $125 flat fee.

 

ONLINE WORKSHOP CRITIQUES

For online workshop critiques, you will select 2 to 4 editors who will attend your online workshop. Similar to the individual critique, you will submit your manuscript for critique via Submittable, but in the workshop format, you will receive independent critique responses from the 2 to 4 River Styx editors of your choice. Then you will have the opportunity to return two follow up questions to each editor.

 

Poetry Workshop Critiques

Submit up to three poems in a Word Doc via Submittable. Each poem’s length should be limited to two pages or fewer. After submitting your work, you will receive a 150-250-word critique for each poem within 15 business days. 

Workshop poetry critiques are $100 for each submission, plus $50 for each editor added to the workshop. For example, a workshop with three editors would cost $250. 

 

Fiction and Nonfiction Workshop Critiques

For fiction and nonfiction, submit one manuscript up to 6,000 words in a Word Doc via Submittable. You will receive a 250-400-word critique within 15 business days of submission. 

Workshop prose critique pricing consists of a $125 flat fee for each submission of 3,000- 6,000 words, plus $50 for each editor added to the workshop. Alternatively, you may submit two or three flash fiction pieces up to 1,000 words each for critique for the same $125 flat fee. For example, a workshop with three editors cost $275.

 

Work submitted to workshops and for individual critiques is NOT eligible for submission to River Styx. As of now, we do not workshop or critique full-length book manuscripts, though we are weighing our options for the future.

 

Please inform us of which editors you choose to join your workshop. EDITOR BIOS BELOW.

River Styx Editors

Jason Lee Brown	Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction
Ron Austin	Fiction and Nonfiction
Kathy Bratkowski	Fiction and Nonfiction
Clayton Adam Clark	Poetry
Sandra Marchetti	Poetry
Adam Berner	Fiction and Nonfiction
Molly Harris	Fiction and Poetry

Jason Lee Brown is the author of four books, including the forthcoming story collection, Midwest Everyman (MadHat Press). His writing has appeared in literary journals such as Kenyon Review, Literary Review, North American Review, The Journal, Southern Humanities Review, Crab Orchard Review and Ecotone. He is the editor-in-chief of River Styx literary magazine, co-director of the River Styx Reading Series, and series editor of New Stories from The Midwest (New American Press). He also co-edited the poetry anthology The Book of Donuts (Terrapin Books).

Ron A. Austin’s short stories have been placed in Pleiades, Story Quarterly, Ninth Letter, Black Warrior Review, and other journals. Avery Colt Is a Snake, a Thief, a Liar, his first collection of linked stories, won the 2017 Nilsen Prize and was longlisted for the 2020 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize. Austin’s work has garnered a 2016 Regional Arts Commission Fellowship and a special mention in the 2015 Pushcart Prize Anthology.

Kathy Bratkowski is a writer and filmmaker. Her stories have been published in Old Northeast Review and Drunk Monkeys. She was a finalist in the Masters’ Workshops at the Tucson Festival of Books and has completed residencies at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and Craigardan. Her documentaries and shorts have been awarded multiple regional Emmy Awards and have been screened at the St. Louis International Film Festival and streamed on Amazon Prime. She has taught writing and media production at Webster University and Lindenwood University. She holds an M.F.A. in Fiction from the Warren Wilson M.F.A. Program for Writers. 

Clayton Adam Clark lives in Saint Louis, his hometown, where he works as a public health research scientist and volunteers for River Styx magazine. His debut poetry collection, A Finitude of Skin, won the 2017 Moon City Poetry Award and was published by Moon City Press in November 2018. He is a recipient of an Artist Support Grant from the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, and his poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry Daily, Shenandoah, The Massachusetts Review, and elsewhere. He earned the MFA in creative writing at Ohio State University and a master’s in clinical mental health counseling at University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Sandra Marchetti is the author of Confluence, a full-length collection of poetry from Sundress Publications (2015). She is also the author of four chapbooks of poetry and lyric essays. Sandra’s poetry appears in Poet Lore, Blackbird, Ecotone, Southwest Review, Subtropics, and elsewhere. Her essays can be found at The Rumpus, Whiskey Island, Mid-American Review, Barrelhouse, Pleiades, and other venues. In addition to her editorial work with River Styx, she has provided manuscript critique services for books later published with Kore Press, Sundress Publications, Red Hen Press, and additional fine publishers. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing—Poetry from George Mason University.  

 

Adam Berner is a Contributing Editor at River Styx. He is an experienced writer and editor who has worked at River Styx Literary Magazine, Musee Magazine, Maria Carvainis Agency, and GenZ Publishing. He is well versed in providing critical support and editorial feedback to writers of all ages for a variety of styles and genres. His experience in individualized writing critique comes from his background in collegiate creative writing courses and his time at several literary establishments.

 

Molly Harris is the managing editor of River Styx Literary Magazine, and she has worked at Natural Bridge, Boulevard, and december in the past. She received her MFA in fiction from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and her BA in English with an emphasis in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has published both poetry and prose in Furrow, Vagabond Literature, and Hooligan Magazine. In 2020, she won the title Writer of the Year from Over the Edge in Galway, Ireland.