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BookEnds

One Novel | One Mentor | One Year

BookEnds is an innovative, yearlong and low-residency novel revision program, giving writers the tools, support, and community to take their work from promising draft all the way to completion. Co-directed by Meg Wolitzer and Alison Fairbrother, BookEnds has a remarkable success rate: 20% of our alums have published novels, and more than 35% have literary agents. 

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Ready to take your manuscript to the next level?

 

Co-directed by Meg Wolitzer and Alison Fairbrother, BookEnds is an innovative, yearlong and low-residency novel revision program, giving writers the tools, support, and community to take their work from promising draft all the way to completion. 

As a BookEnds fellow, you’ll spend a year writing, revising, and editing your manuscript alongside a small cohort of talented fiction writers with promising novel drafts. You’ll dive deep into your characters’ worlds using the unique BookEnds methodology and interrogatory techniques, with distinguished mentors such as Karen E. Bender, Matthew Klam, Lincoln Michel, Rachel Pastan, and Dawnie Walton to guide you along the way.

 

Meet Our Team
 

Want to know more?

Successful applicants must demonstrate a sustained commitment to their manuscripts, as well as the ability to work well in groups (what we call “pods”), to give and receive constructive feedback. There are four mandatory virtual meetings in May-June 2027 before we meet in July 2027 at the Southampton Writers Conference. Throughout the year, fellows meet with their pods and mentors, as well as stay in close communication with the Fellowship on Slack. In January 2028, we meet for a virtual retreat. In July 2028, the cohort returns to the Southampton Writers Conference for graduation and alumni retreat.

 

 

 How It Works
 

Think BookEnds could be right for you?

 

Applications for the 2027-2028 Fellowship will open November 1 and close December 15, 2026, or once we receive fifty applications.  For updates and with any questions, write to us at BookEnds@stonybrook.edu.

 

 

 How To Apply