Neil helped me immensely and I am so grateful for his time, skill, and advice. I consulted Neil when I needed help with ordering my first full-length poetry manuscript. The manuscript was making its way to the finalist round of a few contests, but it wasn’t winning, and I was starting to feel like it was time to move on from the project, at least temporarily. Luckily, a friend referred me to Neil. I told Neil that I needed some assistance finding the right order for the poems.
Talking with him was not only fun, but extremely helpful—he is a genius at ordering poems, finding narrative arcs and giving the poems a beautiful trajectory that I didn’t originally see on my own. Sometimes we’re too immersed in our projects to see the broader picture. I came to trust his arrangement skills so much that I scheduled a second session with him. He was the first person to suggest the book’s title. When we landed on it, we laughed—it suddenly seemed obvious. We discussed how some editors would love it and some would hate it, but it had to be the title. I slowly began to submit to contests again.
Shortly after our second session, my manuscript was selected as a winner of Trio House Press’ open reading period. It will be published in 2020, and Neil will definitely be in the acknowledgements! I am so grateful for his time and help and highly recommend working with him. He helped me achieve a lifelong dream, giving me hope and assistance at vital times.
—Madeleine Barnes, poet and author of You Do Not Have to Be Good.