Middle Grade Fiction First Pages, with Andrea Cascardi

In this intimate workshop, you'll receive a written critique of your opening 15 pages (3750 words) from literary agent Andrea Cascardi from the Transatlantic Agency plus get the opportunity to speak to Andrea individually in the live group call that follows critiques. You'll also exchange critiques within your group of up to 7 writers. 

Andrea seeks middle grade and young adult novels, especially magical realism, pacy adventures, historical fiction, rom-coms, and nonfiction. Books with heart and humor and #ownvoices stories that center diverse characters are on her wish list. She is not interested in horror or sci-fi.

How it works

You'll submit your pages at the group start, then spend the next weeks critiquing peer stories. Andrea will submit her notes near the critique deadline. After critiques are complete, we host a 2-hour group debrief, in which each writer gets 15 minutes of individual time with Andrea to dig into feedback, brainstorm next steps, and discuss any writing questions. 

Our goal with these events is to help writers become stronger storytellers. That said, this workshop also comes with a submission opportunity.

About the group workshop format

Participants should be sure they have at least 1 hour to give for critiquing each person's manuscript (plus reading time). Because this is a group of 7, this means you should have at least 6 hours available for your peers' stories.

This makes for an intense workload for the few weeks of peer critique. However, we've also found that this format accelerates learning because you are able to read a professional's feedback on each story you have read and critiqued, and you will listen to each one-on-one in the debrief. Many writers have told us that listening and learning from the professional's notes to others has been just as beneficial to their learning as the feedback on their own work.