Middle Grade Workshop with Alison Weiss, Winter 2026

A three-month workshop for writers seeking story-level feedback on their Middle Grade projects to take their work to the next level.

In this workshop, you will work with senior development editor, Alison Weiss, and a small group of writers (up to 4 others) on the first 15,000 words of your novels in process, over two rounds. The workshop includes written feedback from Alison and your peers, live calls to debrief each round, and a group discussion board.

The workshop begins with an introductory group call to meet the other members and discuss workshop expectations. Then you will submit the first 7,500 words of your project for feedback, plus a short synopsis (this is for your readers and will not be critiqued). You have three weeks to read and post your written critiques of participants work. Round 1 critiques are followed by a group debrief call where you can dig into questions about the notes and/or brainstorm with Alison about revisions. You will then submit your next 7,500 words for peer and professional feedback (either a revision of round 1, or the next section of your book). The group concludes with a second group debrief call. 

This workshop will be followed by the opportunity for a second workshop for writers who wish to continue working with Alison on their subsequent chapters (next 15K). There is no obligation to sign up for the second workshop, but for writers who wish to continue this provides the opportunity to workshop 30,000 words of a MG project. The second workshop will commence in June and will be offered for an additional fee.

What to expect from your written critiques: Alison will provide a detailed critique on your pages addressing character development, plot development, pacing, and sentence-level writing tips to take your pages to the next level. It will not include full line-edits.

*This workshop has a zero tolerance policy against racist, sexist, harassing, or otherwise offensive behavior. Writers who engage in this behavior against the instructor or fellow writers, or present material that promotes this behavior, will be removed from the workshop without a refund.