Claire Holden Rothman - Hire a Writer

Fiction, Non-Fiction

Contact Claire

Website

Services:

Coaching/Mentoring

Editing

Manuscript Evaluation

Available for:

Book-Length Fiction

Memoir

Short Fiction

Bio

I am a writer, translator and editor. My publications include two story collections and three novels. Lear’s Shadow won the 2019 Vine Award for Jewish Canadian Fiction and was short-listed for the 2020 Jacob Isaac Segal Award for Best Quebec Book on a Jewish Theme. My October (2014) was finalist for the Governor General’s Fiction Award and long-listed for the Scotia Bank-Giller Prize, and The Heart Specialist (2009), was also long-listed for the Giller. For many years I taught English at Marianopolis College in Montreal. I have also led advanced fiction workshops at McGill, Bishop’s, and Concordia Universities.

Meeting fellow writers and helping them bring their work into the world is one of the pleasures of this writing life. Through the QWF Hire a Writer program, I’ve been a midwife to some beautiful births.

Services Offered

I offer a broad range of mentoring and editorial services including substantive edits and line edits. I also coach writers. If you are starting a project, I can help you develop ideas. As you write, I can provide deadlines and whatever form of feedback is useful. If you have a manuscript in hand, I can edit for structure. If you are near completion, I can do line edits and polish. I tend to ask lots of questions, encouraging writers to develop their own vision and voice. Texts of all lengths are welcome—short pieces for contests or journals, and longer works over several drafts. After written feedback has been received, consults are offered online or in person so you can ask questions. Services are tailored to your needs.

Special Interests

Literary fiction (short story, novel), nonfiction and memoir.

Testimonials

If you get a chance to work with Claire Holden Rothman on any creative endeavour, I heartily suggest you do so. She is exacting in her editing, yet she always manages to encourage me to push the work forward, and to reignite my excitement for it. This is priceless to my process and I have accomplished much more than ever before due to her mentorship and editing.

—Michelle Lalonde, JournalistMontreal Gazette

I learned a lot from Rothman’s evaluation of my manuscript and came away eager and with greater confidence to complete my project. I strongly recommend her work.

—Garbette Garraway

Claire was the editor of my dreams. Throughout the entire process of crafting my hybrid memoir, she provided invaluable support and guidance. Even at the beginning, when I only had a few thousand words and was unsure of my story’s potential, Claire encouraged me to keep writing. She knew I had a story even before I did. She skillfully led me through draft after draft, offering insightful feedback and line edits that helped refine and strengthen my writing. As a seasoned fiction writer, Claire was especially beneficial in enhancing my scene-building and description.

—Alice Switocz Goldbloom