Cornerstones: Spring updates from Cornerstones HQ
Read on for more information about exciting event where you can pick up some editing tips, our new team members, and an ELEVATE success story!
Dear all,
We hope you had a lovely long weekend, and that you’re enjoying a bit of spring sunshine wherever you are!
💬 We’re running our free, online open day for the Edit Your Novel the Professional Way course ahead of its next run in June. We’d be delighted if you wanted to join; you can find the details below and get tickets here!
The day will run as follows:
12-1pm - Meet the tutors, learn all about the course, and ask any burning questions in a Q&A session.
1-2pm - Attend a roundtable discussion with our wonderful course tutors and alumni, hear about their experience on the course and how their writing journeys have progressed since. Write down your questions, as you’ll be able to ask more in the Q&A at the end!
👩💻 We’re excited to introduce two new members of the core Cornerstones team! Editorial Director Monica Chakraverty, and Kyrie Roxby, our new Editorial Assistant, joined recently and have enjoyed jumping into our pile of submissions.
Monica has over twenty years’ experience as an editor in publishing – she most recently worked at HarperCollins, where she commissioned her own list. As the Editorial Director for Cornerstones, she’ll be looking at our scouting programme submissions, and guiding authors on how to refine their submission packages!
Kyrie graduated from Royal Holloway University in 2020, with a BA in English. Before coming to Cornerstones, she worked as a librarian at a school while refining her editorial skills through the Creative Access Mentorship Programme paired with Penguin Random House. At Cornerstones, Kyrie will be focusing on assessing new manuscripts that come in, pairing authors with editors, and proofreading editorial reports.
We’ve also had two new freelance editors join our editor stable. Ericka Waller, Cornerstones alum and author of Dog Days, has joined in the UK, and Andres Vaamonde, a former book scout and creative writing teacher, in the US. Both Ericka and Andres are core editors; if you’d like to book in with one of them, do get in touch with the Cornerstones team and we can set that up!
🏆 We’re delighted to announce that Mai Le Dinh, who joined our ELEVATE programme back in February 2021, was shortlisted for the Joffe Prize with her novel The Smiling Mandarin, and has found representation with United Agents!
We’ve had many messages asking when ELEVATE will reopen, and we’re eager to continue the programme but are still in the process of applying for funding. Watch this space – we’ll announce on social media and in our newsletter as soon as we can open submissions! In the meantime, remember you can always send in the first ten pages of your manuscript and synopsis for our free feedback.
🎤 Last but definitely not least, if you’re going to the Bournemouth Writing Festival next weekend, Helen is doing a Q&A session with Katherine Baldwin on how to find an agent. The event will take place on Sunday 23rd April at 1-2pm, and we’d love to know if you’ll be there!
You can find out more about the festival here.
That’s all from us! Feel free to email the office if you have any questions, or are in need of any writing and editing advice. We’ll be out and about at London Book Fair this week, but will be back at our desks next week and look forward to hearing your writing news.
Very best,
The Cornerstones Team