In my online one on one poetry sessions I draw on my experience teaching mental health patients, students, and those who are writing outside of the classroom or any particular community. I find that reading poems from across the tradition is the best way to help poets to find their voice. All the reading and assignments that I give to students are tailored to their own particular needs and interests. Over the last year some of the poets we've read have included TS Eliot, Coleridge, John Donne, Mark Doty, Sharon Olds, Yeats, Keats, Sylvia Plath and Paul Murray OP. It's been amazing to see how the students' voices have strengthened and developed as a result. Writing prompts, and exercises, are given as needed, and each week we work through a poem, or poems, the student may have written.

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I also work with students who are putting together a manuscript for publication, and this includes fiction writers who need an eye on an ongoing project.

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2026 will see the publication of my ninth and tenth books. My publications cover poetry, non-fiction, popular lit crit, memoir, literary memoir and children's fiction. I find that looking at other people's work-- being that oh-so-valuable other set of eyes-- is very rewarding and I hope I can offer sensitivity and expertise to anyone wishing to write or read better.

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Please get in touch at the contact page to request details. 

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"Sally's meticulous attention to detail is accompanied by an ability to instantly sense my broader vision for the text...She has helped me hone my craft without ever imposing her own style or preferences. She has a true gift for enabling writers to flourish on their own terms."

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Sofia, memoirist

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"As an old yet fledgling want-to-be poet, the first person I send any of my work to is Sally Read. She has wisdom, sensitivity and an encyclopedic knowledge of poetry that enables US to work together to help me create what it is that I am attempting to say on my own. I think that her life experience, her conversion, and her faith provide a perfect backdrop to help the variety of eccentricities that poets as a whole bring to their work and to their readers. I trust no one else."

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Pat, poet

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"Sally's feedback was sensitive, constructive and encouraging. The line to line suggestions were detailed, and she helped identify overall themes. I wholeheartedly recommend her."

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Maria, poet