Writing Coach

I want to read your story!

Need a beta reader for your novel?

Want help writing that college application/scholarship essay?

Crave clarity, connection, and personal transformation?

I can help.

I can edit a final draft before you submit it for publication or query an agent. I can also provide a framework to help take your creative or academic work to the next level. Or I can hold space with you in a writing circle dedicated to personal transformation.

Writing Coach Service (in person or on Zoom):

• $150/hr for 1, one-hour session,
• OR $1,250 for 10, one-hour sessions

Editing Service:

• $100/hr (rate may vary, depending on length of project and level of writing)

Writing Circle Service (in person or on Zoom):

Care of the Caregiver 

• Whether it is through our job, family role, or life stage, as caregivers, we are often required to hold trauma that is not ours. And once taken up, it can be difficult to put it down. This circle will invite you to name the trauma you have carried or continue to carry for others and to lay down what was never yours to hold onto. This circle invites you to make space for reflection and for rejuvenation. Together, we will move through a writing-driven process of letting go and moving forward within a supportive community of care for the caregiver. (Coming, Fall 2026)

Transition Stress

• Change is constant and inevitable. Sometimes it comes on at the slow and determined pace of a snail. Sometimes it comes on with the unexpected force of a quietly building tsunami. Whether it is in the private or public sphere, change can be a challenge. This circle invites all those experiencing transition stress to write through the process with greater grace, clarity, and intention. If you find yourself feeling lost or burnt out by the ever-morphing world around you, give yourself the gift of space and reflection, of support and community, with this four-week circle.   (Coming, Spring 2026)
• $500 per circle (includes 4, three-hour sessions)

Background

25+ years experience in teaching writing in the college classroom, the faculty workroom, the K-12 classroom, the boardroom, the senior community center, the after-school nonprofit, the C-Mart before dawn, and in the trailer park after dark. I have worked with authors obsessed with writing literary fiction, academic poetry, language poetry, spoken word poetry, port-a-potty poetry, cowboy poetry, and post-apocalyptic fiction, speculative fiction, video game fan-fiction, blockbuster turn-this-into-a-movie fiction, cult blockbuster turn-this-into-a-book-and-movie-series fiction, short fiction, flash fiction, micro-fiction, horror, and memoir. (You get the point.) I also have a PhD in English with a specialization in Creative Writing Pedagogy and Service Learning from the University of Kansas and an MFA in Creative Writing from Wichita State University. And I am a certified facilitator with Women Writing for (a) Change Bloomington.

Published Author

• 3 books (Fugue, Instrumental, Tattle Tales)
• 20+ works in peer-reviewed literary journals, such as Seneca Review and December Magazine

Professional Editor

• 4 anthologies (Bobo Books, vols. 1-3; A Harvest of Voices)
• 3 literary journals ([sic], cottonwood, mikrokosmos)

I see beauty in craft, creation, and collaboration. If you want to write it, I want to read it. If you want to craft it, I want to outfit with the right tools. I am here for the human connection, for the sharing of stories, for the nuance and pleasure of practicing writing-by-hand in an age of homogenized drivel generated by AI (artificial intelligence). I am here to earn an honest dollar. I am here because I value every story.

Contact me at dr.emily.bobo@gmail.com for more information or to set up your coaching session, today!

*Still not sure? Email me for 20-minute, $20 consulting session.