Lisa Cooper Ellison

I offer a free thirty-minute initial consultation via Skype for all potential clients to discuss the scope of their projects, goals, deadlines, and budgets.

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“The best part of this work has been watching other writers blossom.”

About Lisa Ellison Cooper

Lisa Ellison is a freelance writer, editor, and writing coach. She teaches memoir and the art of story telling at WriterHouse, a nonprofit writing center in Charlottesville, Virginia. Her work and life story are forthcoming or have appeared on NPR’s With Good Reason, and in The Kenyon Review, Huffington Post, The Rumpus, The Guardian, Streetlight, Gravel Literary Journal, The Rusty Nail, Charlottesville Family, and The Healthy Living Directory.

More about Lisa

Helping writers harness the power
of their stories one word at a time.

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Testimonials

“Lisa has read two manuscripts for me now, one a short piece of narrative nonfiction and one a full-length novel. Her feedback on both was excellent. She provided an overview document with detailed suggestions on the narrative arc, character development, and more. She also provided page-by-page suggestions and line edits on the entire manuscript. I would highly recommend Lisa even to the most experienced writer.”

Katie Rose Guest Pryal, author of Entanglement

“Since I’ve known Lisa Ellison (we met at the VQR conference in August 2015), her incisive commentary on my work has been extraordinarily helpful. It’s easy to see from the outset that she’s genuine and generous, and puts those traits to work in everything she does. Apart from the nuts-and-bolts mechanics of writing, which she is also good at, she got me to see my work in a different way and to imagine new possibilities. What more could you ask for?”

Phil Quam, Indonesia, author of “Inmates” published in Word Riot

“Lisa is both an accomplished teacher and very talented practitioner of mindful writing. She is a very capable, empathic and insightful writing teacher, who creates and sustains a safe, warm space for students to learn and become successful mindful writers themselves. Lisa is nurturing, attentive and generous — everything one wants in a teacher of such a practice. Students will benefit from her kind, insightful and truly mindful attention, and will grow under her tutelage and guidance.”

Rita Hart, book publisher in Melbourne, Australia

Slow Pieces Blog

The Two Conversations Every Beta Reader Must Have Before Saying Yes to a Manuscript

by lisacooperellison | Jun 3, 2019

On Sunday, June 2, 2019, my Memoir in a Year students reached a major milestone: they completed the first drafts of their memoirs. Our final spring class on Thursday, May 30. 2019, included a one-hour writing marathon. Bent over notepads and laptops, tongues pressed...

Heart Speak, The Writing Advice Column # 4: Escaping the Forest of Endless Revision

by lisacooperellison | May 31, 2019

This post was originally published on the Moving Forwards Memoir Collective Blog Dear Lisa, I’ve been told it takes an average of ten years to write a memoir. If this is true, I’m right on track—maybe. Let me explain. Ten years ago, with my new husband’s...

Beta Reader Boot Camp Part One: What Are Beta Readers and How Do You Find Them?

by lisacooperellison | May 7, 2019

In April, I attended a three-hour glassblowing class in Asheville, North Carolina with my husband. Outside the studio, the temperature was a balmy sixty-eight. Inside the fire room, it was close to one hundred. To make our glass art, we first dipped long metal rods...

Lisa Cooper Ellison

Writer, Editor & Coach

What i do

Manuscript Evaluation

Developmental Editing

Coaching

Classes and Seminars

Mindful Writing

Getting Started