Lisa Cooper Ellison

Writer, Editor & Coach

Let's Work Together

What i do

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Manuscript Evaluation

Need some feedback before you move forward?

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Developmental Editing

Need someone to help you tackle serious problems in your project?

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Copyediting

Do you have a finished draft that needs a little polishing?

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Coaching

Staring at the first page of your book project and feeling overwhelmed?

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Mindful Writing

Having problems with that dastardly internal editor?

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Getting Started

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

Telling It Slant

by lisacooperellison | Mar 20, 2018

This essay was originally published in the January 31st edition of the WriterHouse Newsletter. In 1993, the movie Groundhog Day was released in cinemas. If you’ve forgotten the movie’s premise, here’s a recap. Phil Connors, an arrogant Pittsburg weatherman played by...

Courses in Grief

by lisacooperellison | Feb 8, 2018

Today is the twenty-one-year anniversary of my brother’s suicide. Twenty-one years. On his twenty-first birthday, I planned to take him skydiving. I was researching drop zones, having already made ten jumps myself. I couldn’t wait to give him the thumbs up as he...

On New Year’s Resolutions

by lisacooperellison | Jan 9, 2018

A version of this post was published in the January 5th edition of the WriterHouse newsletter. On New Year’s Day, 1985, I wrote down a list of goals for the new year and promised to do this until the year I die. Thirty-two years have passed. Every year, I faithfully...