For editorial queries, readings, workshops, or retreats, contact

rstarks [at] gmail.com

I offer manuscript consultations for full-length or chapbook poetry collections (and occasionally for novels, short story collections, and creative nonfiction manuscripts) at either an hourly ($40/hour) or project rate. I respond and edit as a reader attuned to the emotional core of what I read; to how a poem enters into conversation with poetry of different eras and traditions; and to both cosmos and cosmetics, from the arc of a collection to the grammar of a sentence or the breaking of a line.

For prose manuscripts, I can provide either a close developmental edit or line editing.

Rebecca’s reading, her comments on each poem, her opinion and overview, and, especially, her creative thoughts about possible directions for turning these poems into a chapbook or full volume of poems were extremely helpful to me. Instead of stuffing this group of poems away, I have made them a focus of my writing this year and have already gotten several of them published.

Jane Flint, poet and writer

Thank you so much for your great and extensive comments. I’ve already begun chipping away at many of them. They are just super and exactly what I was looking for. This next version of the book will be much. much better because of your help!

Sean Prentiss, author of Crosscut: Poems

Based on your incredibly insightful feedback, I undertook an extensive revision… You were the only person to review BEFORE FAMILIAR WOODS prior to it being sold (other than my agent) and I honestly can’t put into words how helpful you were. Your insights regarding plot and character were invaluable and your probing questions forced me to dive much deeper into all of the characters.

Ian Pisarcik, author of Before Familiar Woods