All Student Success Letters
Mark Farrington
Dear Gotham,
In 2020 I finished the first draft of a novel I thought had some promise. I’d been writing fiction and teaching writing for more than thirty years, most recently in the MA in Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University, and I felt this novel draft needed an insightful and comprehensive review from an experienced writer and teacher. I didn’t want to take a class at that time, so I was pleased to discover that Gotham offered the chance to work one-on-one with individual faculty members. I was able to work with Ben Obler, who read my entire novel and gave me a response that was both encouraging and instructive enough to keep me working on the book.
Three years later, I had a draft I felt was very close to what it needed to be. I’m not sure why I decided to take a class rather than another one-on-one, but I’m glad that’s what I did. I ended up taking Novel II Critique with Jessica Sticklor, and that course gave me just what I needed: honest and intelligent responses to some of the portions of the novel about which I had the most questions, and the kind of encouragement from my classmates that solidified my belief that this novel could be successful.
Jessica’s commentaries were terrific; as a teacher myself, what impressed me the most about Jessica was how she was able to meet each writing on its own terms and offer help that met the writer where they were in their experience and career at that time. This was no small feat, with a class filled with such diversity of experience and goals. I not only learned some important things about my own writing, but I picked up a few teaching techniques from Jessica as well.
Last year, that novel that I’d been working on since 2019—titled Loss of Life—was accepted for publication by Legacy Book Press and will be available this June. I don’t think I would be writing that last sentence if not for the help of Ben, Jessica, and my classmates in that Novel Workshop. Over the years, I have published a number of short stories, but now, at the age of 73, I may be one of the oldest debut novelists ever. And I’m already working on my next book.
Mark Farrington
