julia bell

One-to-one mentoring

Mentoring is for writers who are serious about their work and want sustained, intelligent engagement with it — not cheerleading, but honest attention. I work with writers at all career stages: those developing a first book, established writers navigating a transition, and academics whose practice has stalled alongside their scholarship.

Sessions are typically an hour, held online. I'll read your work in advance and come prepared to ask hard questions about what it's doing and what it wants to be. We can work on a single project or over a longer period of time.

Fees on application. I offer a small number of reduced-rate places for writers who are early in their career.

Workshops

I design and deliver bespoke workshops for universities, literary organisations, arts bodies, and businesses where writing culture matters. Workshops can run from half a day to several sessions, and can be tailored to your context and participants.

Areas I work in include: writing and attention; finding your voice; the lyric essay and personal writing; writing the self; fiction and form; creative writing as research practice.

I've taught for the Arvon Foundation, The British Council, RIBA, London Zoo, OFCOM and a range of commercial, literary, and arts organisations. If you have a specific brief, I'm interested in hearing it.

Fees depend on scope and duration. Get in touch to discuss.

Talks & panels

I speak at literary festivals, academic conferences, and commercial events on writing, attention, and creative practice — and on the cultural conditions that make serious work possible or impossible.

Recent engagements include literary festivals, the Selfridges Group, and MadFest. I'm comfortable across a wide range of contexts, from panel discussions and keynotes to more conversational formats, and I can pitch the material to a general audience or a specialist one.

Themes I return to: the politics of attention in a distracted culture; what literature can do that other forms can't; creative practice as a mode of thinking; writing and the self; the slow work of making something good.

If you're programming an event and want to discuss, get in touch with a brief outline of what you have in mind.

Manuscript feedback & editorial consultancy

I offer close reading and detailed written feedback on manuscripts at any stage — from early drafts looking for structural direction to near-complete work that needs a rigorous final read. I work across fiction, creative non-fiction, and the essay.

Feedback is written and substantial. I don't offer line edits, but I will tell you clearly what the work is doing, what it isn't, and what I think it needs.

Fees depend on length and scope. Please get in touch with a brief description of your project.

Or for any other queries, thoughts, feedbacks - use the form below.

Or if you would like to know about rights to my work speak to my agent Rebecca Carter at Rebecca Carter Literary.

On writing, attention, and literary culture — subscribe to my Substack.