Writer | Billy Lombardo | United States

official website of chicago author, billy lombardo

Summer 2021 Workshops

Self-Directed

College Application

Personal Essay (CAPE)

Course – $995

• 30+ self-paced sessions that will take you from blank slate to final draft

• more than 50 original prompts to help you generate essay ideas

• one hour zoom consultation with billy lombardo ($250 value)

• additional feedback at reduced hourly rate

July Fiction

Adults $595

Workshop

• Four 2-hour zoom sessions

July 5, 12, 19, 26 (7-9pm)

• Line-by-line instructor edit of 1000-word excerpt

• weekly small group peer workshops

• weekly writing prompts

• weekly readings

• weekly story discussions

• signed copy of "morning will come"

August Fiction

Adults $595

Workshop

• Four 2-hour zoom sessions

August 5, 12, 19, 26 (7-9pm)

• Line-by-line instructor edit of 1000-word excerpt

• weekly small group peer workshops

• weekly writing prompts

• weekly readings

• weekly story discussions

• signed copy of "morning will come"

July Young Writers

Fiction Workshop – $595

• Four 2-hour zoom sessions

July 7, 14, 21, 28 (7-9pm)

• line-by-line instructor edit of 1000-word excerpt

• weekly small group peer workshops

• weekly writing prompts

• weekly readings

• weekly story discussions

• signed copy of "morning will come"

August Young Writers

Fiction Workshop – $595

• Four 2-hour zoom sessions

August 4, 11, 18, 25 (7-9pm)

• line-by-line instructor edit of 1000-word excerpt

• weekly small group peer workshops

• weekly writing prompts

• weekly readings

• weekly story discussions

• signed copy of "morning will come"

Manuscript Consultation

$12.50 per pg (250 wd)

• developmental edit

• line-by-line edit

• personalized style guide

• 1/2 hour zoom session

• additional zoom time at reduced hourly rate

One-on-One

College Essay Coaching

from blank slate to final draft – $595

• via Zoom: $150 hourly

• in person: $150 hourly / $50 per hr. travel fee

• average time with essayist via zoom, in person, editing, providing feedback, commentary, etc.: 7-12 hours

• average number of one-on-one meetings: 2-3

• down payment: $1050.00

billy lit !!!

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why i write

Somewhere in the middle 70s, a girl named Gia appeared like a miracle in Bridgeport. No one but billy remembers anything about her. Anyway, billy wrote her a poem called A Dream, A Ring, and a Memory. Go on and laugh, but romantics and literati alike agree that it was a sonically interesting title. And that poem—that cry of love—was a naming of the thing within.

Also, there was a nun who called him a cub reporter. That was also something.

Several other things happened.

And then there was the Green Mill and the Poetry Slam. It was strange to hear poetry in bars back then. The patrons snapped their fingers, stomped their feet, and groaned poets and other crazy people off the stage if they didn’t like what they heard.

O, but if they liked what was happening up there it got so quiet you could hear cigarette ashes fall (those were the days of smoking in bars), and sometimes they cheered so like hell that you couldn't look anyone in the eye, for fear of it ending.

That only has to happen once before you want it to happen every minute of your life.

billy's books

order a signed copy here

click image for Alan cheuse's review on npr

click image for Donna Seaman interview on wbez

billy's bio

billy is the author of three books of fiction – The Logic of a Rose: Chicago Stories, The Man with Two Arms, and Meanwhile, Roxy Mourns.

His novel, How to Hold a Woman was re-issued by Tortoise Books as morning will come in January 2021.

billy's most recent work has been published in Hypertext Magazine, Ireland’s HCE Review, The Tishman Review, Tikkun Magazine, The Chicago Reader, The Chicago Tribune, and Triquarterly. billy is the 2011 Nelson Algren Award winner for Fiction.

A revered high school English Literature and creative writing teacher for 25 years at The Latin School of Chicago, and for nine years at other Chicago-area high schools, he now runs his own writing and editing business called Writing Pros/e.

billy is the founder of Polyphony Lit, a global literary platform for high school writers and editors, at the core of which is a literary magazine run by an international staff of more than 200 high school editors around the world who comment on every one of the thousands of submissions that come to us every year (2,706 in 2019) from more than 70 countries so far.

A dynamic speaker and performer, billy has presented and performed at more than 300 high schools, universities, and literary events since 1989. billy lives in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood with his partner, Amy Danzer, and their dog, Valentino.

He is currently at work on a book on the craft of fiction:

House of Fiction, Deconstructed for the Apprentice Writer.