#300 Once Upon a Place with Sarah Jaffe

This week, we're running a takeover in collaboration with Reedsy freelancer Sarah Jaffe! The winner of this contest will not only be awarded $250 — they’ll also receive a special bonus prize: personal feedback from Sarah herself. For your chance to get insight from one of Reedsy’s very own professionals, read on! Here's Sarah:

Hi writers! I'm Sarah Jaffe — a writer, editor, visual artist, and audiobook producer with fifteen years of experience at Penguin Random House. I love helping writers uncover the heart of their work and make it shine with both meticulous line edits and — my favorite — big-picture developmental feedback.

This spring, I've been thinking a lot about borders and place, and how where we are (and where we've been) impacts who we are. A former writing teacher once told me there are only two kinds of stories: a person takes a trip, or a stranger comes to town.

So, for this takeover, I want to read your best stories about place. Give me immersive, well-rendered settings where things happen that couldn't happen anywhere else, with people who are products of their environment — for better or worse. Show me forests, deserts, mountains, metropolises, distant islands. Invite me into a particular room in a particular house full of memories. Introduce me to the people who make the place come alive.

I can't wait to see where you take me!