writer's tools

Pulling it All Together:
Preparing Your Poetry Manuscript for Publication
Personal Manuscript Reviews
by Perugia Press Editor Susan Kan
Susan Kan


Susan Kan is founding director of Perugia Press, a nonprofit, independent literary press located in western Massachusetts. In addition to being the editor and publisher, Susan is one the many judges for their national poetry contest, the Perugia Press Prize. Prior to starting the press, Susan earned her MFA in creative writing from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

Annually, Susan looks at more than 500 manuscripts. She knows what affects how well a manuscript is received in a contest—from its physical presentation to the overall cohesiveness of the poetry.

Here is the exciting news: Susan is now offering a personal manuscript review service for individualized feedback on poetry manuscripts.


A manuscript review would be helpful if:

  • you are ready to send your manuscript out for the first time and want unbiased feedback.
  • you have been a semi-finalist or finalist in contests and wonder what is keeping your manuscript from winning.
  • you are thinking about the overall unity, musicality, voice, and theme of your manuscript rather than looking for feedback on individual poems.
  • you are considering your title, the order of poems, and how sections serve the whole.
  • you wonder whether a prologue poem or an epigraph is trendy or right for your book.
  • you are looking to transform a seemingly disparate group of poems into a meaningful book.
  • you want to know what is involved in shaping a manuscript other than the poems themselves.
  • you would like ideas for exercises to help you make these kinds of decisions.

Intrigued? Email susan@perugiapress.com for submission details, scheduling, and fees. Fees are based on a rate of $65 per hour.



“I have been thinking through the implications of your comments and really appreciate the revolution in my thinking about this project that has occurred as a result. Thank you for your encouragement of the way I am working with voice in the collection now. What you are doing to encourage and help women with crafting stronger poetry is invaluable work.”

— Marie Lovrod



“Your response was clarifying—if sometimes painful. My solutions are not always the same as yours, as to be expected, but yours allowed me to articulate some of my own troubled feelings about the manuscript and understand more concretely how to address them. Thanks for being so thorough and so honest.”

— Candice Reffe

Feedback from Inspired Poets


“I have never been this excited about a writing idea before!! The comments you shared about my manuscript have inspired me to return to writing poetry after a six-month break! The insights you shared have quickly helped me turn a corner in my approach to writing so that I now feel as though I can move forward rather than staying with the same material. I can't thank you enough for that! I spent $40,000 for a MFA (not that I regret it!) and it's amazing how much I learned, in comparison, from a review that cost me a lot less.”

— Joyce Hayden



“I have been reading, re-reading, and digesting the review, and I want to let you know that I am totally pleased with the job you have done. Your frank assessment of my manuscript was exactly what I was hoping for. You told me exactly what I need to know about where I am with my collection and what steps I need to take to go where I want to go. It was the best investment I could have made. The review was thorough, incisive, illuminating, and set me on an actionable path. Reading it was a Eureka! moment for me.”

— Marc Berman



“I can't tell you how heartened I feel by your encouragement. Your suggestions make me eager to try some new arrangements and revisions. Thanks for caring so much about poetry and the life of poets.”

— Carol Edelstein



“You have gotten me to look at the manuscript from a different point of view, and that will make a huge difference in the end product.”

— Patricia Lee Lewis