I believe that Alexandra Shelley's extraordinary teaching ability rests on her professional accomplishments, her  knowledge  of craft,  and  her  excellent  ability to communicate.

Her students are very aware that she is a practitioner of her craft.  Her immersion in the publishing community and success within it lend weight, status, and credibility to her teaching.  When I took Alexandra's Advanced Fiction Writing at New School, I did not miss a single class because every meeting was chock full of lively critiques of manuscripts, presentations on craft, and updates of events in publishing.  I felt that I sat in the presence of a teacher of the first rank who inspired her students to add their ''inch to the house."

I found Alexandra's criticism of our individual manuscripts outstanding. Although her comments were to the point and directional--she made excellent suggestions about how to improve individual passages and also the work as a whole--she imparted her comments with such generosity of spirit that one felt challenged to progress up the learning curve of writing fiction. She accepts work on the individual student's terms and the result is that she helps make a story a better within the student's vision.     

I felt Alexandra's presentation of the elements of craft and her selection of reading matter were well-chosen and her excellent ability to communicate the material and her evident regard for its importance fostered among the group an atmosphere of mutual endeavor and collegiality.

Many of Alexandra's students remain in contact with Alexandra and with each other. In my own case, Alexandra continues to support my work and ambitions. Her advice helped me recently achieve my first success in publishing when Harvard Review accepted a story for their upcoming spring issue.

-Jacqueline Gill