About Us
Emily and Gina are friends, colleagues, and editors and readers of one another’s work. Both our classes and coaching offer intellectual rigor, humor, practical advice, and a firm belief that stories can save lives. We look forward to collaborating with you.
Co-Founder
Gina Frangello
Gina Frangello’s fifth book, the memoir Blow Your House Down: A Story of Family, Feminism, and Treason (Counterpoint), was selected as a New York Times Editor’s Choice, received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and BookPage, and gained inclusion on numerous “Best of 2021” lists including at Lithub, BookPage, and The Chicago Review of Books. Her sixth book, on Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet, was released as part of IG Publishing’s “Bookmarked” series in July 2024. Gina is also the author of four books of fiction, including A Life in Men and Every Kind of Wanting, which was included on several “Best of 2016” lists, including at Chicago Magazine’s and The Chicago Review of Books. Her first two books, My Sister’s Continent and Slut Lullabies, out of print for some time, are being reissued by Northwestern University Press in Fall 2026. A freelance editor for both Row House and RISE Books, Gina brings more than two decades of experience as an editor, having founded both the independent press Other Voices Books and the fiction section of the popular online literary community The Nervous Breakdown. She has also served as the Sunday editor for The Rumpus, the faculty editor for both TriQuarterly Online and The Coachella Review, and the Creative Nonfiction Editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books. Gina obtained her PhD in English/Creative Writing from the University of Illinois Chicago, with a specialization in Gender Theory. She is on the low residency MFA faculty at the University of Nevada-Reno/Tahoe and frequently teaches for Northwestern University and at retreats around the world. She divides her time between the hi-desert in Southern California and her longtime home in Chicago. In addition to her work in the literary arena, Gina has a master’s in counseling psychology and worked for several years as a therapist for women and girls.
Co-Founder
Emily Rapp
Emily Rapp Black is the author of Poster Child: A Memoir (BloomsburyUSA); The Still Point of the Turning World (Penguin Press),which was a New York Times bestseller, Editor’s Pick, and a finalist for the PEN-USA Award; Sanctuary (Random House), a New York Times Editor’s Pick; Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg (Nottinghill Editions/New York Review of Books); and I Would Die If I Were You: Notes on Creativity, Craft and Consciousness, forthcoming from Counterpoint Press in 2026. A former Fulbright scholar and almost-pro athlete, she was educated at Harvard University, Trinity College-Dublin, Saint Olaf College, and the University of Texas-Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow in Fiction and Poetry. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, she has received awards and fellowships from the Rona Jaffe Foundation; the Jentel Arts Foundation; the Corporation of Yaddo; the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, where she was a winter writing fellow; Fundacion Valparaiso in Mojacar, Spain; and Bucknell University, where she was the Philip Roth fiction writer-in-residence. Her work has appeared in VOGUE, the New York Times, Die Zeit, The Times-London, Lenny Letter, The Sun, TIME, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, O the Oprah Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and many other publications. Her essays about hospice and palliative care, as well as 19th century religious philosophy appear frequently in journals and anthologies. She is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California-Riverside, where she also teaches in the School of Medicine. The mother of two children: Ronan (2010-2013), and Charlotte (age 10), she lives in Southern California.
Administrative Coordinator/Swiss Army Knife
Heather Scheeler
Heather Scheeler is a graphic designer, writer, editor, and an Administrative Assistant for the UC Riverside Performing Arts Admin department and the UC Riverside Palm Desert Low-Residency MFA program, where she received her MFA in Fiction in 2018. While living in Northern California, she founded and ran a weekly writing workshop that featured classes, critiques, and writing support structured to help both fiction and nonfiction writers create and polish their work on the way to publication. After moving to Southern California, she worked as the events intern for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books before being hired onto the team as a full-time event producer at the beginning of 2020. When this job was cut short due to the pandemic, Heather took the opportunity to focus on freelance graphic design work among other creative endeavors before being invited onto the incredible team at Circe Consulting. Forever an Oregonian at heart, Heather now lives in Long Beach, CA with her husband, three very important rescue cats and too many reptiles and bugs to list.