I trust Mara to edit my work. She is a close reader, my best reader. I value her precision with line edits and her rigorous attention to detail in which she demonstrates a mastery of style. I look forward to her comments which draw from a diverse range of sources and are ever insightful. If you hire her, you won't be disappointed. She's a rare talent.

—H. L. Onstad, finalist for Solstice Magazine’s Annual Literary Contest, longlisted for the Virginia Woolf Short Fiction Award, and author of the story, “A New Country for a New Woman,” which will be anthologized in Simpsonistas Vol. 6 (Rare Bird, 2024). 

Mara has a natural ability to bring out the best in your work with a keen attention to detail, everything you would hope for with an editor. Mara delivers feedback in the “yes, and” improv way, highlighting strengths and where she would like to see more detail in your work, which we can all learn from as writers. Her strength in getting to the crux of my work is masterful, as she possesses a talent for delivering insightful messages in a sparsity of words. Her line edits don't merely “do the job” but instead excel at raising more questions to shape even better stories. Mara communicates promptly with clarity and is a gem of an editor!

—Rosa King is an Afro-Honduran writer, poet, transracial and intercountry adoptee. She in an MFA in Writing 2024 graduate in Nonfiction from the University of San Francisco and a 2023 Community of Writers, Creative Nonfiction/Memoir Workshop alum. King’s writing explores the intersectionality of identities as a Black/Indigenous adopted person living in many worlds. Her piece, Good Hair, published by KQED, is part of her larger memoir project focused on the concept of body ownership within the international adoption industry.

In “Her Berliner,” a short affair leaves behind a lasting sense of possibility. Sometimes it’s enough, not taking them, to be shown alternatives, other paths you might have followed, the glimpse itself sustaining you for years to come. More sweet than bitter, Mara Finley’s elegant story is about letting an opportunity pass while keeping its promise alive in the heart.

—Editors, The Missouri Review

Judge's statement: "Loneliness, especially when one is not alone, is perhaps one of the most beautiful and baffling of human conditions. The narrator of 'Her Berliner' is in such a state; she has unleashed herself (albeit temporarily) in a foreign place where her bewilderment and her quest for tenderness are unwitnessed by anyone other than a lover and a close friend. What I love most about this story is perhaps what they both teach her about her bravery and her power to be free wherever she is; these are lessons she desperately needs as she makes an impossible choice—a choice that love often requires of us."

—Destiny O. Birdsong, Judge, Lighthouse Emerging Writer Fellowship in Fiction