From the team: What we look for in a nonfiction piece

When you submit nonfiction writing to Barnstorm, a diligent team of real-life experts reviews your work—first alone, hunched over their laptops, then together, huddled around pizza and/or beer. These are the stories of those experts, as well as some clues as to the content they are searching for. 

Claire Sasko

Claire Sasko is the nonfiction editor of Barnstorm magazine. She moved to New Hampshire from West Philadelphia, where she was not born or raised but spent many years working as a journalist, including for Philadelphia magazine as a staff writer and assistant editor. She writes about relationships and gender.

Claire wants to be surprised. She values strong prose and experimental subject matter and structure; she’s down to get weird, and, in fact, wants to. Her favorite pieces prompt more questions than answers. If she’s hooked by the beginning and dazed at the end, she’s happy. She doesn’t care very much for pet stories or transformation tales (though she’ll read it all—it’s her job). 

Mason Cashman

Mason Cashman is a multimedia storyteller, New Hampshire native, lover of coffee shops, and maker of stuff and things.

As a reader, Mason is drawn to a story's authenticity in voice and concept. A unique and honest perspective on a well-traveled idea can enable a writer and their audience to discover what may have first gone unrealized.

Lena Gemmer

Lena Neris Gemmer is originally from the quiet foggy town of Montara, California, where she spends copious amounts of time with her cat Mitchy. As a nonfiction writer she believes in connecting to her readers on a visceral human level by experimenting with structure, form and voice.

Lena finds that good writing, especially in nonfiction, is anything that grabs her attention from the start and broadens her perspective and connection to the world long after she’s finished it. It should be magnetic and never let her go.

Liz Joseph

Liz loves the places stories take her. She also loves understanding her own story through writing nonfiction, mostly memoir. She comes from a big family, has managed an organic vegetable market garden on an educational farm for nine years, and is an extroverted introvert. 

Liz likes writing that builds worlds vivid enough for readers to forget they’re reading. She likes writing that's vulnerable and honest—writing that asks questions and doesn’t necessarily have to answer them. 

Paul Marino

Paul Marino taught Anatomy of Story at the National Theater Institute in Waterbury, CT. He owns a carpentry business and is 39 years old. 

Above all, Paul selects pieces based on originality of concept, effectiveness of structure, aesthetic of language, and good research when applicable. He believes a story, to be published, should contribute to humanity’s conversation with itself. 

Lily Pudlow

Lily Pudlo was born and raised in New England and has always appreciated the stories found among that scenery. At 22, she received her Bachelor’s degree in English Text, Business Writing & Digital Studies from UNH and returned in the fall of 2021 to obtain her Master’s in Nonfiction Writing.

While she is a nonfiction student, Lily is interested in stories that explore the unknown. Creative writing is not only a method of storytelling, but also a medium for self-discovery. As a reader, Lily encourages writers to take their audience on a journey in their stories.

Fran Teoh

Fran Teoh is a writer, story analyst for film and TV, baking obsessive, and photographer. She grew up in London, England, and obtained her BA in English at the University of Durham. Fran continues to be amused that she's ended up in yet another Durham, where she's getting her MFA in Nonfiction at UNH. She can't resist a shortbread cookie or matcha lattes.  

As a reader, Fran is interested in that which emotionally feeds the mind and spirit. A good non-fiction narrative should embody what the best bedtime stories do: make us feel nurtured, challenged, inspired, understood and embraced. As we learn from The Velveteen Rabbit, a little "nursery magic" goes a long way to help us become real, and that's what great storytelling is. 

Lindsey Wente

​​Lindsey Wente has an MFA and teaches in Colorado, but most of all she loves a breakfast sandwich, and luxurious Kwik Trip gas stations in the Midwest. 

Voice goes a long way for Lindsey because it cannot be taught. It is the soul on the page. She doesn’t exactly care what the story is as long as it is told in an interesting and nuanced way.