CFF Presents: “How To Get Out of the Slush Pile" with Dawn Raffel on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, at 7:00 P.M. All CFF members are invited to register for this online event.

You've worked for years on a novel and finally have the manuscript ready for submission. You wait to hear back from agents or editors. But they're busy eliminating manuscripts to get through the overwhelming slush pile. Sound familiar? Dawn Raffel, a writer, editor, and creative writing teacher has been on both sides of this dynamic. In an enlightening hour-long conversation she'll share her experience with what the gatekeepers are looking for and how to grab their attention.

Dawn Raffel has written six books. The most recent are The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies, which was an NPR great read for 2018, and Boundless as the Sky, Fables & Tales, Some of Them True, which won the Big Other award for innovative writing in 2024. As an editor, she helped launch O, the Oprah Magazine, where she served as executive articles editor; she also served as Fiction Editor of the Northwest Review and the guest editor for Best Micro 2024. She has taught in the MFA program at Columbia, Summer Literary Seminars worldwide, and the Center for Fiction in New York. She has worked as a developmental editor for the past eleven years. Website: https://dawnraffel.com/

Ken Schept, CFF president, will serve as moderator.

Please note registration closes at noon on the day of the event.

The Zoom webinar link will be emailed to registered members a couple of days prior to the event. This event is open to members of the Columbia Fiction Foundry, a Columbia University alumni group, and Columbia University affiliates. Please enter your school and class year on the registration form.