Mentorships

I am passionate about helping other writers realise their creative visions. I’ve taught and mentored numerous writers of fiction and creative nonfiction – emerging and established – and a considerable number of the former have gone on to publish with mainstream publishers. My favourite thing about mentoring is working with writers on increasing their awareness of how their individual creative process works and helping them to dig deeply, honestly, fiercely into their subjects.

Although I am based in Melbourne, thanks to the miracles of modern technology I mentor writers from all around Australia. If you are interested in working with me, please send your enquiry via info@leekofman.com.au

Testimonies from writers Lee has worked with

Gabbie Stroud is a writer and recovering teacher. Teacher (Allen & Unwin, 2018) is Gabbie’s smash-hit memoir that brings readers into today’s classrooms. Her follow up book, Dear Parents (Allen & Unwin, 2020), challenges parents and caregivers to reframe their perception of our education system and to reconsider the purpose of schooling. The Things That Matter Most (Allen & Unwin, 2023) is her debut fiction for adults.  

Jo Peck

Lee insists that I give her too much credit for my success. But how can I not when in my sixties I have written my first book, had it published by Text, and am now finding a broad and appreciative audience? No-one is more shocked by this than me. And no-one is more grateful for the thoughtful dissection, perception, feedback and guidance Lee brought to my work. She helped transform the diary of my misery, which was initially full of anger and blame toward the man who had caused it, into a reflective nuanced work where I was able to write about the end of my marriage with perspective, balance and even some humour. My emotions still ran high, but Lee, the high priestess of harnessing emotional intensity, helped me give voice and shape to those feelings, without falling into cliché. I flattered myself thinking that Lee really ‘got me’ and that our relationship was surely something unique. But now I am more inclined to think that’s just who Lee is. A brilliant teacher who knows instinctively how to bring out the best in her chosen people – writers.

Jo Peck worked in advertising for thirty-five years, co-running her own agency, Working Girls Advertising, for twenty of those years. Suddenly Single at Sixty (Text Publishing, 2024) is her first book.

Maggie Walters

WHY.  It was a question that Lee constantly asked me as part of my mentorship with her, trying to find the heart of my debut memoir, SPLIT.  Why is this important?  Why does the reader need to know?  Why did you do this?  This questioning of the minutia of what I wrote forced me to dive deeper and find a truth about what I wanted to say that couldn’t be explored at surface level.  Lee always asked for more.  More honesty, more vulnerability. She believed in me, and kept gently pushing me towards excellence. Each time peeling back layers of fluff and nonsense to expose richer truths that would resonate with the reader.  This nurturing challenge demanded from me a commitment to find my best writing. Without her inciteful analysis, I simply would not be the writer (or reader) that I am today.  

Maria Katsonis
Lee mentored me over a three year period while I worked on my first book, The Good Greek Girl. Her wise counsel and guidance immeasurably enriched the manuscript and my craft as a writer. Lee’s steadfast support and encouragement helped me overcome several bumpy writing periods when I came close to walking away from the book. Lee respects the writer’s vision while providing constructive advice to ensure the vision is realised and the work reaches its full potential. Her judgement is astute and her insightful feedback is always tactfully delivered. Lee approaches the mentoring relationship with sensitivity, grace and style. It is a joy to work with her.

Maria Katsonis is a writer and public policy adviser. Her writing has been published in The Age, The Guardian and New Paradigm. Her memoir, The Good Greek Girl was published in 2015 via Ventura Press. More about Maria.

Bambi Smyth
My first attempt at writing my travel memoir Men on the Menu was a dismal failure, so I  sought the help of Writers Victoria, who in turn put me in touch with Lee Kofman, who acted as a mentor and editor. The results speak for themselves – I now have a two-book publishing deal, and The Five Mile Press are keen for more. Without Lee’s help I sincerely believe I never would have got this far, but Lee ‘unleashed my voice’, and gave such support and direction that there’s no looking back!

Bambi has written and illustrated 18 childrens books to date. Her first two books, published by The Five Mile Press – Men on the Menu (2014) and Bad Hair Year (2015) – are both memoirs, and follow two very different journeys in Bambi’s somewhat tumultuous life. http://www.bambismyth.com.au

Trish Bolton
I arrived for my first class with Lee, stomach fluttering at the thought of sharing my words with a group of strangers. I needn’t have worried. Lee’s enthusiasm and support for emerging and not-so-emerging writers of all genres, put everyone at ease. Lee is an outstanding teacher: intuitive, sensitive and quick to point out writing strengths, she also provides the sort of constructive criticism that encourages improvement in all aspects of writing craft.  I owe my novel’s stronger beginning to Lee. Oh, and did I mention that Lee’s classes are heaps of fun?

Trish Bolton is the author of the novel Whenever You’re Ready (Allen & Unwin, 2024) and a freelance writer published in most of Australia’s major newspapers.

Halina Rubin

Lee mentored me at the early stages of my book writing. We used to meet at Mr Tulk cafe: crowded and filled with energy. I was nervous showing my half-cooked work but needn’t been. Lee was generous to a fault and always encouraging. It makes me laugh remembering how I bristled in response to her criticisms, defending my territory as if my life depended on it. Then, more often than not, I came round to her viewpoint, even before I reached home, where I attempted to unravel her scribbles and prepare for the next working meeting. The fact was that talking to Lee was always stimulating, making me try harder and do better. Thank you Lee 🙂

Halina Rubin grew up in post-war Poland. She graduated Warsaw University with Master of Science in Microbiology. In 1968, in response to government-instigated anti-Semitism, she emigrated and settled in Melbourne. ‘Journeys with my Mother’ published by Hybrid Press, is her first book. The book is available at Readings and bookdepository.com.uk

Elisabeth Hanscombe
For ten years I had been working on my book, which at the time I feared might never come together.  And then one day by chance I met Lee Kofman at Varuna, the Writers House in the Blue Mountains.  We got to talking about life and all things writerly.  Later I joined one of Lee’s writing classes, three hours a month over several months within a group of other interested and talented writers.

Through the classes I came to understand better the nature of memoir, as it sits in the nexus between fiction and non-fiction.  I began to learn more about the importance of authenticity and of voice and about the task of the memoirist: to create a story or stories with questions that hang cantilevered in space, questions a reader wants addressed, if not answered.

My book is yet to find its final form but Lee’s wise and gentle guidance has been invaluable in bringing it closer to publication.

Lee Kofman has a lively and imaginative style when it comes to taking people through their paces on the writer’s journey.  Encouraging and yet persuasive, she sets a high standard when it comes to the process both of reading and of writing.  Lee will teach you how to read like a writer.  She will motivate you to take your writing life more seriously and she will inspire you to see the life in your story and energise your writing through writing exercises, generous handouts on the process of reading and writing.  Her workshops are a must.

Elisabeth Hanscombe is a writer and psychologist who completed her PhD at La Trobe University. She has published short stories and essays in Meanjin, Island, Tirra Lirra, Quadrant and Griffith Review as well as in the journals, Life Writing and Life Writing Annual, and in psychotherapy journals and magazines in Australia and the US. She was short listed for the 2009 Calibre essay prize and has a chapter in Stories of Complicated Grief anthology (NASW press). She is an adjunct research associate at the Swinburne Institute for Social Research and blogs at http://sixthinline.blogspot.com.au/ .

Judith Bunn
I have been working on a memoir for many years and was starting to drown in my own work and getting nowhere.  I decided I needed a mentor to give me an overview and to help me primarily with structure, motivation and deadlines.  I really got lucky when I found Lee Kofman as a mentor.  I got all this and more.  Lee is a passionate, interested, generous and nurturing mentor who gives perceptive critical advice and feedback in a non-judgmental way.  Lee has given me invaluable advice on structure which was my biggest stumbling block.  I feel my writing has progressed enormously since being mentored by Lee and I can now see a clear pathway through the morass.  It is nice not to feel so alone on the writing journey and to be challenged whilst also being encouraged to keep going….and, oh, she has also cured me (almost) of my propensity for the overblown metaphor!  I would thoroughly recommend Lee to anyone looking for a writing mentor. 

Judith Bunn won the 2013 Grace Marion Wilson Competition for Emerging Writers (Non Fiction Section) and is currently working on a memoir.

Helen Cox
I met Lee Kofman when she was a panellist at a Writers Victoria discussion evening. Lee spoke about the writer/mentor relationship. For her, honesty blended with sensitivity were essential aspects of an ethical relationship. That involves understanding that the writer is revealing something worked on passionately for some time, which may or may not be any good. She saw her role as understanding what it is writers want to write, knowing the risk a writer necessarily takes when showing work to someone else for the first time, and knowing how to sensitively help the writer develop or tell them truthfully what they need to do about their writing and their publication desire. I decided then and there that she was the mentor I wanted to work with. Somehow what she said lessened the risk I was feeling.

I sent a book outline and some sample chapters to Lee. When I met with her, she told me that it didn’t work for her, I hadn’t made her care about the person I was writing about. I was shaken for a moment – 3 years work and 19 chapters along. “There is a book in here though” she said, “it is just not the book you are writing.” And then she proceeded to tell me about how she thought it would work. It was not my writing style, that was fine; it was the structure and the voice. I needed to write it in my own voice, tell my own story. Over the next couple of years I worked with Lee on that book and other writing projects. The book, The Harp and the Ferryman (co-authored with Peter Roberts), did get published and is so much better than the book I was writing before I met her.

I continue in a mentor relationship with Lee (might do for the rest of my life). She is skillful, encouraging, honest, gives terrific feedback, and we laugh a lot.

Helen Cox is Emeritus Professor at Deakin University and co-author of The Harp and the Ferryman (Michelle Anderson Publishing). Details about her book can be found at helencox.com.au