Those applying to competitive M.F.A writing programs, such as the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, can now turn to a group of professional poets and writers for assistance.

Two Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduates recently started Abramson Leslie Consulting, a business with the sole purpose of evaluating and critiquing prospective students’ portfolios.

“What is different is that never before has a group of poets and writers gotten together to provide these sorts of resources for a consulting firm,” said Seth Abramson, a co-owner of the business.

Abramson, along with Chris Leslie-Hynan, started the firm in June, aiming to help poets and writers across the country who feel lost in the competitive application process.

All applicants to M.F.A, M.A., or Ph.D. writing programs across the country are required to submit a portfolio. Abramson said one of the most disappointing aspects of the application process is the lack of feedback schools provide.

While universities simply send a letter rejecting or accepting an applicant, Abramson Leslie Consulting focuses on providing suggestions and notes on submitted work, he said.

“People are interested in how others view their work,” he said. “It is the same kind of feedback you get in a college workshop or in a paid workshop or private tutorial.”

A professional writer at Abramson Leslie will review applications. That writer could be Abramson, Leslie-Hynan, or one of their six associates, all of whom have all graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

It costs applicants $335 for associates to review fiction work and $260 for them to look over poetry.

The firm can also help people compile a list of schools they should apply to, for a cost of $75, as well as their statement of purpose for $80.

If the reviewer thinks applicants have a “reasonable chance” of getting into their desired M.F.A programs, he or she will return the marked-up portfolio with an “extensive critique letter.”

But if an Abramson Leslie reviewer doesn’t feel applicants have much of a chance, he or she won’t provide comments and will return payments.

Iowa Writers’ Workshop Professor James Alan McPherson said the firm seemed like a good idea, as long as Abramson and Leslie are sincere.

“They want to teach people how to write well; that is good,” he said.

However, McPherson, a renowned author and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, offered his own advice to those pursuing a career in writing.

“They should depend on their friends, people who are interested in writing in their environment and their own sense of taste,” he said.

Writers’ Workshop student Daniel Poppick said an extra opinion, professional or not, may not help people who continually hear feedback on their writing.

“I think that [writing] is so subjective anyway that throwing another degree of subjectivity into the process isn’t really helpful,” he said.