As a book editor since 2006, I’ve worked on a little of everything, from pop culture and politics to graphic novels to science and history, but what I most love to work on is memoir and narrative nonfiction that pulls me in with voice and story, and literary fiction animated as much by nuanced characters as by precise and assured prose. When I read as an editor, I aim to keep the overall shape of the work in mind—its structure, pacing, unifying themes—while paying careful attention at the line level as well. The way I divide my time as an editor reflects this dual passion: I’m a developmental editor, working with writers to bring their drafts into focus; and I’m also a copyeditor, working with publishers to polish manuscripts line by line until they sparkle.

I got my start in house for five years at Soft Skull Press/Counterpoint, where I acquired and edited a range of titles—things like (fiction) Bummer by Janice Shapiro (funny, big-hearted stories about women at moments of crisis), The Colony by Jillian Weise (a razor-smart novel about disability, medical ethics, and eugenics), and Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk by Tony DuShane (a hilarious coming-of-age story about growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness); and (nonfiction) Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys by David Henry Sterry and Richard Martin (an anthology of writings by sex workers), Live Nude Elf by Reverend Jen (the memoir of a New York art star, based on her sex column for Nerve), and Buskers by Heth and Jed Weinstein (a memoir by two NYC subway musicians).

Ever since going out on my own in 2011, I’ve been working as a freelance editor with the agent Renée Zuckerbrot, first at the Renée Zuckerbrot Agency and now at Massie and McQuilkin Agency. I am a mentor for the Emerging Writers Fellowship Program at the Center for Fiction and have been a mentor for Creative Nonfiction, both in their manuscript evaluation program and in Think Write Publish, their collaboration with Arizona State University, supported by the Templeton Foundation. Other past and current clients for developmental editing include Book*Hug Press (book by Shani Mootoo); Seal Press (books by Elizabeth Enslin, Kara Richardson Whitely, Shawna Kenney, Amy Ragsdale, and Sherry Amatenstein); Creative Nonfiction/In Fact Books (anthologies about teachers and mental health); First Second Books/Macmillan; Library Journal (where I was interim managing editor); and various literary agents and authors.

My clients for copyediting include Knopf (books by Dani Shapiro and Jonathan Raban); Tin House Books (books by Kristen Arnett, Adam Braver, Myriam Chancy, Pamela Erens, Kim Fu, Claire Fuller, Daisy Hernández, Rosalie Knecht, E. J. Koh, Courtney Maum, Nancy Reisman, Alexis Smith, Matthew Specktor, Darcey Steinke, Morgan Talty, Jeannie Vanasco, Lara Vapnyar, and others); Spiegel and Grau (books by Juli Min, Reality Winner, Neil Theise, and others); The Experiment (books by Lucy Sante, Adam Rutherford, Eli Grober, and others); Grove/Atlantic (books by David Vann, Michael Daly, and Margaret Wrinkle); Ig Publishing (books by Jessikka Aro, Stephanie Woodard, Pamela Erens, and others); and Milkweed Editions (books by Makenna Goodman, Margaret Renkl, Larry Watson, and others).

I joined the independent editors’ collective 5E in 2024. I am a member of PEN America and the Editorial Freelancers Association. You can read more about me in this Q&A with Inkshares and this article in Poets & Writers.