Nonfiction

I am a dynamic, incisive, and compassionate editor who is expert at developmental and line editing. If you work with me, you will see your prose sharpen, your transitions become more graceful and intentional, and your voice become more confident. I love helping people write clearly while learning to push boundaries to help their prose resonate. Some of this is technique connected to pacing and sentences, and some of it is sweat and patience. I’ve edited hundreds of writers at different stages of their careers, from established authors to emerging writers.

Every edit starts by examining the overarching idea and structure before telescoping down to the sentence level—word choices, style, clarity, and tone. It is important to recognize that you are not only expressing yourself but having a conversation with a reader. I am a fan of building suspense in storytelling and adding micro-climaxes or jolts that help readers recognize something universal in what you have observed. My time-management skills are excellent; I work fast and efficiently, and I’m good at estimating how many hours a project will take.

Examples of my work: Alex O’Dell’s book Super Nature, which pairs photography with earth events, disasters, and a family story; Lacy Johnson’s “On Mercy,” a meditation on suffering and capital punishment; Lauren Markham’s “Death of a Valley,” about a California town razed for the Monticello Dam; and Kaya Genç’s “Istanbul’s Wandering Songbirds,” on street vendors. A book proposal I wrote for the Brazilian journalist Eliane Brum sold immediately to Graywolf Press; The Collector of Leftover Souls was longlisted for a National Book Award. My latest book project is a story about a South Sudanese women who fled Khartoum and endured twelve years in refugee camps before reaching Australia.  

Fee: $175 per hour. Ghostwriting, book proposals, and full-length manuscripts depend on the scope of the project.