About Me
All headshots are by Sarah West Photography, www.sarahrwest.com
I've been a freelance editor for over a decade, and in that time I've provided a variety of editing services to clients working on non-fiction books, websites, children's books, novels, memoirs, academic work, and more. In the past five years, I've shifted to focus on academic editing and have edited countless journal articles, theses, dissertations, and monographs and managed and edited for peer-reviewed academic journals (but I'm still happy to work on trade projects as well!). While my own research and my latest employment experience in academic publishing focuses on medieval and early modern scholarship, I also specialize in editing projects in the fields of education and psychology. I'm happy to help with any editing projects in the humanities and social sciences, however, and am fluent in CMS, MLA, and APA style manuals.
I love words and working with them. I've loved reading my whole life--so much so that I got a Ph.D. in English. I've been studying and teaching the subject since 2005. My education background, freelance experience, and work with publishers and journals have given me the skills to help you produce the best writing possible--the clearest arguments, the most engaging prose--in your unique voice and style. I work to provide timely and supportive, yet thorough and critical, feedback that helps you get to publication--whatever level of editing you need, even if it's just a formatting check or a style guide conversion.
I love words and working with them. I've loved reading my whole life--so much so that I got a Ph.D. in English. I've been studying and teaching the subject since 2005. My education background, freelance experience, and work with publishers and journals have given me the skills to help you produce the best writing possible--the clearest arguments, the most engaging prose--in your unique voice and style. I work to provide timely and supportive, yet thorough and critical, feedback that helps you get to publication--whatever level of editing you need, even if it's just a formatting check or a style guide conversion.
Education and Experience
I graduated with a Ph.D. in English from Western Michigan University in 2021. In my dissertation, titled Movement and Meaning in Early Medieval England: The Kinesic Style of Old English Saints' Lives, I examined portrayals of physical movement and stillness in Old English saints' lives and argued that the authors of these texts advocated strongly for control, restraint, and deliberation in acts of bodily movement and stillness and portrayed bodily restraint as an integral part of sanctity. I also have an M.A. in Medieval English Literatures from the University of York, UK, and a B.A. in Publishing Studies and Dance Performance from Illinois State University. My research often focuses on gender, the body, and sexuality in early medieval literature, particularly that of northwestern Europe, but I am also interested in Modernism, World War I poetry, medievalisms, bodies in literature, and women's history and writing more generally.
Along with my freelance experience, I've also worked in multiple publishing contexts, including at Lake Claremont Press, a small, independent press publishing one or two books a year; Independent Publishers Group, a large publishing distribution company representing hundreds of small publishers in relationships with book distributors and retail outlets; Medieval Institute Publications, an academic press specializing in premodern studies; and several university departments and private sector corporations publishing user manuals, safety guides, and other technical documentation. I was also the managing editor of The Hilltop Review, Western Michigan University's journal of graduate research, and an assistant editor for Hortulus, the online graduate journal of medieval studies, so I know the ins-and-outs of academic journal publishing as well.
Along with my freelance experience, I've also worked in multiple publishing contexts, including at Lake Claremont Press, a small, independent press publishing one or two books a year; Independent Publishers Group, a large publishing distribution company representing hundreds of small publishers in relationships with book distributors and retail outlets; Medieval Institute Publications, an academic press specializing in premodern studies; and several university departments and private sector corporations publishing user manuals, safety guides, and other technical documentation. I was also the managing editor of The Hilltop Review, Western Michigan University's journal of graduate research, and an assistant editor for Hortulus, the online graduate journal of medieval studies, so I know the ins-and-outs of academic journal publishing as well.