Judith Niemi, Editor

Introduction: Available for short or long-term editing gigs; I'm a former English professor, retired wilderness guide, and experienced writer/editor. No subject intimidates me. I prefer working online but am available for on-site meetings. Developmental editing: I've worked with very experienced writers of creative nonfiction, helped wrestle into shape dissertations and a medical paper, and constructed a book on bass fishing from years of magazine articles. Over the years I've taught many writing workshops, including co-teaching with Carol Bly and with Bill Holm in Iceland. The core of that work was helping students see far beyond their first draft. Line editing and proofreading: I spent several years transcribing/editing clinical psych reports, did a year of technical editing at a small research lab, and have proofed a dissertation in Anglo-Saxon, English-French letters, a college catalog. In working with inexperienced writers I am patient and nonjudgmental, and have high standards for how good your work can become. In line editing, I'm fierce in pouncing on grammatical problems and awkward sentences, and also have a sharp eye for anachronisms, odd little errors of fact, and bad metaphors. My own writing includes essays, magazine articles, books on outdoor skills, an anthology of women canoeists, and videos on women with cancer, and on a Buddhist sangha. Editing offers a chance to learn about a wide variety of things. I like the challenge of helping a writer revise work so it is more vivid, clearer, and more like him/herself. Good editing helps writers discover more in their work than they knew. I like working with the rich, complicated, sometimes unruly English language.