My second literary life is as an editor. In 2011, I founded Vela, a magazine of creative nonfiction inspired by travel and written by women. As Founding Editor, I worked with hundreds of writers to develop, revise, enhance, and refine short and longform memoir, essays, and narrative nonfiction. Several essays I edited, including work by Heather Kirn Lanier and Simone Gorrindo, went viral and later formed the basis of nonfiction book proposals that sold to Big 5 publishers. Other essays were selected as “notable” in The Best American Essays, The Best American Travel Writing, and The Best American Sports Writing. I love collaborating with writers to render their work as precise, powerful, and revelatory as possible, whether their aim is a published book or a personal artifact to share with family and friends.

My more than a decade of experience teaching at the University of Pittsburgh (reading and commenting on so. many. essays!) and my own process of being edited at magazines, newspapers, and publishers has sensitized me to the significance and nuance of the writer-editor relationship. A talented editor is the difference between a well-intentioned and compelling piece and an excellent one. I see my role as that of a guide: asking key questions, making suggestions, listening, and responding with care and openness. My goal isn’t necessarily to “correct” a piece but to coax it into the truest, clearest, most resonant version of itself.

I offer the following services:

• Developmental editing for essays and a small number of book-length manuscripts and book proposals

• Copy editing and line editing for manuscripts that need a careful read for grammar, mechanics, flow, consistency of style and tone, and technical precision

• Academic editing for dissertations and journal articles, particularly for organizational/structure issues, flow, and clear explanation of technical and complex concepts

Contact me at sammenked (at) gmail.com.