Write with me
A note for creatives
Hi friends,
I’ve been reading Mary Oliver in the mornings lately—just a few poems with my coffee before I open my phone or laptop and let the world happen to me.
One line I’ve been carrying around is from “Lead”:
“I tell you this to break your heart, by which I mean only that it break open and never close again to the rest of the world.”
It reminds me of something Joyce Carol Oates wrote too, in Faithless: “[This] is why we say I can't live without you, meaning your life gives life to me.”
That’s one of the things I love most about writing. Not perfection. Not publication. Not platform-building. But the ordinary miracle of taking something private and making it legible to another person. To break their heart open. Perhaps when they least expect it.
Perhaps when they need it most.
Which brings me to today’s slightly more practical announcement.
Several readers have asked whether I work with writers one-on-one.
I do! And I’m opening up a handful of editing spots this summer.
Most people know me through my writing, but I’ve also spent the last 15+ years editing everything from magazine features and newspaper stories to cookbooks, memoirs, relationship card decks, artsy books, travel books, wellness books, and even two educational books on ASL.
Basically, if it’s made of words, I’ve probably edited something adjacent to it.
I’m especially interested in working with folks on:
• Book manuscripts (particularly LGBTQ+, romance, speculative, literary, and women’s fiction)
• Nonfiction book proposals (memoir, health & wellness, and relationship-focused projects)
• Query letters
• Essays and long-form articles
• Substack and newsletter drafts (let’s get ‘Stacked)
Depending on what you need, I can offer:
• Manuscript assessments (big-picture feedback)
• Developmental editing (structure, pacing, organization)
• Line editing (sentence-level polish)
• Query and proposal reviews
As a little launch special, the first five folks who book a project will get a free 30-minute editorial strategy session where we can talk through your goals, publishing plans, revision questions, existential writer angst, or all of the above.
If you’d like to work together, hit reply and tell me what you’re working on.
I’d love to hear about it.
Anna
Thank you for reading. And being here.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much of life depends on people choosing to support things they want more of in the world—community, artists, local bookstores, weird little projects.
If you’d like to help keep this particular weird little project going, here’s a discounted paid subscription.
That’s $15 a year, forever.
P.S. Below are a few of the books I’ve edited over the years. It’s a delightfully eclectic bunch. (Special shoutout to the Creative Stoner Journal :D)
P.P.S. More Oliver: "I don't want to sell my life for money, I don't even want to come in out of the rain."
And: "Have I not always been ready at the iron door, not knowing to what country it opens—to death or to more life?"