I have forty years’ editing experience, including thirty-seven years on the staff of the nationally acclaimed journal the Missouri Review, where I served as associate editor for thirty-three years. There I oversaw production and editing of all prose in the journal and launched its online BLAST series. Work I’ve edited has appeared in major prize anthologies, including Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, the O. Henry Prize , the Pushcart Prize, Best American Science and Nature Writing, Best of the Net, Best American Travel Writing, and Best American Mystery Stories. I’m also a former contributing editor at Bloom, a site that showcases the work of writers who published their first book after age forty.

As a freelance book editor and consultant since 2001, I’ve edited everything from prize-winning short-story collections to self-published novels and memoirs to middle-grade and YA novels. Currently I work selectively, at reasonable rates, on quality fiction and nonfiction, with a particular interest in assisting later-emerging writers. See my Contact page to get in touch. I would love to know more about your book, essay, or story in progress.

My short fiction, reviews, and essays have appeared in a wide range of journals including Georgia Review, Southwest Review, Shenandoah, the Collagist, Copper Nickel, Story, the Potomac Review, the Missouri Review, and others. Essays and author profiles have appeared at Bloom. I’ve been longlisted and shortlisted for novel prizes and am a past winner of Copper Nickel‘s Editors’ Prize. I’m a Barbara Deming Fund grant recipient for my writing about women’s lives and issues. My novella “The House on Pink Elephant” is forthcoming from Green Hills Literary Lantern. My debut novel, Marcia Farrar and Mr. Whiskey Time-Travel to 1997 is due out from Stylite in winter 2025. Another comedy, Katybomb, Katybomb, about adultery, cars, and gifted children set in 1980s Texas, is also forthcoming in 2025.