EXPERIENCE
Throughout my writing and editing life, I’ve approached my clients with thoughtful creativity, using the principles of design and language to bring their ideas to life.
Scroll down to see some of what I’ve worked on:
Ovi Kabir for Tennessee
In 2020, I was a consultant for the launch of Tennessee State House Representative candidate Ovi Kabir's promotional website. My work involved editing copy for the entirety of the website, including calls for action and policy position statements. I also proposed improvements for the website's flow and readability as well as modifications to the site's logo, all of which were adopted. The website's successful launch led to an influx of donations and significantly increased Ovi's viability in the election.
The front page of ovikabir.com. I was consulted on the design of the logo as well as the overall layout of the page.
Much of the language of the site involved straightforward depictions of the candidate's character. My goal was to polish that language without compromising the candidate's own words or story.
The website also featured in-depth policy proposals and position statements, where the bulk of my editorial work took place.
The policy proposals aimed to deliver somewhat technical information to a very general audience. In these cases, I helped massage the text to create a balance between a professional, competent tone and approachable, easily understandable wording, occasionally rearranging arguments for clarity and flow.
Algonquin Books
Although I had editing experience from freelance work and at a literary magazine, my time at Algonquin was the first experience I’d had at a book-publishing company. As an editorial intern, much of my work involved combing through recent and backlogged submissions. I supplied the executive editors, Kathy Pories and Chuck Adams, with material for response letters, as well as recommendations for accepting or rejecting submissions. I also logged reports, catalogued submissions, and otherwise helped keep the office environment managable. I also took part in editorial and publishing meetings, giving feedback on books the company was publishing or considering publishing.
Algonquin Books
The Greensboro Review
While studying for my MFA at the University of Greensboro, I began at The Greensboro Review as an intern for fiction submissions. I proofread upcoming issues, evaluated incoming submissions, and drafted response letters for accepted submissions. The response letters included correspondence for developmental editing.
I was later brought on board to pilot a new position (Digital Editorial Assistant) to supplement the GR website launch with content - these included back-issues of the GR, promotional videos, compilations of poetry readings, and photography. I also continued as a proofreader for fiction and poetry in upcoming issues.
The first issue I worked on as an intern. I helped with general proofreading and narrowing down which submissions would be accepted for the issue.
The issue where I was credited as a digital editorial assistant. Behind the curtain, I still helped out with proofreading duties, and provided other ancillary help to the fiction and poetry editors.
As a digital editorial assistant, one of my major projects was to digitize the first issue of the GR for archival purposes, and for eventual online publishing. The meta-challenge of this job was to create a workflow for this open-ended problem using various university and library services, without much guidance, as it was the first attempt the GR had made in archiving back-issues.
Top left: A battle-worn copy of the GR's first issue after I was done scanning it by hand. I had to take care to ensure the pages scanned straight, were readable, and were arranged sensibly in the files I created, which required a bit of tinkering with image settings and layout.
Through the magic of OCR, I was able to make the scans searchable. This also meant that the issue's contents would be easily transferable to other formats, such as the GR's blog posts, or word documents.
The digital editorial assistantship entailed various ancillary duties revolving around promotional duties for the GR and the creative writing department. Here, I acted as photographer and videographer for the farewell party of UNCG's Professor Michael Parker.
The Digital ACT Studio
My role at the Digital ACT Studio was multi-faceted. As a graduate assistant, I oversaw consultants as they assisted students with digital projects (websites, powerpoints, posters, videos, etc.). This involved managing crises as they arised, making sure schedules ran smoothly, fielding questions, and organizing consultants to maintain the area. I also worked alongside them as a consultant myself, providing constructive criticism to clients on digital projects, balancing the fundamentals of visual rhetoric and verbal communication.
An important part of the job was understanding various production processes, and I learned the basics of videography, photography, podcasting, audio- and video-editing, and more. I also produced promotional content and drafted the digital editing handbook that would be used for training future consultants. These design skills, and the general experience of rapidly gathering technical knowledge, became a foundation for my future positions and my career at large.
I also piloted the Digital Literacy Assistantship program, helping a single course implement a semester-wide media project (podcasting, in this case). I designed and conducted multiple seminars on the subject and guided the course, from the development of subject matter to production of complete and publishable products.
The Digital ACT Studio
The front doors of DACTS. I was typically the first to arrive in the mornings, and snapped this picture before the floor inevitably filled up.
A typical day at DACTS involved hour-long sessions with students in rooms like these, either providing feedback on their work or walking them through production of some kind of digital media. Despite the variety of media at play, most projects had an extensive writing process to chart or script out the project.
One of my many ventures at DACTS. One class came in with a project to create whiteboard-videos. However, the library's fluorescent lighting produced huge amounts of shadows, so I set out to turn one of our rooms into a workable studio that students could use to more easily film against a shiny whiteboard. After a huge amount of trial and error with DACTS' lighting equipment, I eventually hit upon a lighting configuration that worked.
For this podcasting workshop, I had to create an orderly set of steps to produce a basic podcast, for an audience of students who often only had a basic understanding of what podcasts were.
I prepared a number of presentations during my time at the helm of the Digital Literacy Assistantship. Each new project at DACTS required me to learn something new and formulate a way to pass it on.
Ultimately, the goal was to provide some basic, but professionally applicable audio production and editing skills to the students. This slideshow I prepared was only a small part of that process.
Halloween, 2018.