These essays explore the practical challenges writers face — particularly those working across languages, as well as the elements that sit behind every manuscript: voice, identity, authorship and the intricate and intimate relationship between writers and their work.
The essays reflect the same curiosity and care I bring to my editorial work.
Editing Writers Who Work in a Second Language
This essay explores the unique strengths and challenges of editing multilingual writers, focusing on the balance between correcting errors and preserving distinctive linguistic creativity. It examines how writers such as Nabokov, Aciman and Xiaolu Guo use language in unusual ways to create powerful, original works. I argue that the best editing protects a writer’s individuality while smoothing away the elements that interrupt the reader’s experience.
Read the essay here!
The Author and Its Attached Human Being: Autofiction, Pedro Almodóvar and Creative Cannibalism
What happens when writers use their own lives as material? From Pedro Almodóvar’s autofiction films to Margaret Atwood’s reflections on the split-personality of the writer and the person, this essay explores the curious relationship between art, autobiography and creative cannibalism.
Read the essay here!
An Explosion of Terrible and Marvellous Possibilities: Then Suddenly Doris
An exploration of Doris Lessing, creativity, subjectivity and the writing process. A reflection on how personal experience shapes fiction and why editors value a writer’s unique perspective.
Read the essay here!
Writer and Editor 