Testimonials

"Simply put, I found working with Emma transformative. She pulled back the layers of structure and plot dynamics to help me see the parts of the story that had hit the marks I’d reached for and the parts that the reader was not seeing or connecting with as I intended. From there, her careful close reading allowed me to find the strengths in the writing and the portions of the structure, character dynamics, and pacing that needed serious reworking, all in a way that felt positive, achievable, and driven by my goals for the work. My novel is both stronger and deeper for her insight.”
— Grace McNamee, novelist & Senior Editor at Bloomsbury Publishing

"I worked with Emma in the early stages of a long fiction project, and her enthusiasm, ideas and edits helped me hone in on what really excites me about the story I'm telling. Her encouragement helped me see what really excites about the project, while pushing me to develop my voice and write characters who come alive. The value she provided was far beyond what I paid for, and her thoughtful feedback has been a key part of bringing this book to the page."
— Kathleen Donahoe, journalist & novelist

”What Emma helped me do is see a full view of a project that had multiple strands and moving parts. It wasn't solely a birds-eye view: she zoomed in on parts and showed me how it was working. I was stuck revising paragraphs and sentences but her feedback showed me how I could improve the structure as a whole to make the book more immediate and engaging for a reader new to what had become for me very familiar material."
— Kazim Ali, nonfiction writer & poet

“Working with Emma helped me re-see a project I've been working on for years. Her incisive feedback got to the heart of the piece both thoroughly and efficiently so I could home in on areas that needed attention. Emma broke the book down into sections, revealing its overall shape to me in a new way, and pulled out specific moments that illustrated key points about characterization, motivation, causality, and pacing…Her recommendations were tailored, thoughtful and grounded in deep knowledge of the industry and of the current literary landscape.”
—Jessica Langan-Peck, novelist and short story writer

"Emma's keen editorial eye utterly transformed my nonfiction book proposal from a jumble of ideas into a polished, sellable document that earned me a book deal. Her thoughtful edits not only made me a better writer at the line-to-line level--they helped me to think more deeply about the book's larger ideas. She's worth every penny."
— Amy Brady, nonfiction writer

"Emma's feedback letter including a restructuring of my essay was amazing. I felt so lost in the piece, and this was a valuable map in helping me get out of the maze I made."
— Wendy C. Ortiz, nonfiction writer

"Working with Emma was a wonderful experience. Proceeding from a smart and insightful thematic reading of my memoir-in-progress, she mapped the structure in a way that helped me resolve long standing issues and move forward with a clearer sense of the book's logic and appeal. All in all, this was a supportive process and money well spent. I wish I'd found her earlier."
—Jessica E. Johnson, nonfiction writer & poet