I’ve worked as an editor on a variety of projects: nonfiction books and articles, memoirs, documentary film narration, short stories, novels, technical documentation, grant proposals, and web content. My last project was the memoir of an Olympic gold medalist. I’m currently editing a novel that addresses assisted suicide. I’ve edited or co-edited texts about high altitude balloonists, lesbian debutantes, Alaskan midwives, Mexican healers, Swiss bank account robbers, dysfunctional families, and multiprocessing computer systems. I’ve also led writing classes in fiction, nonfiction, and business writing.
Do you need an editor? Send me an e-mail: andrea AT andreacarlisle.com
Some voices on my work:
“Andrea Carlisle provided me with reader response, coaching, and editing throughout the process of writing and rewriting my memoir. Her encouragement kept me moving forward, and her insightful questions pushed me deeper into thoughts about my experiences. I appreciate her willingness to share her writing skills and to honestly advise. I also appreciate her sense of humor.
Most enjoyable were our face-to-face meetings where we discussed the text and more. These coaching/discussion sessions impacted how I thought about the subject and the writing. Her line edits often served as mini-usage lessons. Despite needing to be retaught these lessons, I found that Andrea bolstered my confidence.
Finally, Andrea helped me move forward with the finished manuscript in terms of preparing it for submission. As a first-time author of a full length book, I found her expertise and experience invaluable as I waded through questions about audience, markets, platforms, and comparable books.”
– Carolyn Wood, author of:
“Andrea is both an esteemed colleague and a dear friend. We have edited each other’s work for over thirty years. During that time I have been blessed to work with truly great editors at several publishing houses, but Andrea remains my most valuable critic. She is quick to identify whatever isn’t working with both precision and kindness, and to see a way to help even my strongest work improve. She instinctively understands what I am trying to achieve, and works her magic to nudge me in that direction. On top of everything else, she’s so much fun. I can’t recommend her highly enough.”
– Teresa Jordan, author of:
The Year of Living Virtuously (Weekends Off) (Counterpoint)
Riding the White Horse Home (Vintage)
Cowgirls (Bison Books)
(For a complete list of Teresa’s books, click any of the titles above.)
“A great editor is more than a word nerd with a dictionary and the Chicago Manual of Style. You have to know stuff. Lots of stuff. Stuff that only comes from years of reading, writing and living. But that’s not nearly enough. You also need to know how to listen, to empathize and to communicate. And have the ability to deftly separate gold from gravel–which is trickier than it might seem. Andrea Carlisle has all of this. She’s proved it again and again. Andrea does for writers what great editors do: she makes you look better and smarter than you really are.”
– Craig Ryan, author of:
The Pre-Astronauts (Naval Institute Press)
Magnificent Failure (Smithsonian Books)
Come Up and Get Me, with Joe Kittinger (University of New Mexico Press)
“Andrea Carlisle is one of the best editors I’ve ever worked with. She reads with a sharp eye and generous heart. She helps sculpt what’s said and uncovers what isn’t quite stated. My essays and books are stronger in every way for her fine work.”
– Joanne Mulcahy, Ph.D., author of:
Remedios: The Healing Life of Eva Castellanoz (Trinity University Press)
Birth and Rebirth on an Alaskan Island: The Life of an Alutiiq Healer (University of Georgia Press)
“I fancy myself a pretty decent writer. Andrea Carlisle would agree. Knowing she’s on my side , combined with her gentle touch, has made it much, much easier for me to accept what a convoluted writer I can be. Her perceptiveness and skill continue to help me focus and hone my intent. Hone my intent? Andrea, help!”
– Ketzel Levine, Journalist, former NPR Senior Correspondent, blogger on saving the lives of street dogs in Ecuador at The Heart of Barkness.
“Andrea Carlisle was the perfect editor at the perfect time in my career. I was just starting out and she was the first person who was truly honest with me about my work. It can be hard to hear (and even harder to dish) when you think your prose is ready for the New York Times Best Seller List, but the irony is that absolutely honest feedback is what writers need to actually get there. My story was just a seedling. With her gentle (but sharp) pen, Carlisle delivered amazing feedback and editorial critique, and I’ll be forever grateful. She rocks!”
– Gina Daggett, author of:
Jukebox (Bella Books)
“Andrea was my web editor for a very large health organization’s patient portal. In addition, I had Andrea edit the content of my current company’s website. Andrea is very skilled at understanding the audience and catering the text to the interest, attention span, and comprehension level of the readers. She is attentive to detail and conscientious. She works very hard and delivers a great product. She’s also a joy to work with because she is unassuming, respectful and professional. She has a great sense of humor as well.”
– Sharon Fox, Executive Director, Children’s Health Alliance
“In Andrea’s blog about her mother, Alice, we receive touching sketches of small moments, creating a portrait of an elderly woman who cannot be marginalized by age. The narrative voice is nonjudgemental. She does not patronize Alice but presents a new way of seeing the old. There is such deep tenderness in her writing–humanity without sentimentality. It’s a rare thing and it fills me with a sense of reassurance. As the co-writer and narration editor for my documentary film, The Peasant and the Priest, she was both patient and efficient. She brought these qualities to her editing of a great deal of correspondence pertaining to this work, as well as numerous grant proposals and translation revisions.
Andrea is a versatile, competent writer and editor who knows how to collaborate.”
– Esther Podemski, Director:
The Peasant and the Priest
House of the World
“I’ve referred many writers to Andrea Carlisle for editing services. They have all reported back complete satisfaction as well as delight at working with her. She is a skilled and compassionate editor with an offbeat sense of humor as an added plus.”
– Ruth Gundle, Publisher and Editor, Eighth Mountain Press
“Andrea Carlisle is the kind of editor you long for: one who tells the truth, but tells it kind. She stands on the side of story, first and always, and brings not just the tools of her trade (you’d expect that), but a wise and wry understanding that grows from her own writing, reading, and commitments. She’ll search high and low in that pile of papers you deliver into her hands for the voice that can sing the story alive and make it mean something. Andrea believes in the power of story to deliver us beyond ourselves. Hallelujah. She likes to laugh. Loves small animals. Has figured out what’s important in her life. Story. Story. Story. What is the story you meant to tell? Andrea will ask, and ask again, until you tell it.”
– Kathryn Hunt, Writer, Filmmaker, www.kathrynhunt.net
E-mail contact information: andrea AT andreacarlisle DOT com
Andrea Carlisle 