No matter how fine a piece of writing is at the start, it becomes better after review by a professional editor. Let me look over your brochure, grant proposal, book, or direct mail piece. My suggested edits will tighten your sentences and make your phrasing smoother and more expressive. Editorial work is the best possible investment you can make in your creation.


Over the years, I have improved the text of a variety of printed and electronic materials, among them magazine and journal articles, press releases, instruction manuals, posters, product packaging, grant proposals, menus, brochures, direct mail pieces, annual reports, résumés, headlines, captions, reviews, catalogs, book jackets, creative works, advertisements, event programs, newsletters, signage, correspondence, industrial film scripts, capsule descriptions, speeches, sales copy, web pages, blog posts, PowerPoint slides, and conference proceedings.


But by far the greatest percentage of my time is spent on books. Below is a list of all the full volumes and chapters I have edited to date. As you'll notice, they cover a wide range of topics—Carlsbad Caverns, extreme sports, Virginia Woolf, dogs in medieval artwork, slang and jargon, the foie gras controversy, and on and on. I never know what the next assignment will bring!

Editing

Books and Book Chapters Edited to Date

Strange Vernaculars: How Eighteenth-Century Slang, Cant, Provincial Languages, and Nautical Jargon Became English
For the Common Good: A New History of Higher Education in America
The Collected Letters of Charles Olson and J. H. Prynne
English Gothic Misericord Carvings: History from the Bottom Up
Manifestos and Polemics in Latin American Modern Art
Fraud: An American History from Barnum to Madoff
Our Dogs, Our Selves: Dogs in Medieval and Early Modern Art, Literature, and Society
Underground Ranger: Adventures in Carlsbad Caverns National Park and Other Remarkable Places
Contested Tastes: Foie Gras and the Politics of Food
If God Meant to Interfere: American Literature and the Rise of the Christian Right
Why Would Anyone Do That?: Lifestyle Sport in the Twenty-First Century
The Scientist's Guide to Writing: How to Write More Easily and Effectively Throughout Your Scientific Career
Cultural Politics of Translation: East Africa in a Global Context
Everyday Piety: Islam and Economy in Jordan
Wounded Cities: The Representation of Urban Disasters in European Art
From England to France: Felony and Exile in the High Middle Ages
J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard and the Birth of Modern Fantasy
Europe Since 1989: A History
Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance in America, 1862-1920
Mortal Dilemmas: What You Need to Know About Dying Before You Are Dying

Katherine Harper, Ph.D.

Gillian B. Elliott and Anne Heath, eds. Unfolding Narrative: Art, Architecture, and the Moving Viewer, circa 300–1500. Brill, 2022.

Max Baca and Craig Harris. Crossing Borders: My Journey in Music. U of New Mexico, 2021.

Jesse Driscoll. Doing Global Fieldwork: A Social Scientist’s Guide to Mixed-Methods Research Far from Home. Columbia, 2021.

Stephen B. Heard. The Scientist’s Guide to Writing: How to Write More Easily and Effectively Throughout Your Scientific Career. 2nd edition. Princeton, 2021.

Barbara Kaminska. Images of Miraculous Healing in the Early Modern Netherlands. Brill, 2021.

Albena Azmanova. Capitalism on Edge: How Fighting Precarity Can Achieve Radical Change without Crisis or Utopia. Columbia UP, 2020.


Mike Chasar. Poetry Unbound: Poems and New Media from the Magic Lantern to Instagram. Columbia UP, 2020.


C. A. Cummings, L. J. Kirmayer, S. Kitayama, R. Lemelson, and C. M. Worthman, eds. Culture, Mind, and Brain: Emerging Concepts, Methods, Applications. Cambridge UP, 2020 (pre-submission edit, partial).


Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez, Levi Romero, and Spencer R. Herrera, eds. Querencia: Reflections on the New Mexico Homeland. U of New Mexico P, 2020.


Nancy Marie Mithlo, ed. Making History: The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. U of New Mexico P, 2020.


Laura J. Rosenthal. Ways of the World: Theater and Cosmopolitanism in the Restoration and Beyond. Cornell UP, 2020.


Patrick Bergemann. Judge Thy Neighbor: Denunciations in the Spanish Inquisition, Romanov Russia, and Nazi Germany. Columbia UP, 2019.


Erica Caple James, ed. Governing Gifts: Faith, Charity, and the Security State. U of New Mexico P, 2019.

William Chester Jordan. The Apple of His Eye: Converts from Islam in the Reign of Louis IX. Princeton UP, 2019.


Barbara A. Kaminska. Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Religious Art for the Urban Community. Brill, 2019.


Evan Resnick. Allies of Convenience: A Theory of Bargaining in U.S. Foreign Relations. Columbia UP, 2019.


Monique Roelofs. Arts of Address: Being Alive to Language and the World. Columbia UP, 2019.


Joseph P. Sánchez. El Camino Real de California: Historic Corridors, Land Routes, Maritime Lanes, Presidios, Missions and Ranchos, 1769 to 1823. U of New Mexico P, 2019.


Rory Naismith,  ed. Decoding Medieval Sources: Money & Coinage. Brill, 2018.


Peter M. Whiteley, ed. Puebloan Societies: Homology and Heterogeneity in Time and Space. U of New Mexico P, 2018.


Konrad H. Jarausch. Broken Lives: How Ordinary Germans Experienced the 20th Century. Princeton UP, 2018.


Christopher P. Ball. Exchanging Words: Language, Ritual, and Relationality in Brazil's Xingu Indigenous Park. U of New Mexico P, 2018.


Eva Paus. Confronting Dystopia: The New Technological Revolution and the Future of Work. Cornell UP, 2018.


Tamara Massong. 60 Short Hikes in the Sandia Foothills. U of New Mexico P, 2017.

Éloi Laurent. Measuring Tomorrow: Accounting for Well-Being, Resilience, and Sustainability in the Twenty-First Century. Princeton UP, 2017.


Molly Hite. Woolf's Ambiguities: Tonal Modernism, Narrative Strategy, Feminist Precursors. Cornell UP, 2017.

Janet Sorensen. Strange Vernaculars: How Eighteenth-Century Slang, Cant, Provincial Languages, and Nautical Jargon Became English. Princeton UP, 2017.

Charles Dorn. For the Common Good: A New History of Higher Education in America. Cornell UP, 2017.

Ryan Dobran, ed. The Collected Letters of Charles Olson and J. H. Prynne. U of New Mexico P, 2017.

Betsy Chunko-Dominguez. English Gothic Misericord Carvings: History from the Bottom Up. Brill, 2017.

Patrick Frank, ed. Manifestos and Polemics in Latin American Modern Art. U of New Mexico P, 2017.

Edward J. Balleisen. Fraud: An American History from Barnum to Madoff. Princeton UP, 2017.

Laura D. Gelfand, ed. Our Dogs, Our Selves: Dogs in Medieval and Early Modern Art, Literature, and Society. Brill, 2016.

Doug Thompson. Underground Ranger: Adventures in Carlsbad Caverns National Park and Other Remarkable Places. U of New Mexico P, 2016.

Michaela DeSoucey. Contested Tastes: Foie Gras and the Politics of Food. Princeton UP, 2016.

Christopher Douglas. If God Meant to Interfere: American Literature and the Rise of the Christian Right. Cornell UP, 2016.

Stephen B. Heard. The Scientist’s Guide to Writing: How to Write More Easily and Effectively Throughout Your Scientific Career. Princeton UP, 2016.

Stephen C. Poulson. Why Would Anyone Do That?: Lifestyle Sport in the Twenty-First Century. Rutgers UP, 2016.

Alamin M. Mazrui. Cultural Politics of Translation: East Africa in a Global Context. Routledge, 2016. (pre-submission edit)

Sarah A. Tobin. Everyday Piety: Islam and Economy in Jordan. Cornell UP, 2016.

Marco Folin and Monica Preti, eds. Wounded Cities: The Representation of Urban Disasters in European Art of the Fourteenth to Twentieth Centuries. Brill, 2015.

William Chester Jordan. From England to France: Felony and Exile in the High Middle Ages. Princeton UP, 2015.

Deke Parsons. J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard and the Birth of Modern Fantasy. McFarland, 2014.

Philipp Ther. Europe since 1989. (English translation of Die neue Ordnung auf dem alten Kontinent: eine Geschichte des neoliberalen Europa.) Princeton UP, 2016.

Kerry Segrave. Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance in America, 1862–1920. McFarland, 2014.

Susan Oehler Herrick. “Strategies and Opportunities in the Education Sector for Applied Ethnomusicology.” Chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Applied Ethnomusicology. Eds. Svanibor Pettan and Jeff Todd Titon. Oxford UP, 2015 (pre-submission edit).

Sheryl Buckley, M.D. Mortal Dilemmas: What You Need to Know About Dying Before You Are Dying. Sheryl L. Buckley, 2013.

Sarah Blick and John Pepple, eds. Intrepid Witness to History: Essays in Honor of Boris Blick. Authorhouse, 2008.

Cynthia Owen Philip. Wilderstein and the Suckleys: A Hudson River Legacy. MacPherson, 2001.

Thesis and Dissertation Handbook, fourth edition. The Graduate College of Bowling Green State University, 1998. Also Web version.