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About

Kirsten Reach

Working directly with publishers and authors who are interested in making their work as strong as it can be. Let’s roll up our sleeves and talk about craft, structure, dialogue, pacing, metaphors you could pull through the manuscript, and moments that you can reward readers for paying attention to your story.

I’ve worked in houses big and small: as a book editor at Melville House, Grand Central Publishing, and Henry Holt & Company, and as Fiction Editor for the Kenyon Review. I'm a graduate of the Columbia Publishing Course.

At Melville House, I built my own list and acquired titles such as Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer, which was reviewed by Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times, My Cat from Hell by Lynne Truss, and debut novels such as The Weirdness by Jeremy Bushnell and The Ghost Network by Catie Disabato. I worked with nonfiction writers such as Philip Hoare and James Essinger, and acquired the rights to interviews by Lou Reed, Nora Ephron, and others for our Last Interview series. I was on the team that worked around the clock to crash the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture. Four of us were at our desks for thirty-four hours straight before sending the book to print (and our late hours appeared in the New Yorker).

Before getting into publishing, I worked for Bob Stein at the Institute for the Future of the Book, a small think tank funded by a MacArthur grant.

I’ve also served as a Board Member At Large for the Editorial Freelancers Association, on the Programs Advisory Committee and as a mentor for Girls Write Now. I’ve built an alumni network for the Kenyon Review, run the nonprofit’s reading series, and arranged events for 192 Books.

I’m co-coordinator of my local chapter of Editorial Freelancers Association and a member of ACES: The Society for Editing. I recently completed the Conscious and Inclusive Language course through EFA, taught by Crystal Shelley. I’m available for book-length projects, essays, short stories, and more.

Please contact me if you're looking for someone to take a close look at your work, whether you need a fresh pair of eyes on the last draft or someone to help you take your current draft to the next level.

 

Other experience

  • Executive Committee, Editorial Freelancers Association

    • Worked with the Co-Chairs of the organization and outside consultants to improve the structure of the organization

    Board Member at Large, Editorial Freelancers Association

    • Elected for one year of service to the organization, including monthly board meetings and representing the EFA at national professional conferences including EFACON and ACES

    Advisory Board, Mentor, Girls Write Now

    • Chaired the anthology committee in 2013 and 2014, and served as an advisor for a mentorship organization for girls in New York—90% young women of color, 70% immigrant or first generation, 25% LGBT/nonconforming, 90% high need

    Mentor, Girls Write Now

    • Met weekly with my mentee, brainstorming a lesson plan of writing exercises, working on college applications, and helping her write her first résumé

  • • Harvard University, 2020, with Carolyn Kuebler (New England Review), David Gessner (Ecotone), Liz Johnston (Brick), William Pierce (AGNI), Emily Everett (The Common)

    • “More than Just a Magazine: Literary Community Building in the Digital Age” AWP panel, 2018, with Jonny Diamond (Lit Hub), Marisa Siegel (The Rumpus), Hillary Brenhouse (Guernica), Mensah Demary (Catapult), and Dinty W. Moore (Brevity)

  • • Guest editor, The Ohio State University, 2020

    • Guest lecturer, McPherson College, 2020

    • Guest editor, University of Mississippi MFA, 2019

    • Visiting editor, speaker, and panelist, Ashland University MFA, 2017

    • Visiting editor, Northeastern University graduate program, 2014

  • • ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Competition judge, 2020

    • Nominator, Rona Jaffe Awards, 2019

    • Fiction Contest judge, Tufts University, 2017

  • I’m co-coordinator of my local chapter of Editorial Freelancers Association and a member of ACES: The Society for Editing. I recently completed the Conscious and Inclusive Language course through EFA, taught by Crystal Shelley. I’m available for book-length projects, essays,

  • • Flyover Festival, hosted by Two Dollar Radio, 2018-2019

    • Association of Writers and Writing Programs, 2016-2021

    • Brooklyn Book Festival, 2013-2015

    • BookExpo America, 2013-2015

    • World Book Night, 2012-2013