For University Press Week 2024, we were asked, “Who StepsUP at, with, or for your press?” There are so many ways to answer this question!
This year, University of Alberta Press is taking the opportunity to profile the critical work performed by freelance editors, indexers, and designers.
We could not do our work without the amazing contributions from freelancers. These are some of the talented individuals who have worked with us. We note each of them with immense gratitude.
Editors: Kimmy Beach, Kirsten Craven, Meaghan Craven, Jannie Edwards, Maya Fowler Sutherland, Alicia Hibbert, Annick MacAskill, Audrey McClellan, Joanne Muzak, Angela Pietrobon, Kay Rollans, Mary Lou Roy, Julie Sedivy, and Angela Wingfield.
Indexers: Judy Dunlop, Adrian Mather, and Stephen Ullstrom.
Designers: Denise Ahlefeldt, Marvin Harder, Natalie Olsen, Michel Vrana, and Kevin Zak.
Our authors are enthusiastic about these individuals’ work. Here are examples of the praise they have offered.
Tamari Kitossa, volume editor of Appealing Because He Is Appalling, said, “I am eternally grateful to the copy editor assigned to this book—Kay Rollans. She pored over every word and line of this text, raising both the clarity and quality of scholarship.”
“To Julie Sedivy, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude for her sterling contribution as copy editor, which has extended beyond any normal range of her work. Her zeal included offering encouragement, advice, copious notes and queries, and she helped me to visualize the final leg of the book’s journey,” Will C. van den Hoonaard, author of Seeking a Research-Ethics Covenant in the Social Sciences.
rob mclennan gave “grateful thanks to Mary Lou Roy for the generous gift of her clarity” when copyediting On Beauty: Stories.”
Omar Ramadan, author of This Sweet Rupture, said this about his editor, Kimmy Beach: “Thank you for your guidance, help, and for making this collection shine.” And Aaron Kreuter wrote, “Thank you to Kimmy Beach for her excellent, generous copyediting of Rubble Children.” While author of Blue Portugal and Other Essays, Theresa Kishkan, offered to Kimmy Beach, “who provided editorial expertise as well as exuberant guidance, my heartfelt gratitude.”
“Angela Pietrobon was very organized, disciplined, and prompt. She identified a few elements in the manuscript which I might have not caught. I enjoyed working with her,” noted Sandeep Agrawal, volume editor of Municipal Boundary Battles.
“Our thanks to Joanne Muzak, who took on the monumental job of editing this book. She did so in a way that let the Elders’ voices shine through. Thank you, Joanne, for all your time and patience with this project. The book would not have been published without your hard work and dedication,” wrote authors Leslie McCartney and the Gwich’in Tribal Council about Our Whole Gwich’in Way of Life Has Changed / Gwich’in K’yuu Gwiidandài’ Tthak Ejuk Gòonlih.
“We think that indexer Judy Dunlop did a fantastic job. The index demonstrates the robustness of the book’s research, as well as its appeal to a range of audiences. This index makes it possible for different kinds of readers to find what they want, and we’re grateful for this,” said Reginald Wiebe and Dorothy Woodman, authors of The Cancer Plot. They also wrote, “We appreciate the keen eyes of our copy editor Joanne Muzak.”
Freelancers help us “map the territory of writing for engaged readers throughout and beyond the university” with books that are “current, informed and compelling to a range of readers reaching well beyond academic walls,” wrote Alice Major for a profile of our press on the Read Alberta website.
Thank you to all of our freelancers for helping to make our books the best they can be!
