Dena Afrasiabi

Dena Afrasiabi – Editor

Award-winning editor, writer, lover of em-dashes.

Overview


I received a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures from The University of Texas at Austin in 2016 and have been working as a freelance academic and literary editor ever since, editing manuscripts for clients with book contracts at presses like MIT Press, Oxford University Press, Columbia University Press, University of California Press, and University of Wales Press. On Reedsy, I've worked with fiction writers, poets, nonfiction writers, and academics. II've edited everything from poems and translations to academic books to NGO reports for the United Nations. In 2022, one of the books I edited was long-listed for the National Book Award and several have received Kirkus stars.

As a writer myself, I treat the work of my clients with the same enthusiasm and dedication I bring to my own work. I'm extremely thorough and efficient in my editing work, and will do everything I can to ensure a manuscript is well-polished enough to reflect my clients' talents and help them achieve their goals.

My own writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review and Monkeybicycle, among other publications, and has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Millay Colony, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, among others.




Services
Fiction
Anthologies Coming of Age Cultural & Ethnic Literary Fiction
Non-Fiction
Education & Reference Health & Wellbeing History Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies
Languages
English (SA)
Awards
  • National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow

Work experience

deBeaumont Foundation

Apr, 2023 — Present

Overseeing the publication of public health books for the de Beaumont books program.

University of Texas at Austin

Apr, 2017 — Present

Self-employed

Jul, 2016 — Present

Portfolio

I Saw Her in My Dreams (Emerging Voices from the Middle East)

Hamed, Huda

Ctr for Middle Eastern Studies UT-Austin

Thunderbird: Book Three (Emerging Voices from the Middle East)

Nimr, Sonia

Ctr for Middle Eastern Studies UT-Austin

The Mosquito Bite Author

Bıçakçı, Barış

Ghady & Rawan

Sharafeddine, Fatima

Wûf

Varol, Kemal

Dena has 1 review

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

Hamed R.

Hamed R.

Mar, 2023

Dena has a keen eye for detail...in my case, her suggestions were more copy editing and proofreading than developmental editing. She caught many errors in a short amount of time and she had ample suggestions.

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