Desme Hewson – Editor

I'm a Portland-based copyeditor with an MA in writing and publishing and more than fifteen years of professional editorial experience across fiction, creative nonfiction, environmental sciences, and a lot of stuff in between. My expertise is in copyediting and line editing for literary fiction, speculative fiction/SFF, horror, and creative nonfiction, including essays and memoir. I teach book editing and copyediting courses to graduate students in Portland State University's book publishing master's program.

I don't currently offer book coaching or developmental edits; as a copyeditor, my focus is on sentence-level mechanics and style, and my services don't involve feedback on content like pacing, character development, plot, or dialogue. But if your manuscript is nearly ready for submission or self-publishing and needs a sharp, thoughtful polish before it goes out into the world, that's where I come in.

My editing style is collaborative, thorough, conscientious, and always in service of your voice and your reader. I believe copyediting is as much about empathy and communication as grammatical rules. I emphasize this in my university editing courses: A great copyeditor wants your sentences to land the way you intend them to and your reader to feel what you mean them to feel. The copyeditor's job is not to rewrite your work or sand down its edges but to ensure that what's on the page is as muscular and clear and alive as it can be.

I cut my teeth at small indie presses and art and literary magazines (most recently eco-focused mags like The Bear Deluxe and Smoke and Mold), which instilled in me a sensitivity to voice, interest in experimentation, and deep consideration for a writer's intent. I've worked across a diversity of genres—including poetry, translated fiction, trade nonfiction, academic work, technical publications, and even university textbooks—but my passion is for fiction that's strange and smart and a little unhinged. In both my work and my personal life, I'm drawn to writing that resists neat classification and rewards close, sentence-level attention, especially if it's got an environmental bent.

I'm always looking to work with authors—especially women and LGBTQIA+ writers—who are pushing the boundaries of genre and voice. If you're working on something weird and uncanny, mystic and lush, saw-toothed and brutal, or just plain tough to describe, I'd love to hear from you.