Emma Dries – Editor

"Emma is diligent and attentive, with the ability to be at once ruthless and gentle. This sounds a contradiction in terms, but is precisely what one wants in an editor. She’s a pleasure to work with, and the work itself is always the better for it." — Rumaan Alam, author of National Book Award Finalist Leave the World Behind

I am an editor, writer and teacher with a broad range of experience: I cut my teeth editing best-selling and award-winning authors at Alfred A. Knopf, Doubleday and Ecco Books. I have an M.F.A in Fiction from Johns Hopkins University, where I also taught fiction and poetry to undergraduates.

My experience on all sides of the creative process has led me to an editorial philosophy that prioritizes guiding authors to the best version of the story they want to tell. My role as an editor is not to shoehorn your work, but rather to help you, the author, bridge the gap between vision and execution, to help illuminate what might be buried just beneath the surface. I know that the best editorial feedback takes into consideration the overall arc of the book and its project, while also caring for the small parts—the words, the phrases, the sentences—that make up the greater whole.

I have experience with a wide range of genre—literary, upmarket and commercial fiction, graphic novels, short stories, history, narrative nonfiction, current events and essays. I have worked with authors at every step of the editorial process, and can provide services ranging from manuscript evaluation, to developmental editing, to line editing.