Jess Chandler

Jess Chandler – Editor

Publisher and editor, with extensive experience editing and publishing a range of books, from literary fiction and poetry to art books.

Overview

I am a publisher and editor, with extensive experience editing and publishing a range of books, from fiction and poetry to illustrated art books, literary biography, history and philosophy.

I am the founder of two independent publishing houses, specialising in publishing innovative works of poetry and fiction. I have worked as an editor at Reaktion Books, and as a researcher and producer on factual television programmes. I am also the Digital Editor at Poetry London magazine.

I have edited over 100 books, and hold BA and MA degrees in English Literature from University College London. I have given talks and seminars on publishing to students at the Royal College of Art, Birkbeck and the Open University.

My services include editorial assessment, copy-editing, proofreading and developmental editing. I can work on poetry, novels, essays, anthologies and illustrated books. I love fiction and poetry most of all, and get great pleasure from the process of improving any piece of writing!
Services
Fiction
Anthologies Literary Fiction Poetry Short Story
Non-Fiction
Art Design History Music
Languages
English (UK) English (US)

Work experience

Well-known publishing company/editorial service provider

Jan, 2018 — Present

I work as a freelance copyeditor, proofreader and copywriter for White Fox Publishing services.

House Sparrow Press

Nov, 2016 — Present

I am a co-founder and director of House Sparrow Press; our publications include books by John Berger and Anne Michaels.

Reaktion Books

Oct, 2016 — Sep, 2018 (almost 2 years)

I worked as a desk editor at Reaktion Books working on a very wide range of non-fiction titles, from literary biography to city travel guides, popular science and philosophy books, illustrated art books and books about food.

Portfolio

Fatherhood

Caleb Klaces

Fatherhood is the debut novel from award-winning poet Caleb Klaces, combining prose and poetry in an experimental work of verse fiction. Following the birth of their first child, a couple move out of the capital to the northern countryside, where they believe ... read more
These carefully selected poems will offer solace; provide an escape from the constant chatter of everyday thought; help make space for the unexpected; enable us to reinvent ourselves within the chaotic landscape of our lives. Some will be old favourites; other... read more
In remembering the Holocaust, we have largely ignored the contributions made by German artists in the first twenty years after the end of the war. But how did artists in Germany deal with their own experiences and relate these to what they saw, heard, and read... read more
Door ways

Bekki PERRIMAN

I Can't Wait For The Wending

Wayne Holloway-Smith

I CAN T WAIT FOR THE WENDING, a non-linear sequence of poems by prize-winning poet Wayne Holloway-Smith. The work is based upon ideas and structures that play with contingency and coincidence. The title, taken from a misspelt line written by Holloway-Smith s d... read more
Solo for Mascha Voice is a series of poems intended as replies to the work of the Polish-born German-language poet Mascha Kale ko. The following poems are not translations , appears as a note at the start. Addressed to a lover, the poems are tender and implori... read more
Jerome s Study explores what happens when we observe and study pieces of art; how we depict and translate our impression of something, and the stories and preoccupations that emerge when we spend time with another work of art.The book itself, beautifully desig... read more
Leonard Bernstein was one of twentieth-century music’s most successful and recognizable figures. In a career spanning five decades, he conducted many of the world’s leading orchestras and composed scores for landmark musicals such as West Side Story. With an i... read more
Poetry. REPUBLIC OF DOGS/REPUBLIC OF BIRDS is the first book-length prose text by poet and translator Stephen Watts. The text was written on a typewriter in the late 1980s, then mislaid and lost. Found again in 2012, it was typed onto a laptop with minimal edi... read more
Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) is widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest novelists, and his work continues to influence and inspire contemporary writers, artists, and musicians. Flaubert was determined from a young age to become a writer and achieved sud... read more
Gilles Deleuze, the person and philosopher, was both singular and multifaceted. Frida Beckman traces Deleuze’s remarkable intellectual journey, mapping the encounters from which his life and work emerged. She considers how his life and philosophical developmen... read more
A local rock star once said, ‘San Francisco is 49 square miles surrounded by reality.’ Michael Johns's San Francisco: Instant City, Promised Land portrays the sensibilities of this small city with an outsized personality. No American city has such a broad swee... read more
Explore behind the tourist facade of the world’s most visited city. In this book, Paris-based writer and Invisible Paris blogger Adam Roberts provides a concise and informative portrait of the iconic metropolis. He uncovers the story of how a provincial backwa... read more
Dark Islands

Tom Chivers

NA
{Enthusiasm}

SJ Fowler

Poetry. {ENTHUSIASM} is the 7th poetry collection by poet, artist, curator and vanguardist SJ Fowler. It follows highly-acclaimed collections including The Rottweiler's guide to the Dog Owner and Enemies: the selected collaborations of SJ Fowler. The book's 81... read more
Serious Justice

Jen Calleja

Poetry. SERIOUS JUSTICE is the highly anticipated debut collection from writer, translator, editor and musician Jen Calleja. The collection captures the memories, fears and uncertainties of the millennial generation, attempting to define an unstable and disint... read more
RED EYE

Iain Sinclair

Poetry. A lost foolscap typescript until its recent unearthing, the long poem RED EYE was written in 1973 for publication by Sinclair's Albion Village Press the following year. Set aside to accommodate other books from the press, and pushed aside by darker for... read more
The Magic Door

Chris Torrance

Poetry. THE MAGIC DOOR is the long-awaited collected edition of Chris Torrance's life work. Gathering eight books originally published between 1973 and 1996, the collection makes available and rejuvenates the work of this unjustly neglected poet, an important ... read more
microaggressions

Erik Stinson

Poetry. MICROAGGRESSIONS combines minimalist, incidental observations of life in New York City – reminiscent of Frank O'Hara – with the concise, rhythmic imagism of William Carlos Williams, transplanted into 21st-century, digital reality. Divided into six titl... read more
Weaving together stories of science and sociology, The Selfish Ape offers a refreshing response to common fantasies about the ascent of humanity. Rather than imagining modern humans as a species with godlike powers, or Homo deus, Nicholas P. Money recasts us a... read more
Berlin (Cityscopes)

Joseph Pearson

Berlin is a party in a graveyard. It is Europe’s youth capital, and its guilty war conscience. It is a disputed construction site, built on the ruins of regimes. Today’s diversity – refugees, immigrants, arty expats, East and West – emerges from a history of v... read more
In his lifetime Hieronymus Bosch was already famous for his fantastic painterly creations. Today his name has become synonymous with eerie and infernal images. Seeing Bosch’s enigmatic paintings, the viewer is faced with riddles that result in numerous interpr... read more
Infinite Gradation

Anne Michaels

Infinite Gradation is an astonishing meditation on the mystery at the heart of our mortality. In lines as precise and profound as any Michaels has written, Infinite Gradation movingly explores the nature of responsibility in extremis and the forms it takes—it ... read more
Poetry. REPUBLIC OF DOGS/REPUBLIC OF BIRDS is the first book-length prose text by poet and translator Stephen Watts. The text was written on a typewriter in the late 1980s, then mislaid and lost. Found again in 2012, it was typed onto a laptop with minimal edi... read more
In eighteenth-century London butterfly collectors weren’t known as lepidopterists—they were the Society of Aurelians, employing an old term that refers to that mysterious cask where beauty is divined: the chrysalis. As a twenty-first-century Aurelian, Carol Ma... read more
Poetry. Edited by Sophie Collins. CURRENTLY & EMOTION is an innovative and extensive anthology of contemporary poetry translations. It presents a varied and carefully curated selection of works which foreground the translator, and, by showcasing a broad range ... read more
Safe Mode

Sam Riviere

Fiction. SAFE MODE is Sam Riviere's first book-length prose text. Framed as an 'ambient novel', a term coined by the American writer Tan Lin, SAFE MODE abandons the traditional novel's temporal logic in favour of spatial and atmospheric dispersal, combining in... read more

Jess has 5 reviews

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

Franklyn J.

Franklyn J.

May, 2022

Reasonable work.
Nuno F.

Nuno F.

Oct, 2021

It was a great experience working with Jess! Her editorial comments are clear, and her notes were a precious help to improve my manuscript.
Danny R.

Danny R.

Aug, 2020

Jess was professional, and I had joy working with her. She gave great feedback, and gave great attention to detail. Would recommend!
Konstantinos D.

Konstantinos D.

Feb, 2020

Jess was incredibly helpful, both with her creative comments (on the poems submitted) and practical tips (for magazines, competitions, and presses that they might match well with). I will certainly use her services and expertise when I have more work to show!
Sean G.

Sean G.

Feb, 2020

I found my experience working with her to be very pleasant. She was very helpful and patient with me. I would be happy to work with her again.

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