Will Allison - Editor
I specialize in literary fiction (novels, stories) & creative nonfiction (essays, memoir). Acclaimed author, editor 20+ years.
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Overview
Since 2011, I’ve served as a contributing editor and teacher for the award-winning, Brooklyn-based literary magazine One Story. Before that, I served as an editor-at-large for Zoetrope: All-Story and as the executive editor of Story, where I began my editing career in 1996. I’ve taught creative writing in the MFA program at Columbia University, at The Ohio State University, and elsewhere. I am a longtime guest editor at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. I am the author of the novels What You Have Left, a Barnes & Noble Discover pick and a San Francisco Chronicle notable book, and the New York Times bestseller Long Drive Home. My short stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, Glimmer Train, Shenandoah, The Cincinnati Review, American Short Fiction, One Story, Slate, and elsewhere.
I work with a range of new and established authors as an editor/ writing coach specializing in literary fiction and creative nonfiction. I edit authors the way I hope to be edited as an author myself. I have two goals as an editor: to help improve the manuscript while respecting the author’s vision and sensibility, and to help the author become a better editor of her own work. I enjoy working with authors who seek honest, rigorous feedback and are able to set aside their egos for the sake of their manuscripts. I don’t think of myself as a manuscript “fixer” but rather as an author’s collaborator, coach, and/or teacher, as the circumstances call for. Testimonials available on request.
I work with a range of new and established authors as an editor/ writing coach specializing in literary fiction and creative nonfiction. I edit authors the way I hope to be edited as an author myself. I have two goals as an editor: to help improve the manuscript while respecting the author’s vision and sensibility, and to help the author become a better editor of her own work. I enjoy working with authors who seek honest, rigorous feedback and are able to set aside their egos for the sake of their manuscripts. I don’t think of myself as a manuscript “fixer” but rather as an author’s collaborator, coach, and/or teacher, as the circumstances call for. Testimonials available on request.
Languages
English (US)
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs
Fiction
Literary Fiction
Short Story
Certifications
- MFA in creative writing, Ohio State University
- MA in English, Ohio State University
- BA in English, Case Western Reserve University
Work experience
Independent Editor & Writing Coach
Self-employed
September, 1996
–
Present
(over 26 years)
As a freelance editor, I've edited books that won prizes (e.g., The Iowa Short Fiction Award) and were published by a range of small and large presses (e.g., Celadon Books/Macmillan, BOA Editions, Serving House Books, Wayne State University Press, etc.). Stories I've edited have appeared in prize anthologies (e.g., The Pushcart Prize, PEN American Best Debut Short Stories, etc.) and in collections published by Simon & Schuster, W.W. Norton & Company, Twelve (Hachette Book Group), and elsewhere.
Contributing Editor
One Story
July, 2011
–
Present
(over 11 years)
Since 2011, I’ve served as a contributing editor and teacher for the award-winning, Brooklyn-based literary magazine One Story, where I've edited fiction by authors such as John Biguenet, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Emma Donoghue, Erika Krouse, Erin McGraw, B.J. Novak, Tom Paine, George Singleton, Shawn Vestal, and others.
Editor at Large
Zoetrope: All-Story
January, 2000
–
January, 2002
(about 2 years)
Editor at large for Zoetrope: All Story, winner of the National Magazine Award for Fiction.
Executive Editor
Story
October, 1996
–
October, 1999
(about 3 years)
Executive editor for the United States' top literary quarterly of its time, a five-time finalist and two-time winner of the National Magazine Award for Fiction. Edited fiction by authors such as Richard Bausch, Judy Budnitz, Peter Ho Davies, Junot Diaz, Tony Earley, Nathan Englander, Percival Everett, Peter Gadol, Andrew Sean Greer, J. Robert Lennon, Bobbie Ann Mason, Joyce Carol Oates, Jenny Offill, ZZ Packer, Chuck Palahniuk, Carol Shields, Hannah Tinti, and others,
Portfolio (16 selected works)
What You Have Left: A Novel
Will Allison
Thirty years after being abandoned by her father on the day of her mother's funeral, Holly struggles with her grandfather's suicidal tendencies, a pioneering woman racer, and other eccentrics while slowly reentering her father's life. A first novel. 40,000 first printing.
Long Drive Home: A Novel
Will Allison
In this New York Times bestselling psychological thriller, “a gripping morality tale that raises questions about race, conscience, and the responsibilities of parenthood” (People), a happily married man makes a split-second decision that sends his life into a devastating tailspin.Life can change in an instant because of one small mistake. For Glen Bauer, all it takes is a quick jerk of the ste... read more
We Love Anderson Cooper: Short Stories
R.L. Maizes
In this quirky, humorous, and deeply human short story collection, Pushcart Prize-nominated author R.L. Maizes reminds us that even in our most isolated moments, we are never truly alone.In We Love Anderson Cooper, characters are treated as outsiders because of their sexual orientation, racial or religious identity, or simply because they look different. A young man courts the publicity that c... read more
Outside Is the Ocean (Iowa Short Fiction Award)
Matthew Lansburgh
Three days after her twentieth birthday, a young woman who grew up in Germany during World War II crosses the Atlantic to start a new life. Outside Is the Ocean traces Heike’s struggle to find love and happiness in America. After two marriages and a troubled relationship with her son, Heike adopts a disabled child from Russia, a strong-willed girl named Galina, who Heike hopes will give her th... read more
When a contemporary writer turns her imagination loose inside the images of an iconic artist of the past, the result is storytelling magic at its best. Here are nine tales that bring to vivid life the early decades of the 20th century as witnessed by one of America's most well-known painters. Thomas Hart Benton sketched fiddlers and farm wives, preachers and soldiers, folks gathering in dance ... read more
One Story magazine features one great story every month. Because One Story never publishes an author more than once, you’ll discover a great new writer in every issue. Launched in 2002, One Story has quickly become one of the top American venues for short fiction. Of the 115 issues published between 2002 and 2008, almost half were selected as among the year’s best by various anthologies and pr... read more
![Story Magazine [Winter 2000]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41HKMQR19EL._SL160_.jpg)
Story Magazine [Winter 2000]
Peter, Lydia Millet and Darcey Steinke, signed.] Lois Rosenthal, editor (, contributors.) [Turchi
Notes (Lois Rosenthal); North of Mt. Shasta (Alison Baker); The Man Who Lived Above Us (Peter Turchi); The Great Inauguration (Lydia Millet); Paper Son (Melissa Hardy); Blood Work (Bonnie Jo Campbell); The Bear Who Could Not Sleep (Melanie Rae Thon); The Voyeur (Kim Edwards); The Earling Timer (Darcey Steinke); Cutters (Randy F. Nelson, winner of the "Carson McCuller Prize"); You Will Lose Me ... read more
Excommunicados (Iowa Short Fiction Award)
Charles Haverty
By turns haunting, hilarious, and heartbreaking, Charles Haverty’s debut collection charts the journeys of men, women, and children cast out of familiar territory into emotional terra incognita where people and things are rarely what they seem. These twelve stories are populated with ex-nuns and Freedom Riders, Chaucer scholars and strippers, out-of-work comedy writers and presidents, navigati... read more
Staff Picks: Stories (Yellow Shoe Fiction)
George Singleton
It’s Father’s Day 1972 and a young boy’s dad takes him to visit a string of unimpressive ex-girlfriends that could have been his mother; the unconventional detective work of a koan-speaking, Kung Fu–loving uncle solves a case of arson during a pancake breakfast; and a former geology professor, recovering from addiction, finds himself sharing a taxicab with specters from a Jim Crow–era lynching... read more
THE ESSENTIAL YEARLY GUIDE TO THE NEWEST VOICES IN SHORT FICTION "A book of gems, each one carrying its own particular clarity and cut, that teaches students of writing how limitless the short story form can be." —Marie-Helene Bertino, author of 2 A.M. at The Cat's PajamasPEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 celebrates twelve outstanding stories by today’s most promising new fiction write... read more
“A stalwart and staple of American letters.” Kirkus Reviews Winner of honors from the National Book Critics Circle, Publishers Weekly, Poets & Writers / Barnes & Noble and others, and acclaimed by readers and reviewers internationally, The Pushcart Prize series continues to be a testament to the flourishing of American fiction, essays, memoirs and poetry in our small, independent presses. As c... read more
“More good poems, essays and stories are found in these presses than any other place on the planet.” Richard Ford This 43rd edition of the annual Pushcart Prize – the most celebrated literary series in America – is further proof that these days the heat and heart of contemporary writing is often found in small presses scattered around the country and the world, far from the pressures of commer... read more
Mothers, Tell Your Daughters: Stories
Bonnie Jo Campbell
“Bonnie Jo Campbell is a master of rural America’s postindustrial landscape.” ―Boston GlobeNamed by the Guardian as one of our top ten writers of rural noir, Bonnie Jo Campbell is a keen observer of life and trouble in rural America, and her working-class protagonists can be at once vulnerable, wise, cruel, and funny. The strong but flawed women of Mothers, Tell Your Daughters must negotiate a... read more
Why They Run the Way They Do: Stories
Susan Perabo
“Darkly beautiful stories about love and loss and every gradation between. Each one is suffused with astonishing wit and tenderness. Well worth the wait!” —Jenny Offill, New York Times bestselling author of Department of Speculation “Reminiscent of George Saunders…These ingenious and lovable stories crack open the world.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) From the celebrated author of Who I Was... read more
Schroder: A Novel
Amity Gaige
A lyrical and deeply affecting novel recounting the seven days a father spends on the road with his daughter after kidnapping her during a parental visit. Attending a New England summer camp, young Eric Schroder-a first-generation East German immigrant-adopts the last name Kennedy to more easily fit in, a fateful white lie that will set him on an improbable and ultimately tragic course.SCHRODE... read more
The Era of Not Quite (American Readers Series)
Douglas Watson
Douglas Watson's debut story collection is chock-a-block with deaths, births, sea and land voyages, excursions to the library, philosophical asides, and things like wolves. People fall in and out of love, walk in and out of buildings, take two steps forward and two steps back. Futility is a theme of the book, but so is the necessity of trying."Watson lards his metaphors with specifics." —Kyle ... read more
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