Let’s work together to transform your writing project into a publication.

I’m Carolyn Elerding, PhD, and my freelance business is called Sophia Editing. I am a former assistant professor (tenure-track) of women’s studies (intersectional gender studies), and I have also worked as a managing editor at a university press, where I honed my skills working with poets and fiction writers as well as academics and independent researchers. I’ve worked hard to become the freelance editor I wish to see in the world! For rates, project list, or resume (or cv, if you’re really curious), contact me at SophiaEditing@proton.me.

Your research, criticism, poetry, and fiction deserve the highest-quality presentation regardless of the pressures of caregiving, teaching, working multiple jobs, or the rise of fascism. Let Sophia Editing support you, whatever you do with your hard-earned credentials! Whether you need a conceptual sounding board, organizational advice, line editing, or proofreading, together we can develop a customized plan that serves your priorities as well as your schedule and budget.

Editing and Business Philosophy:

My business is organized in accordance with feminist, anti-racist, and queer values as well as trauma awareness. I offer reasonable rates and a reparations-based sliding fee scale. Adjuncts and other underemployed writers receive an automatic 25 percent discount (please let me know of your interest in this option).

My editorial philosophy is process-oriented, acknowledging that each writer works differently and that every text involves power relations. As no editor’s perspective is universal, clients’ differences are respected, and each text engaged with on its own terms.

An award-winning writer and former tenure-track professor, I have been supporting fellow writers for more than twenty years. In my undergraduate and graduate student years, I worked in writing centers as a tutor-consultant and led dissertation-writing groups. I have taught numerous university-level writing classes, coedited special issues of scholarly journals, had several scholarly articles published, and provided academic peer review. Currently, I am coediting a new venue for queer speculative fiction (stay tuned!). I have written for the popular press in journalism venues such as Truthout, Ms. magazine, the Real News Network, and Yellow Scene magazine.

My scholarly expertise is deeply interdisciplinary, with specializations including cultural studies; critical theory; feminist, queer, and anti-racist studies; cinema and media studies; science and technology studies; humanities and humanistic social sciences; and the arts, particularly music, both popular and classical, and my capacities include practical ones like theory and notation as well as cultural studies of music and sound.

I am trained and experienced in developmental editing, copyediting, and proofreading in a variety of styles. For academic work, I focus mainly on Chicago and MLA but am comfortable in other styles as well.

I do not work on student assignments such as essays, term papers, or theses.