In my capacity as an editor for the Minnesota Historical Society Press, I've had the pleasure of working with certain projects from their earliest proposal letter through polishing of the manuscript text and on to proofreading. In other cases my role has been as narrow as proofreading or fact-checking, and I note those specifically below.
Though all the books are linked in some way to Minnesota, the subject matter ranges from architecture to business history to cooking to memoir. Each book has offered opportunities for growth, whether in my knowledge of a particular topic or in my skills in managing complicated projects with multiple authors or hundreds of photographs.
(Unless otherwise noted, all works were published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press.)
Architectural History / Biography
Cap Wigington: An Architectural Legacy in Ice and Stone
(David Vassar Taylor and Paul Clifford Larson, 2000)
Proofreading.
Cass Gilbert: The Early Years
(Geoffrey Blodget, 2000)
Business History
A Union Against Unions: The Minneapolis Citizens' Alliance and Its Fight Against Organized Labor
(William Millikan, 2001)
Final editorial read; proofreading.
Boosters, Hustlers, and Speculators: Entrepreneurial Culture and the Rise of Minneapolis and St. Paul, 1849-1883
(Jocelyn Wills, 2004)
Edited Volumes
A Place Called Home: Writings on the Midwestern Small Town
(Richard O. Davies, Joseph Amato, and David Pichaske, 2000)
Proofreading of an electronically keyed manuscript (many scanning errors).
Voices for the Land: Minnesotans Write About the Places They Love
(Photos by Brian Peterson, 2000)
Light editing of previously published essays; proofreading.
***Winner of multiple Minnesota Book Awards***
Mill City: A Visual History of the Minneapolis Mill District
(Edited by Shannon M. Pennefeather, 2003)
***Minnesota Book Award Winner***
Bamboo Among the Oaks: Contemporary Writing by Hmong Americans
(Edited by Mai Neng Moua; 2000)
Light editing of essay, fiction, and poetry to make multi-authored work consistent in presentation.
***Minnesota Book Award Finalist***
Living Our Language: Ojibwe Tales and Oral Histories
(Edited by Anton Treuer, 2000)
Light editing for consistent treatment of words; proofreading (but not of Ojibwe text!).
Environmental History
Keeper of the Wild: The Life of Ernest Oberholtzer
(Joe Paddock, 2001)
The Forest for the Trees: How Humans Shaped the North Woods
(Jeff Forester, 2004)
***Minnesota Book Award Finalist***
Ethnic History
Norwegians on the Prairie: Ethnicity and the Development of the Country Town
(Odd S. Lovoll, 2006)
Swedes in the Twin Cities: Immigrant Life and Minnesota's Urban Frontier
(Edited by Philip A. Anderson and Dag Blanck, 2001)
Proofreading.
Memoir / Creative Nonfiction
A Country Doctor's Casebook: Tales from the North Woods
A Country Doctor's Chronicle: Further Tales from the North Woods
(Roger A. MacDonald, 2002 and 2004)
The Language of Blood: A Memoir
(Jane Jeong Trenka, 2003)
***Minnesota Book Award Winner***
Middle Readers (ages 9 and up)
Dred and Harriet Scott: A Family's Struggle for Freedom
(Gwenyth Swain, 2004)
Little Crow / Taoyateduta: Leader of the Dakota
(Gwenyth Swain, 2004)
Wanda Gag: Storybook Artist
(Gwenyth Swain, 2005)
***Minnesota Book Award Winner***
Minnesota History
The Minnesota Book of Days: An Almanac of State History
(Compiled by Tony Greiner, 2001)
Fact-checked and edited entries; proofread final pages.
Minnesota Eats Out: An Illustrated History
(Kathryn Strand Koutsky, Linda Koutsky, with recipes by Eleanor Ostman, 2003)
***Minnesota Book Award Finalist***
Minnesota in the Mail: A Postcard History
(Bonnie Wilson, 2004)
Minnesota Weather Almanac
(Mark W. Seeley, 2006)
A Popular History of Minnesota
(Norman K. Risjord, 2005)
Fact-checking and proofreading.
Remembering the Good War: Minnesota's Greatest Generation
(Thomas Saylor, 2005)
Copy-editing, consistency check, proofreading.
Sports
75 Memorable Moments in Minnesota Sports
(Joel Rippel, 2003)
Copy-editing and proofreading.
***Minnesota Book Award Finalist***
Swinging for the Fences: Black Baseball in Minnesota
(Edited by Steven R. Hoffbeck, 2005)
Proofreading.
Women's History
Calling This Place Home: Women on the Wisconsin Frontier, 1850-1925
(Joan M. Jensen, 2006)
Women of the Northern Plains: Gender and Settlement on the Homestead Frontier, 1870-1930
(Barbara Handy-Marchello, 2005)
Proofreading.
Other Editorial Tasks
Minnesota Conservation Volunteer
(Bimonthly publication of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, St. Paul, MN)
Proofreading.
Self-Employed Country Magazine
(Quarterly publication of Communicating for Agriculture and the Self-Employed, Inc., Fergus Falls, MN)
Copy-editing.
Whiskey Point Memories
(Nyle Zikmund, privately printed, 2004)
The biography of a patch of land in Minnesota's boundary waters, from the earliest
humans through seventeenth-century explorers through the colorful history of
logging and leisure.
Some development of the manuscript, copy-editing, proofreading.
"Lost and Found: Tales of Adoption"
(Jane Jeong Trenka, Speakeasy, September/October 2003)
Proofreading.
"Sparks Fly Upwards: Remembering Ken Kesey"
(Jeff Forester, San Francisco Chronicle, November 30, 2003)
Proofreading.
