Meet our Collective.
Matthew Bennett
Co-Founder and Editor
Matthew Bennett began editing in 2008 at Ronsdale Press, where he shepherded documents from first submission to final print, serving as editor for publications such as Sheila James’s In the Wake of Loss (2009). He was later copyeditor for academic monographs, such as Nicholas Hudson’s A Political Biography of Samuel Johnson (Pickering & Chatto, 2013). His current editing work includes novels and short stories, master’s theses and doctoral dissertations. For the Northwest Editors Guild he ran the NWEG Writer Mentor program, in collaboration with the South Seattle Emerald and Crosscut. Matthew has a PhD in English from the University of British Columbia and has been writing and publishing academic, journalistic, and fictional prose for over a decade.
Judith Scholes
Co-Founder and Editor
Judith Scholes has a PhD in English from the University of British Columbia, specializing in nineteenth-century American print culture, women’s poetry, and Emily Dickinson. For the past 20 years, she has provided freelance writing and editing for corporate, web, academic, literary, and arts clients. She is currently focused on editing scholarly work from academics across the arts and sciences, and consulting on archival research projects. Judith teaches writing and American literature at St. Mark’s and Corpus Christi Colleges at the University of British Columbia, and is completing a book on Emily Dickinson and the ethos of women’s poetry in nineteenth-century American periodicals. Her work has appeared in the Emily Dickinson Journal, American Periodicals, and is forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of Emily Dickinson (2022).
Lucia Lorenzi
Co-Founder and Editor
Lucia Lorenzi has a PhD in English from the University of British Columbia, with research and teaching specialization in Canadian literature and drama, Indigenous literature, autobiographical writing, and trauma theory. Her dissertation examined the relationship between silence and literary representations of sexual violence. Lucia’s scholarly writing and editing expertise is complemented by her years as a blogger for rabble.ca, as well her work as a graphic designer, editor, and copywriter for the UBC Department of English. With a strong background in the performing arts and public speaking, Lucia is able to help clients craft dynamic speeches. Lucia also has extensive experience with social media and with creative writing, and is eager to help clients develop their unique voices.
Will Sweger
Editor
Will Sweger is a freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in Seattle Weekly, Curbed Seattle, The Urbanist, and Cascadia Magazine. Previously, he served as Editor at Large for the South Seattle Emerald, a digital newspaper focused on eclectic reporting of Seattle’s South End. Will’s experience also includes performing as the Engagement Director of the Hugo House, a community writing center in Seattle where he organized public readings and paired students with writing instructors. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College with specializations in historical fiction and war literature. Will works with journalists and other creative writers to help communicate stories that need telling.
Damon Barta
Editor
Damon Barta holds a PhD in English from the University of British Columbia, with specialization in cultural studies of the twentieth-century and contemporary American fiction and film. He is an editor, author, and instructor who aims to guide writers toward elegant prose that realizes their creative and scholarly potential. He is currently Assistant Editor for Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States (MELUS), a preeminent peer-reviewed academic journal. His short fiction has appeared in online and print journals such as Fjords, The Baltimore Review, and Salamander. Damon has also published scholarly work in Representing 9/11: Trauma, Ideology, and Nationalism in Literature, Film, and Television and Philip Roth Studies.
Jessica Hemming
Editor
Jessica Hemming has been Editor of the British academic journal Folklore since 2013, having previously served as Reviews Editor and Assistant Editor since 2000. She also worked as Bibliographic Editor for the International Medieval Bibliography at the University of Leeds. Jessica line-edited two monographs by historian Simon Young: The Nail in the Skull & Other Victorian Urban Legends (University Press of Mississippi, 2022) and The Boggart: Folklore, History, Place-names & Dialect (University of Exeter Press, 2022). She also runs editing workshops for student editors of university journals. For the past 15 years Jessica has taught history, literature, and mythology at Corpus Christi and Langara Colleges in Vancouver. She has PhD in Celtic Studies from the University of Cambridge. Her current research, published in Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies and the North American Journal of Celtic Studies, focuses on medieval Welsh poetry.
