editing and bookmaking — Rebekah Smith

I am an editor who can help you with your book at any stage of the process, from initial idea to development and research to printing and binding and final proofs. With over a decade of experience editing poetry, essays, academic texts, and more, my process adapts to meet your needs. I love making connections and catalyzing creativity, and am a supportive and fun interlocutor, helping to develop, revise, finalize, and make your book. I am especially devoted to poetry, errant writing and research, translation, and allowing the process to guide the shape of resulting work.

Selected books I have edited at Ugly Duckling Presse:

Magic Episodes: The Transhemispheric Correspondence of Scott Burton and Eduardo Costa, 1970–1980 : : edited by David J. Getsy and Patrick Greaney
galáxias : : Haroldo de Campos, translated by Odile Cisneros
adjacent islands : : Nicole Cecilia Delgado, translated by Urayoán Noel
I Remember Nightfall : : Marosa di Giorgio, translated by Jeannine Marie Pitas
Black Box Named Like to Me : : Diana Garza Islas, translated by Cal Paule
No Budu Please : : Wingston González, translated by Urayoán Noel
Lines of Flight : : Madhu H. Kaza
The Book of Advice : : Ghazal Mosadeq
Reincarnating Marechera: Notes on a Speculative Archive : : Tinashe Mushakavanhu
Chronology : : Zahra Patterson
Syncope : : Asiya Wadud

Books I have made with my small press, Johan Johan Editions.

My new Berlin-based publishing project, Err Editions.

Working with me:

It was exhilarating to work with Rebekah Smith. She was expert in guiding me towards more concise and clear writing, attentive to details of diction, syntax, and logic. What really stood out to me, though, was Rebekah's unusual creativity and generosity as an editor. She encouraged me to take risks and intensify my thinking. It is rare to work with an editor who, instead of constraining one's style, meets it with intelligence and care and seeks to set it free. It's been a great gift to be in conversation with her.
– Madhu H. Kaza

I had the privilege to work with Rebekah as my editor for the translation of galáxias, a poetry book by the renowned Brazilian avant-gardist Haroldo de Campos. Rebekah’s insightful reading and sensitive ear to the rhythms of this complex piece improved the manuscript in ways I could not have imagined. I am forever grateful for her boundless generosity and patience in seeing this project through from manuscript to published book. I could not have done it without her!
– Odile Cisneros

Rebekah Smith is one of the best editors I have worked with in over two decades as a published writer and translator. She brings a cross-cultural and cross-genre sensibility to the editorial process and is able to zero in on the heart of a project and to approach it from the perspective of a nonspecialist reader. Rebekah is that rare editor who understands how innovative (and even weird) work such as my own fits into a complex publishing landscape. I would not have earned my recent NYSCA grant were it not for her expert guidance and encouragement. I recommend Rebekah in the highest of terms.
– Urayoán Noel

Rebekah Smith is a passionate and compassionate editor who offers constructive feedback with incredible attention to detail. She served as editor on my translation of Uruguayan poet Marosa di Giorgio’s I Remember Nightfall, which was published by Ugly Duckling Presse in 2017, went on to be shortlisted for the 2018 National Translation Award, and effectively launched my career as a Spanish-English literary translator. I am deeply grateful to Rebekah for the time and care she took with the work. As the author of two books and the translator of twelve, I have worked with many editors and publishers. Rebekah stands out as one of the most engaged and supportive that I ever have encountered.
– Jeannine Marie Pitas