Who is your all-time favorite author, and why? Oh, man. I have a Ph.D. in English, so asking me my favorite author is a bit like asking a parent to pick a child. If forced, I think I’d have to go with the late David Foster Wallace. I chose him partly because of the breadth…

What is your ideal vacation? My ideal vacations involve visiting people who mean a lot to me and letting them show me their favorite things about the city. Right now, a friend is in med school in Baltimore, a city where my dad used to live, so I would like to visit there. Some of…

What is your favorite genre to read for fun? That’s a fun question to answer. I studied English literature in college and I still like to read the classics, because there are so many of them! I recently read Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, quickly followed by Light in August by William Faulkner. That…

You have a history degree. What is your favorite time period to learn about? My undergraduate degree and my in-progress Ph.D. are both in 20th-century European and British history. I like thinking about how societies deal with enormous change or sudden catastrophe, and modernity’s recurring dream of rebuilding society from the ground up. To that…

Are you a cat or a dog person? Totally a dog person. I might almost go as far as saying I’m a crazy dog lady. Almost. Could you briefly tell us a little bit about your previous experience doing professional editing? I’ve been involved with the world of professional editing since I was on my…

Let’s start with an icebreaker: what is your favorite food? Well that would have to be cheese. Hard, or creamy, nutty, smoky, or stinky, shaved, fondued, or simply grabbed with fingers and stuffed into mouth.  If you are what you eat, then I am made of cheese. (Either that or Oaxacan or Korean food or anything you can find…