All posts by Letta Page

About Letta Page

I am a disarmingly earnest editor, translator of academia, nonfiction revisionary, and domesticated roustabout. More professionally, I might say: I am the senior managing editor of Contexts, founding associate editor and producer of The Society Pages, and a sociology editor, jargon-slayer, and “book doula” for hire. My specialty is in helping authors identify and hone their arguments in ways their target audiences can both understand and use. In this way, I’m a translator, consultant, writing coach, and editor all in one. The senior managing editor of Contexts magazine (the public outreach journal of the American Sociological Association), I have more than two decades’ experience in academic editing across a range of disciplines. I’ve edited and written copy for publications from Oxford University Press, Routledge, Taylor & Francis, W.W. Norton, the University of Chicago Press, Cambridge University Press, Stanford University Press, and many others, including dozens of journals. Today, I specialize in sociology and, as a sort of fun “palate cleanser” (trust me, when you’re editing books on neoliberalism and genocide, it’s always good to have a fallback), I write copy for organizations like Stand Up! Records. I also have a background in the visual arts and was a founder of First Amendment Arts (now Co-Exhibitions) in Minneapolis, MN. I hold degrees in history and classical studies from Boston University and an art degree from the University of Minnesota, and I enjoy most of the things you can imagine Rose from The Golden Girls counts among her hobbies. I received the University of Minnesota’s Public Sociology Award, for outstanding contributions to the discipline and public conversation, in 2019. My truly lovely husband, Josh Page, is a professor of sociology and law at the University of Minnesota, as well as a food writer and founder of Meal magazine. He’s a great writer, and I’m so happy to work alongside him in print and in life. View all posts by Letta Page →

More Kindness from Authors

March 17, 2024UncategorizedLetta Page

Well, it’s starting to look like I need some sort of special section for the incredible kindnesses extended to me by the brilliant people who let me tinker with their words! My addition today has me all kinds of verklempt–it’s from the acknowledgements of the new and transformative book Life Under Pressure: The Social Roots of Youth Suicide and What To Do about Them, by Anna S. Mueller and Seth Abrutyn:

It is hard to figure out how to appropriately acknowledge and thank the marvelous Letta Page, who painstakingly poured over every chapter of this book providing us with important edits and insightful comments and helping us hone honestly everything about the book. It would be easier to figure out how to acknowledge Letta if that was all she did. But she also became our most trusted confidant and the person with whom we were most vulnerable (with our ideas). She made writing this book possible and even joyful. Letta, we aren’t sure we would have gotten here without you. Thank you for all you gave us, the words and beyond.

And… again!

February 12, 2024UncategorizedLetta Page

Just another truly awesome acknowledgment from a brilliant author, NBD. Okay, to me? BD. Very BD. This one’s from Tina Fetner’s Sex in Canada: The Who, Why, When, and How of Getting Down Up North:

I owe a deep debt of gratitude to the very talented wordsmith and my good friend Letta Page. Her enthusiasm for this project was contagious, and I appreciate the energy that her upbeat attitude gave me when I needed it most. Letta refuses to let me calcify into a stodgy academic, even though that would be as comfortable as curling up with a good book. Instead, she lent her wit and humour to the project, as well as her substantial talent as an editor, helping me find my voice for this work. If you enjoy reading it as much as I hope you will, you can thank Letta. I certainly do.

What a joy it was to work on this project and to help the inimitable Tina Fetner bring her own signature wit and wisdom to bear on the topic of, well, ways to warm the flannel sheets!

Gobsmacked

January 21, 2024UncategorizedLetta Page

Recently, I was thrilled to receive a copy of the brand-spanking-new, brilliant and beautiful book The Peer Effect from author Syed Ali. And when I turned to the acknowledgments, I turned to mush. The authors have written:

Lastly, we want to thank our wordsmith, Letta Page. While we were pretty sure that the book was good, once it got into her hands it got soooo much better. It helps that Letta, a degree holder in classics, knows more sociology than most sociologists. In fact, she has forgotten more sociology than most sociologists know. She pointed out flaws, she stressed good points, she suggested additions and subtractions, she said go read these things right now, and she gave the writing a good spit-shine polish. We can’t thank her enough.

And in turn, I can’t thank them enough. What a dang delight!

Read Widely, or Becoming a Better Writer by Reading

September 11, 2022Clients, Editing, Reprints, WritinginspirationLetta Page

And reading for pleasure. This piece first appeared, in different form, in 2014 on TheSocietyPages.org‘s Editors’ Desk. One of these days, I’ll publish some updated recommendations!

Read Widely

In case it’s hard to tell, that’s an imperative, not a descriptor.

See, many authors ask me for examples of how to incorporate a lot of information into something that’s thorough, academically sound, and engaging. It’s a tough balance, to be sure, but over the years, I’ve collected a number of books (and this is by no means a list of all of them) I can hand off as representations of that ideal. They likely have nothing to do with your area of study, but watching the authors’ deft hands at work (and knowing there are surely unsung editor elves in there, too) can be a truly enjoyable homework assignment. Think of it as “authorial excellence by osmosis.” Absorb and emulate these ten fine examples. Continue reading Read Widely, or Becoming a Better Writer by Reading →

Stacks on Stacks (Updated Feb. 2024)

March 12, 2022About, Clients, Editing, UncategorizedLetta Page

I’m often asked which books I’ve edited, and, truly, I’ve been lucky to get my mitts on so many talented authors’ words. Here’s a little sample of the books I’ve worked on that are out now:

Sex in Canada, Tina Fetner | The Peer Effect, Syed Ali and Margaret S. Chin | The Minneapolis Reckoning, Michelle S. Phelps | The Policing Machine, Tony Cheng | The Danger Imperative, Michael Sierra-Arévalo | Sons, Daughters, and Sidewalk Psychotics, Neil Gong | Indefinite: Doing Time in Jail, Michael L. Walker | Punishing Places, Jessica T. Simes | Predict and Surveil, Sarah L. Brayne | Uninsured in Chicago, Rob Vargas | Credible Threat, Sarah Sobieraj | Producing Politics, Daniel Laurison | Queer Carnival, Amy L. Stone | Orange Collar Labor, Michael Gibson-Light | Retail Inequality, Kenneth H. Kolb | Making Moral Citizens, Jack Delehanty | Policing Welfare, Spencer Headworth | Hedged Out, Megan Tobias Neely | Banished Men, Abigail L. Andrews | Now Hiring, Nicole C. Jones-Young | Mining the Heartland, Erik Kojola | Revolution Squared, Atef Said | In This Place Called Prison, Rachel Ellis | A Few Good Gays, Cati Connell | Walking Mannequins, Joya Misra and Kyla Walters | Chasing the American Dream in China, Leslie K. Wang | The Dating Divide, Celeste Curington, Jennifer Lundquist, and Ken-Hou Lin | The People’s Hotel, Katherine Sobering | Constructing Community, Jeremy Levine | Figures of the Future, Michael Rodriguez-Muniz | GoFailMe, Erik Schneiderhan and Martin Lukk | Living in a Nuclear World, Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Kyoko Sato, Soraya Boudia | Black Boys Apart, Freeden Blume Oeur | Migration, Incorporation, and Change in an Interconnected World, Syed F. Ali and Douglas Hartmann | The Quantified Scholar, Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra | Tainted Tap, Katrinell M. Davis | Power Grab, Paasha Madhavi | Gender, Sexuality, and Intimacy, Jodi O’Brien and Arlene Stein | The Color of Homeschooling, Mahala Dyer Stewart | The Toughest Beat, Josh Page | Breaking the Pendulum, Phil Goodman, Josh Page, and Michelle Phelps | Not for Long, Robert Turner |Total Liberation, David Pellow | The Black Elephants in the Room, Corey Fields | Blowin’ Up, Jooyoung Lee | Divided by the Wall, Emine Elcioglu | Citizen-Protectors, Jenny Carlson | The Revolution that Wasn’t, Jen Schradie | Midnight Basketball, Doug Hartmann | Assigned: Life with Gender, Lisa Wade, ed. | The Browning of the New South, Jennifer Jones | Grocery Activism, Craig L. Upright | Hard Work Is Not Enough, Katrinell M. Davis | Politics Beyond Black and White, Lauren Davenport | The Contexts Reader (second and third editions) | Owned, Doug Hartmann and Chris Uggen, eds. | Crime and the Punished, Doug Hartmann and Chris Uggen, eds. | Digital Punishment, Sarah Lageson | Social Theory Rewired, Wes Longhofer and Dan Winchester | Race, Nation, and Post-Colonial Citizenship, Ron Aminzade | Power Struggles, Jaume Franquesa | The Size of Others’ Burdens, Eric Schneiderhan | Hard Work Is Not Enough: KM Davis | Crossings to Adulthood, Swartz, Hartmann, and Rumbaut | World Suffering and Quality of Life, Ron Anderson | Undocumented Politics, Abigail Andrews | The Myth of Mob Rule, Lisa L. Miller | We Are All Criminals, Emily Baxter | The Social Side of Politics, Doug Hartmann and Chris Uggen, eds. | Give Methods a Chance, Kyle Green, Sarah Lageson, Doug Hartmann, and Chris Uggen | Prozak Diaries, Orkideh Behzrouan | Getting Culture, Doug Hartmann and Chris Uggen, eds. | Encore Adulthood, Phyllis Moen | Rights on Trial, Berrey, Nelson, and Nielsen | Retirement and Its Discontents, Michelle Pannor Silver | Politics of Empowerment, David Pettinicchio

Reverse Outlining

July 27, 2021Clients, Editing, UncategorizedLetta Page

A friend reached out this weekend because she was absolutely mired in a bear of a final paper. She didn’t want me to edit it (and I definitely don’t edit exams or papers earlier than the dissertation and/or journal submissions), but to give some advice on how to handle what had become unwieldy. My suggestion? The reverse outline. Here’s what I wrote:

To reorient yourself to the question, I suggest grabbing a notebook and your paper, and making an outline of what’s actually in the paper. Continue reading Reverse Outlining →

Jargon-Slaying

May 25, 2021Editing, Writingacademia, clarity, editing, jargon, translation, writingLetta Page

"Your wits are your only weapon here." Photo by Krista Kennedy, Flickr CC. — “Your wits are your only weapon in here.” Photo by Krista Kennedy, Flickr CC.

“What, precisely, does one use to slay jargon?” Dave asked.

“My wits!”

“That’s not… jargon-y.”

“Okay, I utilize the methodology inculcated by years of carefully calibrated pedagogical approaches…”

[seething annoyance] “Stop it.” [/seething annoyance] Continue reading Jargon-Slaying →

Public Sociology

July 19, 2019UncategorizedLetta Page

(Amateur Edition)

With Michelle Phelps, who received the 2019 Faculty Mentoring Award.

In May 2019, I was nearly as shocked as I was honored to receive the University of Minnesota’s Public Sociology Award. This award honors outstanding contributions to the discipline of sociology and the public conversation—and I’m not a card-carrying sociologist! But, I’ve been sociology-adjacent for over a decade now, and I really do see it as my mission to make sociological knowledge public knowledge. I can’t wait to see where my work will take me next!

“Be a Man”

August 21, 2017Clients, Uncategorized, WritingLetta Page

My write-up on Ray Harrington’s award-winning documentary, “Be a Man,” from long-time client Stand Up! Records:

American universities are increasingly offering courses in masculinity—the ways it’s culturally and socially constructed, the ways its boundaries are policed, and the ways its constraints and contradictions put basically everyone on edge. But studying masculinity is different from trying, at an individual level, to define and achieve manhood. What does it mean to be a man? Who is that man? Ray Harrington has charmingly, brilliantly, and with utter vulnerability chronicled his journey to find out.

As he seeks his signature manly cocktail, discovers his dream car isn’t a half-million dollar phallic symbol, and maniacally gets into a boxing ring with a professional fighter, Harrington gathers his collaborators for a film that’s part love letter, part personal journey, part support group, and part road trip movie. Like any movie worth the popcorn, there are fast cars and fashion montages, dreamy landscapes and a lewd joke or two. Mostly, though, there’s an earnest rumination on modern manhood and how we all get by with a little help from our friends.

Featuring fellow stand-up comedians Kyle Kinane, Tom Wilson, April Macie, Doug Stanhope, Steve Rannazzisi, Robert Kelly, and Kurt Metzger, “Be a Man” boasts Grammy-winning Dan Schlissel as co-executive producer alongside Ray Harrington, who, despite a little razor burn and wrinkled linen, is, without a doubt, both a man and a “ten.”

PageSmithing

Letta Page: Editor, Wordsmith, Nonfiction Revisionary