Category Archives: About

Stacks on Stacks (Updated Feb. 2024)

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

Semicolon Superhero

Well, it’s awfully rad to get the “Yelp” treatment from one of my favorite authors! From Jooyoung Lee, sociologist at the University of Toronto and research fellow with Yale’s Urban Ethnography Project:

It was a joy working with Letta! She helped turn a sprawling manuscript into a leaner and more polished book. As a Hip Hop scholar, it’s often hard to find someone who knows a thing or two about the subject matter. But, Letta combined her lifelong knowledge of Hip Hop and music more generally to make my book less nerdy and more readable. Different chapters were at different stages of writing, giving Letta a chance to show her flexibility as an editor. At times, she’d go through my manuscript like a chainsaw-wielding super hero, shredding through redundancies and unnecessary uses of “the ways in which…” In other moments, she’d make small subtle revisions that made the book read and flow better. Most of all, Letta was a great help during those tough stretches of writing and revision, where nothing seemed to come out right. This is when her expertise really shined brightest. She would give me feedback that kicked me into gear and nudged (and pushed) me toward the finish line. Part writing coach, part muse, Letta Page is a top-notch editor.

About Me

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. Continue reading About Me