Helena Ramsaroop

Hello! I’m an Indo-Guyanese Canadian freelance editor, book critic, and bioarchaeologist. I’m a graduate of Simon Fraser University’s Editing Certificate program, and the recipient of the 2024 Claudette Upton Scholarship from Editor’s Canada—a national award that recognizes a promising emerging editor. I’m also the Online Editor for Augur Society and an Editor for Augur Magazine and Tales & Feathers Magazine, a First Reader for khoreo magazine, and the Copy Editor for Muslim Literary Festival.

I offer services for developmental editing, line editing, copy editing, beta reading, authenticity reading, and manuscript evaluations. The genre I’m most interested in is speculative fiction for adult and young adult audiences, including but not limited to science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal. I’m open to working on projects in other genres/formats, such as contemporary fiction, romance, memoir, essays, middle grade, and comics/graphic novels.

My services are also available to professionals in anthropology or archaeology who need an editor for non-fiction or academic projects. I’m open to working on other projects in the social sciences and humanities; please reach out to me if you think I might be a good fit for your project.

My book reviews and essays have been published in Canthius, Strange Horizons, The Fiddlehead and the Ancillary Review of Books. As a reviewer, my aim is to promote and support marginalized authors and their stories by prioritizing them in my reading. As an editor, I want to continue the work I’ve started with my reviews by working directly with writers to uplift their stories and aid them on their publishing journeys. I highly encourage writers who are BIPOC, queer, 2SLGBTQIA+, disabled, and/or neurodivergent to reach out to me—I know that we get less opportunities and support in the publishing industry and I want to help change that. As an Indo-Caribbean editor, I’m especially interested in working with Caribbean and South Asian writers. I approach editing with care and respect, and I will always prioritize your vision for your book. Please note that I will not take on projects that use AI generated writing or art in any capacity, including for research or brainstorming purposes. I also do not and will never use AI to edit.

In 2019, I completed my MA in Anthropology at the University of Alberta. I specialized in biological anthropology and my MA research examined diet in ancient Greece using stable isotope analysis and dentine microsampling. With nearly eight years of experience in academia, I also offer an archaeology consulting service to writers working on fiction projects about archaeology.

Please visit my website to learn more about me and my services, and feel free to reach out to me if you have questions.