Paula John

I am a writer and developmental editor who works collaboratively with artists, scholars, and curators to help them strengthen and develop their own writing skills. In other words, I’m invested in teaching you how to improve your own writing, rather than do it for you. My editorial support focuses on the “bigger picture” of a piece of writing, with a particular eye towards four crucial elements of the text: argument, evidence, structure, and style.

Experience that I draw from includes over 10 years working as a freelance editor, and training in professional deveopmental editing for academics. I hold a PhD in Theatre & Performance studies from York University, where my research focused on feminist performance art and the history of Spiritualism and science. My research interests and areas of expertise more broadly include gender performance, embodiment, sexuality, feminist epistemologies, and knowledge production.

My approach is: kind, encouraging, curious, interested, collaborative, and intellectually rigorous. I work with scholars from various arts, humanities and social science disciplines, and artists who work across various mediums. I provide a warm and supportive environment where I invite writers to think deeply about their practice and how they would like to frame themselves and their work. My favourite part about what I do is learning about other writers’ work, and providing strategic, collaborative support to help them advance their writing in a way that aligns with their personal and career goals.

www.iterations.ca