As a Copy Editor and Proofreader, Ariel Joy So freelances for big-five publishing houses, including Macmillan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), as well as Simon & Schuster. She has contributed to more than forty books whose authors have won the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, among others. She has worked on projects for New York Times bestselling authors.
Education
Columbia University (2021-2023): MFA in Writing
Relevant Courses:
- Writing the Body and The Self with Leslie Jamison
- The Brilliant Voice with Wendy Walters
- Embodying Intimacy with Joanna Hershon
- Madness in Modern Literature with Eli Gottlieb
- Workshops with Mark Bibbins, Lynn Melnick, Lynn Xu
- Thesis with Timothy Donnelly
Scripps College (2016-2020): BA in English, Creative Writing Emphasis
Relevant Courses:
- Readings in American Literature
- Readings in British Literature
- The Essay as Resistance
- Character and the Novel
- Seminar in Literary Theory
- Advanced Creative Writing
Freelance Projects (Highlights)
Nonfiction
- Alice McDermott’s What About the Baby?: Some Thoughts on the Art of Fiction
- Heather Radke’s Butts: A Backstory
- Edafe Okporo’s Asylum: A Memoir & Manifesto
- Susan Liautaud’s The Little Book of Big Ethical Questions
- Jessie Singer’s There Are No Accidents
- Walter Isaacson’s The Code Breaker: Young Readers Edition (adapted by Sarah Durand)
Fiction
- Andrew Holleran’s A Kingdom of Sand
- Akil Kumarasamy’s Meet Us by the Roaring Sea: A Novel
- Cécile Barlier’s A Gypsy’s Book of Revelation (Winner of the Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction)
- Lara Ehrlich’s Animal Wife (Winner of the Red Hen Fiction Award, selected by New York Times bestselling author Ann Hood)
Poetry
- Rowan Ricardo Phillips’s Silver (2024 National Book Award Longlist)
- Carl Phillips’s Then the War (2023 Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- The FSG Poetry Anthology (edited by Jonathan W. Galassi and Robyn Creswell)
- Frank Bidart’s Against Silence
- Peter Cole’s Draw Me After
- Ange Mlinko’s Venice
Ariel Joy So 