A Poetics of Editing: out in autumn 2018

I have been absent from Oddfish for a couple of years, and here is the main reason why – a book long in the making which explores editing fully as a practice in its own right. It proposes the concept of the ‘ideal editor’, to work alongside that of the ideal reader, and the development of a new field of Editing Studies. And it also defines a new materialist poetics that invites a comparative, multi-frame approach. Some kind comments from others:

‘Like Gibson’s ‘affordance’, Greenberg’s idea of ‘editing’ is used in suggestively larger social, cultural, personal, phenomenological, and other ways. It is a rich framework for seeing the world.’ Alan Liu, Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara

‘A rigorous – and long overdue – analysis of editing as decision-making, wherever practiced. Greenberg draws on the insights of neuroscience, history, philosophy, literary theory, and the lived experience of writers and editors to offer an original, thought-provoking study.’ Beth Luey, past president SHARP.

‘In this powerful meditation, Greenberg explores books, writing and publishing from an original and critically important angle.’ Michael Bhaskar, publishing director at Canelo and author of Curation and The Content Machine.

Greenberg, Susan L. 2018. A Poetics of Editing. Palgrave Macmillan.
E-book: ISBN 978-3-319-92246-1
Softback: ISBN 978-3-030-06392-4
Hardback: ISBN 978-3-319-92245-4