As an editor, one of Hannah’s many gifts is an ability to look at a story and see right down into the emotional under-current of it. Truly, she identified things about my characters—their needs, proclivities, hang-ups, and intuited how they operate within the greater context of the work, and then showed it to me in a way I’d never seen before. It was like a curtain lifting to reveal an entirely new side of the story’s world, coupled with insightful, sensitive guidance on where, precisely, to manipulate the boundaries of that world. She possesses a great analytical power. Hers is exactly the kind of eye you want on your work.

— Justine Champine (author of Knife River, Dial Press, 2024)

Hannah is an editorial maven. She will prioritize your project as a whole, ensuring that it's cohesive and dynamic and structurally fit, and also urge your sentences to do as much as they can. I asked her to read my collection of essays, ones that cover a range of subjects, in a range of ways. I wanted to knit them together more organically, but couldn't figure out how. Hannah helped me find the project's true locus and make thoughtful tweaks. With her encouragement, I even generated some of the material of which I feel most proud. I've joked to Hannah that the manuscript I delivered to her was a basketful of fruit, and that she helped bake it into pie. Which is to say: she turned it into a book.

— Courtney Zoffness (author of Spilt Milk, McSweeney’s, 2021)

If the job of an editor is to take a piece of writing and help to shape it in the image of the unrealized potential of the person writing it, then Hannah’s work is unparalleled. I’ve worked on over a dozen stories with Hannah, and each time I’m humbled by the level of her effort and care she displays with my writing. By working with Hannah, I haven’t just polished a small set of stories, but become a better writer and thinker. On a practical level, her flexibility with tight turnarounds (along with her professional etiquette) has made her a total joy to work with. I can’t recommend her enough. You would be lucky to take up a sliver of her editing time.

— Caro Claire Burke (author of COVER STORIES, a weekly short story series based on songs)

Hannah has the incredible ability to see through a manuscript to its core and tease out what it wants to be. Her direction helped give me a new language and set of questions with which to understand the purpose of my book. She has an impeccable understanding of craft from the level of each word, to each sentence, and to the entire manuscript. Seeing my work through her lens has given me renewed purpose and drive for my manuscript, illuminating the art within it, something that I had come to doubt after so many rounds of revision. I know I'll turn to Hannah in the future when I need a fresh read and path forward.

– Ella Mei Yon (Glimmer Train, Pigeon Pages)

Hannah Beresford is one of the best editors I've ever worked with. She'll fix your structural problems, she'll fix your sentences, she'll fix your life. She is a Writer Whisperer.

— Shelly Oria (author of New York: 1, Tel Aviv: 0, FSG, 2014 and editor of Indelible In The Hippocampus: Writings From The Me Too Movement, McSweeney's, 2019 & I Know What's Best for You, McSweeney’s, 2022)

It’s something special to have your work read and considered by Hannah. To say she looks at your fiction with “new eyes” would be an understatement; instead, she looks at it with eyes that are keen to find the most compassionate course for your story. She distills it down to its core and sends it back to you with a map to help you excavate the humanity in every character.

— Kells McPhillips (author of AthleteLit, a short story series about athletes)

I had the joy of working with Hannah on a short story collection and an essay collection in 2021. Hannah’s insight—in a developmental consult and line edits, for fabulist fiction and personal essay—pierced through to the heart of each story. Her feedback fully embraced my vision and voice while offering clear, dynamic solutions to elevate each individual piece and the arc of each manuscript. Hannah handled my work with great care and with her guidance I’m confident that I’ll be sharing the best possible evolution of these stories.

– Katie Li (author of Somewhere In Between, Kung Fu Girl Books, 2016)

Hannah brings a calm commitment and clarity to working with you. Her process is tailored toward your project and includes a close read like that of a publisher or an agent. Expect the following: an overview, targeted remarks, thought provoking questions and the potential of “re-ordering” an essay. Her wide lens of observation on your material works in tandem with her dexterity to home in on the micro matters of: narrative tension, structure, details that matter versus those that clutter, undeveloped scenes, grounding exposition, and more. In feedback notes, to avoid confusion in tricky and/or paramount sections, she places practical track changes in the document to illustrate her advice. A big jewel Hannah gave to my work was in the rearrangement of narrative threads that I, too preciously, had been holding onto. She did so, by providing me with a master class on ‘ratio and order’ where I better understood symbolic scale and the distribution of ideas. Hannah’s goal is to get your work published, not left in a drawer.

— Yvonne Conza (Los Angeles Review of Books, BOMB)

Hannah's manuscript consultation was just the right blend of positivity and thoughtful criticism. She worked quickly and thoroughly, culminating in a written document and conversation that provided me with a global sense of what was and wasn't working in my novel, how best to move forward, and what questions I could use to guide the project. Her feedback gave me new perspective, helping me see the book from a reader's perspective, which was invaluable. After working with Hannah, I was left feeling excited to tackle the next draft.

— Kristin Sanders (author of Cuntry, Trembling Pillow Press, 2017)

The first word that comes to mind when I think of Hannah as an editor is generous. She read and edited my first book manuscript, which I had never shown to an editor before, and gave me such thoughtful and constructive feedback. She has made me a better poet and thinker; her approach to my work taught me so much about looking at familiar things as if they are new and strange, entirely in a good way! Sometimes as writers we get too close to our own work to properly see it, and Hannah's feedback helped me see my manuscript in a fresh and newly excited way. My book would not be nearly as cohesive without Hannah's wise editing.

— Annie Diamond (Yemassee, Tar River Poetry)

Working with Hannah was a delightful experience of softness when so much of the publishing world is so hard-edged. She is an editor interested in collaboration and understanding what a writer needs and wants for a piece, and she’s a person who clearly cares for writers as much as she does for our work. I felt held in my conversations with Hannah and in her comments on my pages. She helped me to uncover the overarching areas of the manuscript that were difficult to parse, and she made clear suggestions to remedy the writing—including guiding advice on nearly every page to ensure ease of revision. I would work with her again in a heartbeat.

— Afton Montgomery (Stain'd, Sugar Magazine)

Hannah is every writer's dream reader and editor—incredibly thoughtful, thorough, and whip-smart. After years of feeling stuck on my manuscript, she helped breathe new energy into my revision process, enabling me to see what needed to be done to strengthen both story and structure. Never prescriptive in her feedback, she takes the time to understand a writer's intentions before offering actionable advice on how to best align with them. She's kind, patient and a true delight to work with.

— Jane Rose Porter (The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal)

This is why Hannah Beresford is a great editor:

She will help you go from aspiring writer to published writer. Working as a professional editor in the indie publishing industry, she has an eye for what editors who are on the "buy" side need to see to say yes. She is as honest as she is enthusiastic. If she agrees to take you on, you will have someone in your corner who will help you shape your work the way only a seasoned editor can. Her ability to help prepare a document for its journey in the world is worth the investment.

— Kirsten Major (The New York Times, Catapult)

Hannah helped me over a period of a year to find my voice in poetry writing. She has a great ear, and showed me much about how a poem’s sounds carry or impede its message. Hannah attends to detail. She took the time to deeply read my work and prepared thoughtful, dignified, useful recommendations. Most of all, Hannah finds the heart of a poem, even, or especially, when the poet is laboring to do so.

— Catherine Martinez (artist and owner of Laughing Dragon Studio)

I came to Hannah with a messy first draft of a memoir I'd been trying to finish for years. In that first consult, Hannah gave me a path forward and a renewed enthusiasm for the work ahead. Together, Hannah and I mapped out a plan for revisions and a timeline that has helped me stay focused. I look forward to Hannah's emails and her thoughtful and detailed suggestions. Her feedback is concise yet expansive, from big picture insights to the smallest line edit. It sounds crazy, but even the words Hannah uses when offering feedback have helped me see my manuscript with fresh eyes and that small shift in perspective has made a world of difference. It is hard to put into words what an impact Hannah has had on my manuscript-- and my writing life. I no longer feel like I am writing into a void, but instead to a wise and trusted cohort who respects my work as much as I do.

— Kelly Harwood (creator of The Rosie Pages blog)

A good editor helps an author fine-tune sentences, but a great editor like Hannah Beresford discovers every note and chord you’ve been fumbling for. She makes your story sing. A careful reader and whip-smart editor, trust your writing to Hannah Beresford.

— Chad Miller (Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, Cosmonauts Avenue)

Hannah Beresford has been an encouraging, perceptive, and supportive editor for me. When I first contracted with her for help preparing individual poems for an eventual chapbook submission, I wasn’t sure what to expect. My friends, acquaintances were generally receptive readers for my work, but I needed feedback from someone who was not a friend, not beholden to me in any way but who also had the critical skill to read poems with an eye for strengths, as well as for disjunctions, failures of clarity, musical infelicities, effective or ineffective lineation, etc. Hannah is just such a reader. She has helped me to see my poems as uninvolved others, editors of journals, readers unfamiliar with me might see them, and the effect has been salutary. Through her I have learned to see my work with increased objectivity. At the same time, I have learned to feel confident that my work is worthwhile. I want to offer my wholehearted recommendation of Hannah as a supportive and skilled editor.

— MacGregor Frank, Ph.D. (North Words anthology (National Poetry Foundation, Orono, ME), The Magnolia Review)

Hannah's edits are brilliant on the level of line, story, and deep subtext. All the writing she touches, she elevates. She'll take your writing to places you didn't know it could go.

— Jon Lindsey (author of BODY HIGH, House of Vlad, 2021)

Hannah Beresford has the rare talent of seeing a story not for what it is but for what it can become. In working with my words, Hannah was able to move and shape the story with such care and insight that I could not have asked for it to land in better hands. It is a true gift for a writer to have the pleasure of Hannah's guidance on your work.

— Natalie Teal McAllister (Pleiades, Columbia Journal)

Hannah Beresford has a keen eye for what’s taking place on the page. Her editorial skill helped me become a better writer. She hones in on the areas of a poem that might be improved. Her suggested edits that are spot on. My poems sparkle a little more because of what I learned from her while she was my poetry coach/teacher.

— Emily Moon (author of It’s Just You and Me, Miss Moon, First Matter Press, 2020)