Editing Services
Kirk offers a range of editing services for fiction, nonfiction, and memoir: manuscript consultations often take the form of line-editing, one-on-one feedback, and onetime reads and critiques. She also provides one-on-one writing coach for revisions as well as co-authoring of memoirs and autobiographies. Recent clients’ manuscripts have been published (or forthcoming) by HarperCollins, Ecco, University of Texas Press, Louisiana State University Press, among others.
For past fifteen years, Kirk has worked as a book reviewer, with her work being published in The New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Virginia Quarterly Review, among others. She is a graduate of creative writing program at New York University, where she had an opportunity to study with E. L. Doctorow, Peter Carey, and Mona Simpson. In the past, she had taught creative writing at NYU, St. Edward’s University, and Media Bistro. She has served as a screener for fiction applications for the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas as well as on the selection committee for prose applicants for Yaddo. Kirk works with clients in Austin as well as remotely with writers around the country and world. For inquiries about fees and availability, please contact Kirk directly. See below for recent projects and testimonials.
never lost again (harpercollins Business, May 2018)
“I was truly lucky in finding a writing coach, editor, and partner to funda-mentally help rewrite the book, S. Kirk Walsh. To use software parlance, I had hacked together a demo; Kirk helped me to create a shippable product.”
—Bill Kilday
one more warbler (university of Texas Press, May 2017)
“For about eighteen months, Kirk and I met on a weekly basis for interviews, writing and revising of this manuscript that I’d been meaning to write for many years. Without her help, this book would never have been written—and published. I’m grateful to her.”
—Victor Emanuel
• Read Kirk’s essay about working with Victor on this book & their first visit to the Bolivar Peninsula. Or you can listen to this UTP podcast of Victor & Kirk & One More Warbler.
bloodlines (ecco press/ Harpercollins, Nov. 2017)
“When you’re deep in the trenches working on a book you won’t have a better ally than S. Kirk Walsh. Her attention to detail, her keen editing skills, and her fine literary sense will guide you firmly toward the finish. S. Kirk Walsh is a godsend.”
—Melissa del Bosque
TOMORROW OR FOREVER & OTHER STORIES (TRANSGRESS PRESS, JULY 2018)
“Working with Kirk has been one of the best decisions I’ve made for my manuscript. Not only did Kirk provide me with a fresh new perspective on my work, but her line-edits and suggestions for revision were sensible and sharp. I have found her mentorship invaluable in this process, and count myself lucky to have such a kind, gifted editor to help me launch this book.” —Jack Kaulfus
An East Texas Family’s Civil War: The Letters of Nancy & William Whatley, May–December 1862 (LSU Press, 2019)
“The Whatley letters have gotten this far due to the intervention of S. Kirk Walsh. A terminally patient, forbearing person, Kirk has guided me through the publishing process, kept the communications current with the Louisiana State University Press, and supervised the editing and preparation of the manuscript. The nineteenth-century Whatleys would have appreciated her sterling qualities. Without Kirk, the Whatley letters would continue to languish in the Briscoe Center archives. She has given them life.” —Ted Whatley