Interview with an Editor: Megan Stielstra
On Kittens and Rainbows, Long-Distance Vulnerability, and Trusting Your Gut
Hi, Friend.
There’s a chapter in You Could Make This Place Beautiful that is a single sentence: “Sometimes I feel like I titled this book Kittens and Rainbows, and then I wrote hell.”
I said this verbatim to the incredible Megan Stielstra during one of our evening editorial chats on Zoom. She immediately said: “Write that down. That’s a chapter.”
And so it was. Because when Megan says “write that down,” you write it down. This woman’s aim is true. She doesn’t miss. As she says in this interview, “My job is listening to writers and, in many cases, handing their words back to them.”
Megan and I worked on the earliest drafts of YCMTPB together, while I was finding my way, before I turned the book over to my terrific editor, Julia Cheiffetz. I wanted to unpack some of that hands-on process here, and to pick Megan’s brain as an award-winning writer and sought-after editor, for my own benefit and for yours. Buckle up. Enjoy.
