James N. Brook | Editorial Services
jamesnbrook-editor.com
My brain seems to have specialized areas for literature, technology, and scholarly pursuits. Fortunately, the differences between those worlds don’t trigger the sort of catastrophe imagined in When Worlds Collide, a popular science fiction novel from 1933.
Academe, groves of
In addition to my work as principal volume editor on Resisting the Virtual Life and Reclaiming San Francisco (City Lights), I’ve edited doctoral dissertations and master’s theses in the social and behavioral sciences.
Tech world selections
I’ve edited countless instructor-led training and e-learning courses for VMware (e.g., vSphere, NSX, Tanzu, vRealize, Telco, Horizon, Cloud). Also, as staff technical editor (2008–2018), I wrote several standards documents, including Editorial Style for Course Developers, Structured Authoring for ILT Courses, and Learning Activities in ILT Lecture Manuals. I also coached course developers in structured authoring, instructional design, minimalist writing, and writing for international audiences and localization.
As a contractor for Palo Alto Networks (2019–2021), I edited instructor-led training and e-learning courses as well as security white papers, including Cybersecurity Survival Guide. I’ve also edited technical blog posts, marketing blog posts, knowledge base articles, and compliance white papers for Agora.io (2021– ).
For much more on my technical editing and writing experience, please see my LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesnbrook/.
Lit world selections
Here’s a representative sample of the books I’ve worked on in various capacities: acquisitions editor, developmental editor, line editor, copyeditor, and proofreader (with roles combined on some titles). Many of the titles were published by City Lights and New York Review Books Classics.
| André Breton and Philippe Soupault, The Magnetic Fields, trans. Charlotte Mandell (NYRB Classics) [poetry] | Jean-Patrick Manchette, Three to Kill, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith (City Lights) [fiction] |
| Ardengo Soffici, Simultaneities and Lyric Chemisms, trans. Olivia E. Sears (World Poetry Books) [poetry] | Lakdhas Wikkramasinha, Lakdhas Wikkramasinha, eds. Michael Ondaatje and Aparna Halpé (NYRB Classics) [poetry] |
| Arthur Rimbaud, The Drunken Boat: Selected Writings, trans. Mark Polizzotti (NYRB Classics) [poetry] | Mary Ann Caws and Michel Delville, eds., The French Prose Poem: An Anthology (NYRB Classics) [poetry] |
| Bertolt Brecht, Stories of Mr. Keuner, trans. Martin Chalmers (City Lights) [fiction] | Max Blechman, ed., Revolutionary Romanticism: A Drunken Boat Anthology (City Lights) [nonfiction] |
| Camilo José Cela, The Hive, trans. James Womack (NYRB Classics) [fiction] | Paul Hammond, Constellations of Miró, Breton (City Lights) [nonfiction] |
| David Meltzer, ed., San Francisco Beat: Talking with the Poets (City Lights) [nonfiction] | Paul Hammond, ed., The Shadow and Its Shadow: Surrealist Writings on the Cinema (City Lights) [nonfiction] |
| Eileen Chang, Written on Water, eds. Andrew F. Jones and Nicole Huang (NYRB Classics) [nonfiction] | Paula Abramo, Fiat Lux, trans. Dick Cluster (Flowersong) [poetry] |
| Gloria Frym, Distance No Object (City Lights) [fiction] | Ralph Rumney, The Consul, trans. Malcolm Imrie (City Lights) [nonfiction] |
| Gloria Frym, How Proust Ruined My Life and Other Essays (BlazeVOX) [nonfiction] | Raymond Borde and Étienne Chaumeton, A Panorama of American Film Noir (1941–1953), trans. Paul Hammond (City Lights) [nonfiction] |
| Henri Bosco, The Child and the River, trans. Joyce Zonana (NYRB Classics) [fiction] | Thierry Jonquet, Mygale, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith (City Lights) [fiction] |
| Jack Kerouac, Book of Dreams, intro. Robert Creeley (City Lights) [nonfiction] | Walter Benjamin, The Storyteller Essays, trans. Tess Lewis (NYRB Classics) [nonfiction] |
| Jean-Michel Mension, The Tribe, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith (City Lights) [nonfiction] | Paul Valéry, Monsieur Teste, trans. Charlotte Mandell (NYRB Classics) [poetry] |
| Jean-Philippe Aumasson, Serious Cryptography, 2nd ed. (No Starch Press) [IT] | Faisal Islam, Kotlin for the Curious (No Starch Press) [IT] |
James N. Brook | Editorial Services 