WRITER & EDITOR
Editorial and Consultation Services
My background:
I have extensive editorial experience with many genres and styles of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well marketing materials, internal and external communications, and academic writing. I have worked with publishers, individuals, and a variety of businesses and non-profit organizations, including magazines and journals. I am currently a Senior Editor for Augur, was formerly the Nonfiction Editor for untethered magazine, and have guest edited for several magazines, including CV2's Versus Narrative: The Addiction Issue and Room Magazine's UTOPIA Issue. I have a MA and BA in English and Creative Writing; my editorial approach comes from both an artistic and academic background.
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Editorial Services
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My role as your editor is to listen carefully to the voice, experience, and intent behind your work and help you fully and artfully express it. From my own experience as a multi-genre writer and poet, I understand the immense work every author puts into writing. My goal is to work together to bring your project to its fullest potential, while also honouring your lived experiences. I draw from my considerable involvement with magazines and journals to help your work stand out as you seek the right home for it.
Personalized editorial packages (including manuscript assessment, developmental, stylistic, and line editing) for:
- Poetry (full length manuscripts, chapbooks, and groups of poems)
- Novels and Novellas
- Short Fiction (full length collections and single short stories)
- Literary Nonfiction (essay collections, memoirs, and hybrid works, as well as single essays or articles)
- Grants
- Plays / Film Scripts
- Academic Work
- Various other small jobs (such as reviews, press releases, bios, articles, artist statements, etc)
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Other Services
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Sensitivity Reading: Topics include 2SLGBTQIA+ characters and discussions, disability related topics, addiction/substance use, abortion, gender-based violence
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Copywriting and Communications Consultation: My communications work is advocacy and community-based; I have worked with sport organizations, literary festivals, magazines, and retailers to reach their external, internal, marketing, and public relations communications goals. Reach out
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Grant Writing and Consultation: I can help you secure funding for your next arts project, as I have for many clients. My experience as assessor and jury member for the Ontario Arts Council, The City of Ottawa, and The League of Canadian Poets gives me keen insight into how funding bodies operate and what juries are seeking. I have personally written and attained successful grants at the national, provincial, and local level.
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Mentorship Sessions: I offer grounded advice rooted in my experience from various vantage points in the publishing and literary world: not only as a writer and editor, but also as a bookseller, event planner, and in marketing and communications work with literary festivals, magazines, and independent booksellers. I have been a judge for national and local literary awards, including The League of Canadian Poets Gerald Lampert Award, The City of Ottawa Book Awards, The Arc Poetry Magazine Confederation Prize and Awards for Awesomeness, and have sat on arts funding juries for The Ontario Arts Council and The City of Ottawa.
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Workshops: I teach through Poetry in Voice as well as independently, offering workshops to a range of ages and levels. I have facilitated workshops on a variety of subjects, including disability poetics and speculative poetry, and would love to design a workshop for your organization.
Please get in touch for my rates and availability. You can contact me through the form below, or send me an email at conyer.clayton[at]gmail.com
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I look forward to working with you!
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TESTIMONIALS
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"Working with Conyer on my novel was a pleasure. Their feedback never failed to be constructive, insightful and thought-provoking. She asked all the right questions to help me drill to the core of the book’s structure and themes, and her eye for minutiae is scalpel-sharp."
—Harman Burns, Author of Yellow Barks Spider (Radiant Press, 2024)
"Conyer’s cultivated intuition as a poet allows her, as an editor, not only to offer thoughtful word-choice and enjambment suggestions, but to identify, lift, and reintegrate structures implicit to poems, which is a rare gift. Her accompanying acumen and professionally prompt communication compel me to trust Conyer as part of the editorial mycelia through which I am fortunate to circulate poems, and to wholeheartedly encourage you to involve Conyer in your editing process."
—Kevin Andrew Heslop, Author of the correct fury of your why is a mountain (Gordon Hill Press, 2021)
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"Conyer was a delight to work with as an editor on my creative nonfiction. I greatly appreciated the care, intentionality, and attention-to-detail that they brought to the somewhat sensitive and personal subject matter. Her suggestions pinpointed moments where clarity or impact could be heightened in the text without losing its voice, and they were warm, welcoming, and easy to communicate with throughout the process. Thank you, Conyer!"
—Kate Hargreaves, Author of Tend (Book*hug, 2022)
"Conyer's thoughtful, encouraging, questions-based approach to editing helped me dig right down to the heart of what I was trying to convey in my manuscript. Her commitment to praising and celebrating what already shines in your work is a real confidence-booster, and she contextualizes her recommendations in such a way that you get a gift beyond the editing itself: a glimpse of how your writing lands in a head that's not yours. I'm so glad we got to work together!"
—Sienna Tristen, Author of Hortis Animarum (Frog Hollow Press)
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“Conyer is an intuitive editor who pays attention to the soul of the poems and manuscripts she edits. Her editorial style, rooted in a true knowledge of the English arts, pays attention to the individual voice and helps to shape that voice in the context of contemporary poetic practices. Space, enjambment, punctuation and conceptual through-lines are as important to Conyer as the words that frame them; and for a poet looking for developmental feedback, these aspects are critical. I’d work with Conyer again in a heartbeat.”
—Ellen Chang-Richardson, Author of Blood/Belies (Wolsak and Wynn, 2024)
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"Conyer edited my poetry chapbook, and what an encouraging and helpful experience it was. I was reticent to share this particular project with anyone, as the work was very personal to me and explored sensitive topics. My experience with her as an editor was that she was able to pinpoint my intention with the work, celebrate the parts that hit the mark, and provide sage advice on the parts that required paring back and honing. She suggested structural changes in the project that made perfect sense. She has an acute attunement to pacing and emotional build-up. It wasn’t until after having this chapbook edited by Conyer that I felt comfortable sharing or submitting it. Entrusting my work with Conyer not only made me feel more confident in my writing—her advice will help me shape my work in the future."
—Margo LaPierre, Author of Washing Off the Racoon Eyes (Guernica Editions)
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“I approached Conyer to edit a chapbook manuscript I was feeling hesitant about and I couldn't be happier with the results. Conyer's editorial style builds you up while also scanning every nook and cranny of the project for strengths, weaknesses, themes, throughlines, cohesiveness, voice, and so on. To say they are thorough would be an understatement. Conyer's editorial eye is like an x-ray but it never feels invasive. They find the heart of the project and center it. Conyer's editorial guidance was approachable, conversational, and exactly what my manuscript needed. This points to her power as an empathetic and intuitive editor. They know how to read both the poem and engage with the poet's needs on a creative level as well as interpersonally. For me, this separates a good editor from a great one. I left my session with them feeling more inspired and committed to my project than when I came in.”
—Michael Russell, Author of gallery of heartache (Apt 845 Press)
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