About Alice L. McLean
I am a developmental editor with a PhD in English from the University of California, Davis, who guides authors into print. My recent developmental editing projects span the fields of environmental studies, food studies, more-than-human studies, literary criticism, narrative theory, public policy, economics, geography of place, diaspora studies, and writing pedagogy. I serve as a peer reviewer for academic presses and journals and as a judge for the James Beard Awards in journalism. I have authored three books and served as lead author of a fourth. I taught writing, literature, food studies, and gender studies at the graduate and undergraduate levels for fourteen years. Before my academic career, I spent five years as a journalist—fact-checker, travel columnist, food critic—and learned to shift voice nimbly across audiences, a skill I now use to help scholars reach readers beyond the academy. Please visit alicelmclean.com for more about my scholarship. To read an author's reflections on working with me as a developmental and line editor, please see below.
"Working with Alice was like taking a master class in academic writing."
An Author's Experience
Katrina Morrison, author of In Plain Sight: The Black Girl Stress Epidemic
(Forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in Winter 2027)
It's hard for me to put into words how much I appreciate Alice. I worked with her on my first book and she helped it take shape from top to bottom. She first met with me to hear about my book and then she asked me to send a sample. I was nervous. But she gave me a lot of praise, which boosted my confidence as a first-time author. She also guided me in thinking about how to make the book more powerful and as compelling as I wanted it to be. She helped me create a voice that is self-assured and uses straight-to-the-point language. For example, during the drafting process of my book, she asked me great questions about the research that helped me clarify the arguments I made based on facts and evidence. She also recommended the book Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace along with short articles to help me learn how to state my points powerfully and simply.
Working with Alice was like taking a master class in academic writing. She aided me in the big picture and in the tiny details. For example, I took her wonderful suggestion to structure each chapter of my book with an opening narrative. She listened to me when I said I wanted to tell stories and she saw that my writing was strongest when I wrote anecdotes or recounted history. So that suggestion was major and made me feel like the book was really my style. And even after the book was drafted, she meticulously read over every line and gave advice about word choice, formatting, and even punctuation. You can tell she really enjoys reading, writing, and getting someone's work "out there" in its best shape. I am looking forward to working with Alice on my next book because of her attentiveness, expert knowledge in writing, and dedication to ensuring an author's voice and ideas are well-represented in written form.