TESTIMONIALS
No matter the subject or the genre, Kali brings to each piece she edits a unique and unparalleled sensitivity to what readers and publications need. What's more, she possesses something truly rare: an attunement for what writers want to say, but need help to express. I trust her completely at every stage of the writing process, from topic conception to structural execution to revisions to line-edits and beyond. Erudite, savvy, and generous, Kali is hands-down the best editor with whom I've ever worked.
– Patrick Blanchfield, Author of Gun Power (Verso, 2024)
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I have been working with Kali as a developmental and copy editor since 2014. In this time, what I’ve appreciated most is the care that she brings to my work and to accompanying me throughout the many phases of the editorial process. Kali has a true gift for finding and centering the unique contribution of any piece of writing, and for working across a stunning breadth of disciplines and genres to draw out an argument with precision and subtlety. Each time we come to the end of a project, I am standing more fully in my own voice and the commitments of my scholarship. And while I am always clear about the labor of getting there, I am no less confident that this is the way it was always supposed to be—and sometimes even a bit surprised that this is not the way it was from the beginning. That is the mark of superb editing.
– Laura McTighe, Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion at Florida State University; co-founder and associate director of Front Porch Research Strategy in New Orleans; co-author of Fire Dreams: Making Black Feminist Liberation in the South (Duke University Press, 2024)
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Kali has a remarkable instinct for how to craft an argument. Whether working with an essay or a book-length monograph, she knows what a reader needs in order to follow the writer along the path they are forging. From the Table of Contents to the closing sentence of a paragraph, Kali’s deft touch allows a writer to fully convey the connecting tissues that might otherwise be obscured. Kali improved my book immeasurably and she taught me a great deal about how to write an effective public-facing essay, both by helping me to draw out the questions that were really driving my texts, and by fine-tuning the sentences that I couldn’t find a way to tame. Before working with Kali, I had difficulty imagining how my book would ever take on its final form. Her guidance and encouragement allowed me to see old arguments in new ways and complete a book of which I am immensely proud. I can’t recommend her services enough.
– Elayne Oliphant, Author of The Privilege of Being Banal: Art, Secularism, and Catholicism in Paris, Assistant Professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Religious Studies at New York University
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Working with Kali has been a wonderful experience. She is a fantastic writer and editor, and she has a knack for seeing the big picture of an argument and teasing out the significance of one's work. Her editorial guidance has helped me see my own work in new ways, and that has served me well in articulating, writing, and publishing my work.
— Simran Jeet Singh, Executive Director for the Aspen Institute’s Religion & Society Program.
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When I started working with Kali, I had a full manuscript in hand that needed to be copyedited and read by an outsider to the project who was versed in theory. Kali improved my manuscript immeasurably. She did all of the things you want from a good editor in terms of prose, like marking problems with flow, highlighting word choice, correcting grammar, and suggesting places to streamline. More importantly, though, she saw where I was being inconsistent in my argument and helped me think through the best way to address those blindspots. In response to concerns raised by my reviewers, she helped me craft a conclusion that reflected on the questions my manuscript had raised and staked out new territory for future research. And she did it all while being nice! I would highly recommend working with her at any stage of the project.
— Liane Carlson, Author of Contingency and the Limits of History: How Touch Shapes Meaning and Experience (Columbia University Press, 2019)
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One of the biggest challenges in giving my manuscript book form was the isolative nature of this process. I was trapped in my own mind, and could no longer tell clear from convoluted or pertinent from digressive. Working with Kali has been truly curative. A perfect interlocutor, she is supportive but never one to shy away from necessary critique, assertive but always attuned to the manuscript's internal argument. Kali's voice helped me throughout this arduous process; I came to trust this voice just as much as I did mine, and both writing and editing became much less lonely.
— Yael Segalovitz, Department of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics, Ben Gurion University, Israel
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Kali has the perfect combination of two editorial virtues: trust in the insights and intentions of a writer, and the drive to elicit the best possible version of them. She has the remarkable ability to know what you mean better than you do. A conversation with Kali gets to the heart of the matter within moments. In her written commentary, Kali provides thorough readings and detailed notes as well as helpful summaries of the main points of emphasis. Her care for the craft and elegance of writing is matched only by her enthusiasm for the expression of ideas.
— Anand Venkatkrishnan, Assistant Professor, History of Religion in South Asia, University of Chicago Divinity School and College
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Working with Kali, it is clear that she comprehends her task in holistic terms, understanding that the processes of writing and editing cannot be disambiguated from the author’s need to design realistic writing schedules that work with their other professional and personal demands, or the importance of incorporating time to rest, or the more general questions and concerns authors (especially early career authors) might have about the ins and outs of academic book publishing. In short, she humanizes what can easily become an overwhelming and anxious process.
I consider Kali an esteemed and valued conversation partner, as she is incredibly sharp, knowledgeable, and well-versed not only in my field, religious studies, but also in social theory in the social sciences and humanities, more broadly. Equally adept at developmental and copy editing, I cannot imagine ever working with another editor. Kali has come to know my thinking and writing so well at this point that she has helped me better understand the kind of thinker and writer I am. Working with an editor that appreciates the idiosyncrasies of my approach has, in turn, helped me consider and remain excited about what my future contributions to the field can look like.
I cannot recommend Kali any more highly than I do!
— George González, Author of The Religion of Everyday Life—Scholars and Activists at the Shopocalypse (under contract), Assistant Professor of Religion and Culture at Baruch College, City University of New York
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Kali Handelman is an incredibly talented editor. In addition to editing my prose for clarity and effectiveness, she has been an invaluable conversation partner. We have thought through my argument and discussed it at various meetings. Hearing her repeat back to me her understanding of what I’m trying to write about has provided me with so much clarity on how I should structure my argument and the various possibilities for that structure.
— Associate Professor, Religious Studies
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As a writer, Kali was one of the best editors that I had the pleasure of working with at dozens of different publications. The work that she did for The Revealer made the writers that she worked with sound like the smartest, most engaging, most interesting versions of themselves. Whenever I'd gone through the process of revision and editing with her, I always finished with the confidence that the piece was doing what it was supposed to do. Under her tenure, The Revealer published some of the smartest, most well-written, pertinent God-beat journalism out there.
— Ed Simon, editor at Berfrois, staff writer at The Millions, and author of America and Other Fictions, Furnace of this World; or, 36 Observations about Goodness, and The Anthology of Babel, and Printed in Utopia: The Renaissance’s Radicalism to be released in 2020.
Image: NASA mission control cheering the safe landing of Apollo 13