About Giant Squid / Audra Sim
Since 2019, I have been an academic and nonfiction editor and writing coach working with publishers and independent clients throughout the United States and internationally. My clients have mostly been university and college faculty writing books or articles for peer-reviewed publication. I relish working with junior scholars on the exciting challenge of writing and publishing a first book; with tenured scholars on honing their narrative instincts and deepening their argumentative craft in mid- and late career manuscripts; and with scholars in any stage or walk of academic life on research or writing projects that may result in conference papers, essays, books, articles, dissertations, or theses. I especially excel at coaching or editing interdisciplinary work that engages critical theory, and I also have special interest and experience in the fields of communication, film and media studies, musicology, and music theory.
As a University of Chicago–trained editor, my editing services range from early-stage manuscript evaluation and restructuring (developmental editing), to mid-stage line or substantive editing, to final-stage copyediting and formatting. Believe it or not, I also love editing documentation—bibliographies, citations, and footnotes! See my editing services here. As a coach, I work with scholars to discover what their writing is revealing to them about their thinking, and support them in managing the complex process of integrating the two as they develop their manuscript. See more about my coaching work here. I also occasionally work on trade nonfiction projects. My strength is in doing in-depth work with clients and manuscripts. A complex interdisciplinary project that needs fine attention to argument alignment, nuance in the proportional balancing of the various disciplines, and a discerning ability to trace exactly how a theoretical framework is constructed and threaded through its competing disciplinary lines of inquiry is exactly my cup of tea. My clients are often returning clients with whom I have long-term relationships (see testimonials!), and I love the experience of deepening my work with clients and their developmental journeys as writers and scholars over time. There and Back Again: My Journey in Editing
From 2001 to 2006, I was a double-degree undergraduate student in English and music history (initially music composition) at Oberlin College and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. In the summer after my junior year, I interned at W. W. Norton & Company in New York City. I worked in the music department, managing copyright permissions databases for song lyrics and other borrowed materials, proofreading book manuscripts, writing flap copy (book-jacket blurbs), and writing reader’s reports on unsolicited manuscripts. Later on, I pursued a career in music librarianship through the Mellon Librarian Recruitment Program. After working as an academic librarian, I returned to graduate school for a degree that would finally let me integrate my interests in music and language. Being in the interdisciplinary Communication program at UCSD was an incredible experience. It gave me insight into the functioning of institutions, cultures, and politics through the medium of language and other communicative media that deeply changed how I understood the world and my role in it. While I was there, I also taught writing to undergraduates. In the end, writing my dissertation was a transformative experience that helped me see my love for words and language in a new light, and led me back to editing as a career. Today: The Squid Is Giant I am a wordsmith, poet, and writer, and a singer of jazz and classical music. I read Foucault, Raymond Williams, and Wendy Brown, but also cozy mysteries, memoirs, and contemporary feminine genre fiction. I listen to Xenakis, Schoenberg, Nancy King, and Betty Carter, but also Duruflé, Vaughan Williams, Sarah McLachlan, U2, Deerhoof, and Radiohead. I've been playing the piano since the age of four and still like to get the fingers moving sometimes. I sing alto in the Portland Symphonic Choir (low G's, yeah!), and my karaoke anthem is Alanis’s “You Oughta Know.” When I'm not wording or musicking, you can find me cranking out fresh pasta by hand or hiking on a Pacific Northwest nature trail. I am married to fellow Oberlin alum and composer-pianist Stephen Lewis. Currently reading for fun (last updated 05/20/2026): Andrey Kurkov's Death and the Penguin (Harvill Press, 2001), Storm Large's Crazy Enough: A Memoir (Free Press, 2012), Stuart Nicholson's Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz (Da Capo Press, 1995), and Aihwa Ong's Fungible Life: Experiment in the Asian City of Life (Duke University Press, 2016). Editing Credentials University of Chicago Editing Certificate (2019–2022) Education PhD Communication | University of California San Diego (2019) MA Library & Information Studies | University of Wisconsin–Madison (2011) BA English with High Honors | Oberlin College (2006) Music Education MA Historical Musicology | University of Wisconsin–Madison (2011) BM Music History | Oberlin Conservatory of Music (2006) Professional Affiliations Northwest Editors Guild American Copy Editors Society (ACES) Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) |