Maria Schamis Turner

I am a freelance editor with a varied  background who is open to multiple genres, complex topics, and experimental and hybrid forms of storytelling.  That doesn't mean your work has to be avant-garde—I also love editing genre fiction, especially mystery/crime novels. I grew up without a television and read everything from  Patricia Highsmith, Raymond Chandler, and Rex Stout to John D. MacDonald for entertainment, all at a young and impressionable age. I also read opera librettos, Jane Austen, and the back of the cereal box—so really, anything I could lay my hands on.

As well as editing, I love helping new and emerging writers to develop a rich library of resources and expand their idea of genre/craft through workshops or one-on-one coaching.   

My professional and educational background includes a BSc. in Honours Physics; an MFA in Creative Nonfiction; writing and editing medical news; writing, editing, and producing radio; founding and becoming editor-in-chief of the literary magazine carte blanche; producing  the live storytelling series This Really Happened;  editing fiction and creative nonfiction manuscripts; and giving writing and editing workshops to new writers. I have also worked as a dishwasher, house cleaner, potato peeler, bar maid, and prep cook.  

I come from a bilingual, multicultural background (Argentine and English), and make my home in Montreal (a bilingual city), and have experience working with writers for whom English is a second, or even third, language. 

I am a member of the Quebec Writers’ Federation, the Creative Nonfiction Collective, and the Editorial Freelancers Association.