I studied English literature at the University of Illinois, after which I greatly furthered my humanities education by working as a bartender and bookstore clerk, among other various jobs.

Those fruitful years eventually led to fourteen years at the Chicago Reader newspaper, starting off as a proofreader and eventually becoming the managing editor.

My many duties included editing anything from wee blurbs to lengthy features, writing book reviews, supervising staff, maintaining the in-house style guide, planning the layout of the print edition, and keeping the copy machine filled. 

I interviewed a number of authors, including novelists Gillian Flynn and Irvine Welsh, and New Yorker art editor Francoise Mouly. I led a book festival discussion with Israeli writer Etgar Keret in front of a live audience.

After leaving the Reader, I worked at a Chicago-based marketing firm and as a freelance manuscript editor.

In 2016 I moved from Chicago to Berlin to live with my lovely German wife, Brigitte, who is an educator and historian.

I continue to work as an editor, proofreading English-language academic treatises for German students and professors and copyediting more than 400 manuscripts to date, including novels, memoirs, short-story collections, YA fantasy, business texts, children’s books, and book proposals, for a New York–based editorial services agency.