NARRATIVE EDITOR
Liz
Van Hoose
Traditional Rapport with the Modern Writer
With more than twenty years of editing experience both in-house and at-large, I help writers tell their stories. My services range from short consultations on excerpts to long-term engagements across multiple manuscript revisions. All come with the same promise of care, respect, and encouragement from an accomplished craft wizard with institutional knowledge passed down from some of the best icons of the industry.
Endorsements
A LIT HUB “MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK” • HARTFORD COURANT “HIGHLY ANTICIPATED BOOK” • PBS “MONTHLY BOOK RECOMMENDATION” • A NEW YORK TIMES “NEW BOOK TO READ” • AN AMAZON EDITOR’S PICK
“Liz Van Hoose was the working editor of Fourteen Days, a major collaborative novel organized by the Authors Guild, published by HarperCollins in February 2024 (Margaret Atwood, General Editor). I say “working” and I mean it—she was absolutely invaluable in corresponding with the forty or so contributors, soliciting and editing their stories, interfacing with the Authors Guild, and keeping the project organized and on track. I highly recommend Liz to anyone looking for an organized, wise, effective, experienced, and gifted editor.”
—Douglas Preston
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • AN ATLANTIC GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL • WINNER OF THE DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE • INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH BOOK CLUB SELECTION • NEW YORK TIMES 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST FINALIST
“I don’t know how else to say it: my novel was a hot mess when my agent, Sarah Burnes, first sent Liz Van Hoose my way—Liz, also known as “the novel whisperer.” I still have the letter she sent me in 2016, addressing the character, plot, and structural issues in The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois. At first, I was afraid to read her letter; before Liz, I’d had a friend who had attempted to give me criticism on the manuscript-in-progress, and that friend had told me “this novel is too ambitious and the title is pretentious.” (You can imagine how that made me feel!) But the brilliant criticism that Liz offered me was simultaneously rigorous and deeply soothing. It was clear that Liz believed in the epic scope of my novel, believed in my ability to write the book that I’d envisioned but couldn’t quite yet execute on the page. Liz's belief in me had a profound effect, and I gained a confidence that was almost supernatural. I dove back into the revision process, and two years later, I’d finished the first real draft of Love Songs, and my agent sold it to Harper. Liz Van Hoose gave me a gift. I will never stop being grateful.”
—Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“Liz is not only a genius at determining the big-picture issues of a work-in-progress, she is also able to hone in on the smaller details, the ones that end up really making a novel sing. Liz's guidance was invaluable as I worked my way through The Lions of Fifth Avenue – her editing prowess combined with her reassuring manner most definitely smoothed out the path to publication.”
—Fiona Davis
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST HISTORICAL FICTION OF THE YEAR • NAACP IMAGE AWARD FINALIST
“Liz Van Hoose has an elegant mind that allows her to see, fortify, and refine innovative narrative arcs that can support complex and multi-layered stories embedded in a manuscript. I knew when I hired her that she was an expert who had edited numerous award-winning works of fiction and non-fiction. I didn’t know she was astoundingly well read, that she still reads voraciously for pleasure. Liz advocates for the reader. She advocates for the multiple audiences a book will engage if the architecture of the manuscript provides effective paths, anchors, and flags leading readers to and through a challenging and satisfying engagement.
Which brings me back to the elegance of her mind. She will let you know what is missing. What the characteristics of the missing thing might be. She will point you towards examples akin to the missing element in other works of fiction. She will give you some very precise ideas about what might serve your reader and leave you to invent that thing. She is a profoundly ethical editor who is completely respectful of authorial intention.
She has a genius for recognizing what a manuscript wants to be, a genius for hearing authorial intention embedded in but not announced in existing prose. She is empathetic, curious, hard-working, funny, profoundly intelligent and insightful—and more than just a little wise. She can be trusted to help build powerful worlds that are true to their author and inviting to audience.”
—Alice Randall
SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE FINALIST
“I owe a tremendous debt to Liz Van Hoose and her thorough, deeply perceptive editorial eye. She saw the book I was trying to write, buried inside my draft, and helped me articulate it into being. She is uncommonly gifted and I would recommend her to any writer.”
—Alix Ohlin
"Liz Van Hoose is the sort of reader every writer wants, faithful, hopeful, charitable, and so she's a fine, intuitive editor, sympathetic but unsparing when it comes to surgery. I imagine her looking at that sentence and questioning the word 'so' but I'll stand by it. I've been edited by William Shawn, Roger Angell, William Whitworth, some of the best, and she's right up there."
—Garrison Keillor
Backstory
For more than a decade, Liz Van Hoose served the editorial departments of Alfred A. Knopf and Viking Penguin before hanging a shingle as an independent editor in 2013. The range of fiction and narrative nonfiction she has edited includes work by Malcolm Brooks, Marcia Butler, Ron Currie, Jr., Fiona Davis, Kim Edwards, Kim Coleman Foote, Alex Gilvarry, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Garrison Keillor, William Kittredge, Robert Love, Dan Morrison, Haruki Murakami, Beth Minh Nguyen, Alix Ohlin, Douglas Preston, Alice Randall, Jim Shepard, Amor Towles, Danielle Trussoni, and Katherine Vaz. She has spoken at various writers conferences across the country, including Aspen Summer Words, Bread Loaf, Miami Writers Institute, and Sewanee.
Appointments
Welcome! Before you book an appointment, please write to me at lizvanhoose.editor@gmail.com and let me know a little bit about you, your work and the guidance you seek. I’ll respond with various feedback options and pricing information. To those of you who’ve been in touch: I look forward to talking with you.
Here is an outline of what to expect once you book an appointment.
1. You and I will receive a confirmation email. The message will include a link and dial-in information for a Zoom meeting.
2. You'll send me the materials you'd like for me to read by 7 a.m. on the day we have arranged for you to deliver them.
3. At the appointed time, you'll join the Zoom meeting provided in the appointment confirmation message. I'll be standing by to speak with you. A recording will be generated automatically.
5. Together we'll talk about voice, character, plotting, atmospherics, narrative structure, and great works of today and of yore that offer copious models from which one can learn about various aspects of craft.
6. If you have any questions or concerns, please write to me at lizvanhoose.editor@gmail.com.
Thank you!