MENTORSHIP RECIPIENT
​
​​NORTHEAST OHIO SPOTLIGHT

Mentorship Recipient:
​What He Planted

Mentor Commentary:
​Nardine Taleb

On the Revision Process for "What He Planted"

by ​​Joanne Lozar Glenn

Every writer needs a good editor. Having an editor who sees not just what is on the page but what might be needed is a blessing. If a writer gets a sensitive, skilled, and smart editor to help our story cross the bridge between ourselves and our readers, she is doubly blessed.
 
Nardine Taleb is that editor. I am grateful for her gentle exploration of how the piece could better speak its truth and be fully itself. She questioned and listened; we collaborated on the tiny edits—swapping out a word here, moving a sentence there—that can make huge impacts in whether and how a piece successfully makes that crossing.
 
Working this way was such a delight. Truth be told, before we met online, I was apprehensive. Would she “get” the writing and “get me” as well as the prompt group friends where this piece was born of two random words (“flake” and “chair”) released by the leader 15 minutes apart for us to craft something from?
 
Nardine’s advance email of suggested edits, and her acceptance and warmth, quelled any anxiety—and were a good reminder to bring those qualities to others whose work we might be asked to review.
 
I am grateful to have this piece ready to make its way over the bridge to Gordon Square’s readers. Thank you to Literary Cleveland’s mentorship program for this opportunity, to Nardine for her professionalism and sensitive editorial eye and ear, and, incidentally, to fellow prompt group member Michelle Berberet, who found the title for this piece in a few of the words that appeared in my original draft. Her observation gave me a “north star” to guide my revisions, which Nardine’s patience and grace helped polish into its final form.

Joanne Lozar Glenn

Joanne Lozar Glenn works as a freelance writer and editor, teaches writing in adult education programs, and leads destination writing retreats. Her writing been published in Brevity, Beautiful Things (River Teeth), Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, The Northern Virginia Review, Peregrine, Under the Gum Tree, and other print and online media. Her most recent book, co-authored with five writers, was Memoir Your Way: Tell Your Story Through Writing, Recipes, Quilts, Graphic Novels, and More (Skyhorse Publishing, 2016), and her craft essay on getting and giving more helpful writing feedback was anthologized in Getting to the Truth (Hippocampus Press, 2021).