Mary Newberry

Profile

Since 2000, after earning a BA in political science and an MA in English, I've worked as a freelance editor, indexer and teacher. My early passion was dancing, and it’s the self-discipline I learned then that is probably my greatest indirect asset now.

I have a long-term relationship with social justice and diversity and enjoy working in these arenas. I work primarily in the humanities, on academic, government, literary, creative arts and general interest texts and, now, in memoir. My clients are individuals and publishers, as well as governments.

Substantive and stylistic editing of literary non-fiction and scholarly writing are specialties of mine. I enjoy complex materials, helping to bring clarity and concision to emerging ideas. I often work with scholars for whom English is an additional language

In 2021, I was shortlisted for the Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence, honouring the work I did with Julie Macfarlane on her powerful book, Going Public: A Survivor's Journey from Grief to Action.

About half of my time is spent indexing for books. I developed the indexing course for Ryerson University's Publishing Program and taught it for ten years.  In 2016, I won the Ewart-Daveluy Award for excellence in indexing. Nigel Beale's podcast, Biblio File, features an interview with me, "Mary Newberry on the Joys of Indexing. Yes, Indexing.” I was honoured to be one of the indexers working on the Final Report of the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission of Canada.