I will work with you on your novel, memoir, essay, article, editorial.

About Me:

I’m a high-level, multi-service writing coach and editor with four decades of professional writing/editing experience. The author of three novels and two essay anthologies (one a #10 New York Times bestseller, the other an NPR “Best Book”), I’ve also both edited and written monthly columns for top magazines including Elle, Real Simple, Mademoiselle, Glamour, and Seventeen, as well as written for The Washington Post and The New York Times. (See Books and Other Writing.)

I also co-founded The New York Times “Modern Love” column. (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/11/style/modern-love-origin.html)

I have a BA in journalism and English and an MFA in creative writing. I’ve taught writing at the U of Arizona, the New School in NYC (MFA program), and privately, individually and in workshops.

How I Work:

Before I accept you as a client, I’ll read some of your work to make sure we’re a fit. If we are, you’ll have my full attention: email, phone, whatever you need. I take on writers selectively and focus on your project until it’s finished to your satisfaction/perfection.

We’ll start by discussing your intentions and goals for your project, from conception to publication. Then I’ll work with you as a coach, reader, editor, copyeditor, excavating your mind to figure out how to create the best book you can, and guiding you to make that happen.

I’ll advise about how professional publishing works (I can’t guarantee you an agent or paying publisher) and can help you do a book proposal. If you’re happy to self-publish, I’ll lead you through that process beginning to end. I have seen books through from idea or handful of notes to beautiful, propulsive, compelling book, at all levels of publishing.

Some Books I’ve Worked On (Pre-)Beginning to End

Fees:

I charge by the hour, and my fees are commensurate with (or low for) my level of editing and writing experience. On longer projects, I require payment as we work, rather than all at the end. Please email me to discuss rates: cathi.hanauer@gmail.com.

What Some of My Clients and Anthology Contributors Say:

“Cathi has written essays for several of my anthologies and edited my writing in both of hers. She’s a gifted, funny, highly skilled writer, a respectful and impeccable editor, and a dream to work with.”

–Ann Hood, NYT bestselling novelist and memoirist, contributor to The Bitch is Back, and editor of Knitting Pearls; Providence Noir; and Life’s Short, Talk Fast: 15 Writers on Why We Can’t Stop Watching “Gilmore Girls.”

“A million years ago, Cathi taught me how to write a personal essay—by urging me to tell the whole truth, to excavate what I was trying to say instead of dancing around it, and to push it even further until I understood the deeper import of my own experience. Not what I thought it should be or wanted it to be, but the actual heart of the matter in all its complexity and contradiction. She’s a brilliant editor.”

—Kate Christensen, Pen Faulkner Award-winning contributor to The Bitch in the House and The Bitch is Back and author of The Great Man; Welcome Home, Stranger; and other novels, memoirs, essays, etc.

“I worked with Cathi from early memoir idea to professional book proposal. She coaxed me to pull out all sorts of truths and color from my shy inner being, asking the right questions and advising me, with insight and compassion, in all the right ways. Now I have a top agent taking it out to market. Working with Cathi was an amazing experience.

—Jackie Northam, NPR International Affairs Correspondent and author of a proposal for Flying Solo: Nine Cities and the Making of a Foreign Correspondent

“Cathi questioned, listened, edited, held my hand, and advised 24/7 as I wrote the memoir of my daughter’s illness and tragic death, and of how I recovered and even found new meaning afterwards. She helped me remove sentimentality and realize what the story could be; she showed me my strengths and weaknesses as a writer. I now have a beautiful book that I promote and distribute widely, a tribute to my daughter and an inspiration to others going through similar journeys. Cathi’s incredible work and editing made this book; it wouldn’t exist without her.”

—Deborah Waffle, retired school teacher and author of My Grief Jar: Still Growing After the Loss of My Daughter

“This [book] was only possible with your craft.”

—Note to me inscribed by Rayya Elias, the late wife of Elizabeth Gilbert, in her book Harley Loco: A Memoir of Hard Living, Hair, and Post-Punk, from the Middle East to the Lower East Side. Rayya came to me with pages of anecdotes and notes; we made it into a professional memoir, published by Viking/Penguin in 2013.