Joseph Demes

about

Joseph Demes is an inaugural 2023–2024 Tin House Reading Fellow, and was a nominee for the 2021 PEN America Dau Prize. His work has been published in Hobart After Dark, Oyez Review, and Essay Daily, among other print and online journals. He has been awarded residencies from Vermont Studio Center, Tin House, and the Sundress Academy for the Arts; and has received support from the Southampton Writers Conference, the Tin House Writers Workshop, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he completed his MFA. He lives in Brooklyn.

Headshot

Photograph © Naomi Washer, 2023

selected writing

2023

three poems, in print and online, in Alternative Milk Magazine

2022

a brief review for Literary Hub

2021

an interview with Kasimma, author of All Shades of Iberibe for Full Stop
an essay in METER Magazine
two poems in Hobart After Dark

2020

brief reviews for The Bookstore at the End of the World and Literary Hub
a short story in Oyez Review
a poem in Sobotka Literary Magazine
an essay in Essay Daily

2019

two pieces in Issue 5 of DOG Magazine (print only)

2018

a profile for PUNCH

2015

a book review for [PANK]

editing services

Since 2015 I’ve worked as a freelance editor for multiple small presses and publications. My skills are available for writers looking for assistance with a project of any length at any stage, including: essays (individual pieces or full-length collections), hybrid/non-genre prose, memoirs, novellas, novels, short stories (individual pieces or full-length collections), and other work. Accolades for past clients include a 2019 IPPY award for short fiction and placement in the Best of 2019 fiction list for Entropy Magazine. For all inquiries, fill out this form. Below are some testimonials.

"Joe is nitpicky in the best way possible and gives the kind of detailed comments you want (and need) on your writing. Plus, he's easy to get in contact with and very responsive, which is not always a given." — Ali Tomek, author of When Something Solid Collapses Under Itself

"I am lost in an unending series of reality shifts, swallowed by fissures in existence, spat into alternate timelines. I’ve seen millions of other worlds and other ways in which things can be, and you’d think that Joe Demes would only exist in a handful of these alternate realities and that he would be a highly talented editor in only two or three of those worlds. False. Joe Demes exists in every timeline and is a highly talented editor within each of those. Joe's narrative instincts are loving and nurturing. In every reality, the man is a word baby midwife. Trust your word babies with the editor from every timeline." — Chase Griffin, author of What's On the Menu? [Long Day Press]

"Joe was able to make me see the light on a piece of writing that was giving me a lot of trouble. He is meticulous in his approach to the big and small stuff, and very easy to work with." — Stuart M. Ross, author of Jenny in Corona [Tortoise Books]