Welcome
Miranda C. Spencer
I offer a nose for news, an ear for language, and an eye for detail gleaned from 40 years of eclectic media experience. My business provides writing and editing services to publishers and individuals alike. Together, we produce projects with purpose, power, and personality.
After decades of city living, I'm now based in rural New Hampshire, about two hours from Boston. Have ticket, will travel.
You can check out samples of my latest projects below, then click on "Find Out More" to learn about my background. *My portfolio page is currently under re-construction. In the meantime, please contact me for additional samples.
Book Editing
Recent Work
Climate Obstruction Across Europe
Edited by Robert J. Brulle, J. Timmons Roberts, and Miranda C. Spencer
Oxford University Press, June 2024
"Understanding climate obstruction is foundational to advancing effective action on the global climate crisis. Starting in the late 1980s, a broad range of actors--including corporations and trade associations acting in coordination with conservative think tanks, foundations, and public relations firms--mounted a long-term effort to oppose action to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. This is the first book to document the development and nature of these activities across Europe...." —from the publisher's website
My role: Administering and editing the project from conception through preparation of the final manuscript (scheduling, trafficking, liaison with the publisher). I also performed extensive developmental and line editing—coaching authors, many of whose first language is not English, through multiple chapter drafts — and proofreading.
REPORTING & WRITING
Recent Work
Feature, Mad In America
January 13, 2024
Excerpt: " Semi-retired pop star Britney Spears is almost as famous for her 13+-year conservatorship—during which all personal, professional, and medical decisions were under legal control of her father—as for her music. So as a longtime reporter on her case, I was eager to read her autobiography, pointedly titled The Woman in Me. Since she was once deemed too “mentally ill” to run her own life, it’s a civil- and disability-rights landmark that the Grammy-winning performer is finally willing and able to share her side of the story. And it isn’t pretty.
…[T]his perceptive and emotionally powerful volume’s most important role may be in explicating the toxic family dynamics that kindled both Britney’s dreams to escape her origins and a lifetime of emotional struggles. Her story confirms the pernicious and long-term effects of intergenerational trauma, alcoholism, and divorce on everyone in a family, especially “the identified patient.” Though not intended as such, it is a cautionary tale about parenting."
*This article was one of the online magazine's most-read stories of 2024!