Priscilla Stuckey

Reconnecting people with nature through writing and spirituality

Nature :: Spirit

the blog of Priscilla Stuckey

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One audacious résumé

I’m delighted to let you know about a guest post I wrote for my Substack friend Amanda Hinton’s site, The Editing Spectrum. Amanda is building a community for all things editorial, with special attention to neurodivergence in the work of writing and editing. Amanda wanted to hear more about my career as an editor, and she invited me to reflect on editing in light of being an undiagnosed autistic person all the years I was doing it.

Wow, did I jump at the chance! Since getting my diagnosis a few years back, I’d reflected on how other aspects of my life look through this new lens, and career was next on the list. I’m mostly retired from editing now, so it’s a juicy time to look back at the whole arc of a work life.

No surprise—things make a whole lot more sense in hindsight than they did in those years when I was living through them.

And it all started with one audacious résumé. I hope you enjoy!

One Audacious Résumé

How an Undiagnosed Autistic Person Stumbled into a Life of Editing

A sheaf of manuscript pages on a wooden desk with pencil, vase of flowers, and a round carved wooden pen and pencil holder. On the sheaf of papers is a nearly used-up stack of Post-It notes and two tiny feathers

“You sent us a résumé for copyediting, and I’m looking at it now. I see you made three mistakes.”

Heat flooded my neck, my face, my eyes while she pointed out each one, ending with the hyphen after the word carefully. “But we really like your academic background,” she added. “I think I’ll go ahead and send you a copyediting test, just to see what you do with it.” more . . .

About Priscilla

I am a writer and spiritual counselor with a passion for changing the modern story of nature and reconnecting people with the Living Source inside themselves and all of nature. I received a PhD in religious studies from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and have taught graduate-level environmental humanities, feminist studies, critical thinking, and thesis writing at Prescott College in Prescott, AZ, and Naropa University in Boulder, CO.

Nature advocacy started for me years ago in Oakland, where I founded a small nonprofit land trust to preserve a nearby creek. In various places around the American West, I cleaned and restored urban creeks, fed baby birds in wildlife rehab, and cofounded a local rights-of-nature group.

My first book, Kissed by a Fox: And Other Stories of Friendship in Nature (Counterpoint, 2012), won the WILLA Award for Creative Nonfiction. Tamed by a Bear: Coming Home to Nature-Spirit-Self (Counterpoint Press, 2017) is a spiritual memoir of the first year of listening to Spirit’s voice through shamanic-style journeys.

My partner, Tim, and I live on Maui, where we are learning to know the life in the sea.