Testimonials
I had the distinct pleasure of working with Therí Pickens in 2017, when she served as the guest editor for the special issue of African American Review on blackness and disability. Pickens’s rigorous and careful approach to the editing process enhanced the quality of my article. She is a meticulous and insightful reader, and she has a special knack for bringing out the best in an author’s work. Simply put, Pickens is the kind of editor that every writer deserves.
– Dennis Tyler, Associate Professor, Fordham University
Dr. Therí Pickens is a brilliant editor who has enhanced my work for the better each time she has engaged with it. I first worked with her on my published article in CLA Journal on August Wilson’s dramas and disability. Her keen eye and insights enhanced the work tremendously.
She has also performed developmental edits for my in process book manuscript. Her feedback is always clear and thorough. With each engagement with her as an editor, I feel empowered to produce my best work. She is a rare combination of scholar and editor, who blends her deep knowledge of literary studies with her writerly wisdom in providing meaningful feedback.
- Stacie McCormick, Associate Professor, Texas Christian University
"I worked closely with Dr. Pickens when she edited a special issue of African American Review. Writing is very personal thing and often involves one’s ego which is why editing is such a delicate task. Dr. Pickens handled everything with aplomb. My article improved markedly because of her thoughtful feedback. She offered great suggestions and firm corrections (when needed), but did so without being overbearing or trying to insert her own writing voice into someone else’s work. She earned my trust throughout the process, which is so important for editors to do. I also appreciated that she had my back when there was a problem with the publishers wanting to make last-minute changes.”
- Jeffrey Brune, Associate Professor of History, Gallaudet University
“I have had the great privilege of having Dr. Therí Pickens's editorial eye on two of my now published, peer-reviewed articles. My experience with Dr. Pickens has been that she is considerate and knowledgeable; it's clear that her goal is to strengthen my writing. Her feedback is always detailed, precise, and insightful, and I look forward to working with her again!”
- Anna Hinton, Assistant Professor Disability Studies and Black Literature & Culture, University of North Texas
“T. Pickens is a visionary, insightful, and rigorously detailed editor. She brings expertise as a scholarly editor, writer, and intersectional theorist in literary and cultural disability studies to this work—skills uniquely suited to developing and supporting new projects as well as providing detailed attention to accessible, respectful, and inclusive content.”
- Michelle Jarman, Associate Professor, University of Wyoming
Dr. Pickens recently helped to edit a shared values statement for our organization, the Maine Network of Community Food Councils. Trying to create a short, comprehensive and comprehensible statement about our shared commitments to anti-racism, food justice and food sovereignty has been a difficult task, and Dr. Pickens's insights were invaluable. She gave us very clear, thoughtful feedback that has helped us to better communicate the work we do and the changes we wish to be a part of creating. Our values statement will serve as a touchstone for all our efforts moving forward, and we are grateful that she has helped us make it one we can be proud of.
— Darcy Cooke, coordinator for the Maine Network of Community Food Councils
Dr. Pickens’s editorial talents are as unmatched as her professionalism. At both the content level and grammatical level, Dr. Pickens excels in improving writing. She has a keen eye for nuance, which for me was incredibly useful in terms of making my writing clearer. Because she is so knowledgeable in a wide variety of subjects and fields, Professor Pickens has a unique ability to suggest additional scholarship to help strengthen your writing. I highly recommend her!
– Delia Steverson, Assistant Professor of African American Literature, University of Florida
Dr. Therí Pickens delivers her editorial insights with a gentle touch and with respect for the author. She is not the sort of editor who imposes her own ideas on the authors with whom she works; instead, she offers strategies that enable you to execute your own vision.
Dr. Pickens was the editor of the fiftieth anniversary special edition of African American Review, on “Blackness and Disability,” in which capacity she worked closely with me on the article that I contributed to that volume. The topic of my essay was anti-Black state violence, and as I grappled with this difficult issue, I benefited immensely from Dr. Pickens’s editorial brilliance. At each stage of my writing process—conceptualizing my topic, refining my arguments, and adjusting the nuances of my language—she offered transformative suggestions.
As an editor, Dr. Pickens is at once deeply supportive and rigorously honest. This rare combination proved essential as she helped me prepare my essay for publication in African American Review. The first draft of my paper needed a lot of work; in fact, one of the journal’s anonymous reviewers suggested that, because so many changes were needed, it would not be possible to revise the article in time for the special issue’s deadline. While concurring with many of this reviewer’s criticisms, Dr. Pickens wisely advised me to disregard the notion that I couldn’t do the work on time. Her belief in my capacity as a writer gave me the courage to undertake an extensive revision, and her thoughtful, targeted feedback helped me to imagine what such a revision might look like. The result was an essay that, in my twenty-plus years as a writer and a scholar, I consider to be my strongest and most important piece of writing.
- Anna Mollow, Independent Scholar
Dr. Pickens is an amazingly supportive editor. Working with her is an absolute delight. I have no doubt that the article I published in the special issue she edited is a better piece of scholarship because of her guidance and expertise.
- Michael Gill, Associate Professor of Disability Studies, Syracuse University
Dr. Pickens is a thoughtful, insightful editor who aims to make your work at strong and clear as possible. She tries to truly understand your goals for the writing in order to enhance your work during the editing process without changing your personal voice or overall arguments. My experiences with her as an editor have always been positive & professional start to finish.
– Sami Schalk, Associate Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Dr. Therí Pickens is an outstanding scholar, editor, and colleague. I had the privilege of working with Dr. Pickens on Routledge's Arab American Aesthetics, and I found the process to be both extremely helpful and completely seamless. Dr. Pickens devotes tremendous care and sensitivity to her work as a scholar, writer, and editor and it is evident in the books she has authored and edited throughout her career.
- Michael Malek Najjar, Associate Professor of Theater Arts, University of Oregon
I worked with Dr. Pickens when she edited a special edition of African American Review in which I published an article. She was a supportive, responsive, and canny editor who enhanced my work to a great degree.
– Sarah Orem, University of Southern California