Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephenie Magister

Hi Stephenie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?

I entered the book industry first as an Inventory Manager for Borders Books and Music, then transitioned to Receiving Manager for Barnes and Noble. In both roles, I was responsible for a multi-million-dollar sales volume. Soon after, I entered graduate school for my Master’s in Journalism and Mass Communication, where I also served as the graduate assistant for the university’s first low-residency MFA program for narrative nonfiction and screenwriting. Since graduating in 2013, I have served as a senior editor and copywriter for a diverse list of publishers and independent authors, elevating debut and established writers into award winners and bestsellers. In addition, I donated my services as an editor to Writers for Hope, a charity organization benefiting survivors of sexual violence.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

I am a trans woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder. I was raised in an end-of-days cult in Mississippi. Me and my sister suffered intense abuse from our parents and the church. I reacted by developing extreme anorexia, and I was hospitalized off and on from 9 to 15 years old. As hard as it was to grow up in the hospitals, it was a welcome escape from the abuse at home.

In 2018, I suffered a traumatic brain injury from a bicycle accident without a helmet. The front wheel of the bicycle came off, and I woke up in the hospital as they were prepping me to put my face back together. The road to recovery has been long and hard, including a period of several years where I had to take a break from editing in order to let my brain heal.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?

I’m proud to say a number of my authors have won awards, hit best-seller lists, and sold foreign rights for their books to be translated and published for international readers, including YA books such as the sci-thriller ECHOES by Alice Reeds (#1 ranked YA thriller on Amazon) and ANYA AND THE SHY GUY by Suze Winegardner (shortlisted for best YA in the UK), as well as adult best-selling books like THE PENTHOUSE PRINCE by Virginia Nelson (USA Today best-seller #50, foreign rights sold) and THE FIX UP by Tawna Fenske (USA Today best-seller #112, foreign rights sold).

I also bring with me a passion for representing stories of diversity and inclusivity, as evidenced by recent YA releases like the historical m/m romance ILLUSIONS by Madeline Reynolds; PAPER GIRL by Cindy Wilson, an incredible YA contemporary romance featuring a heroine with an anxiety disorder and agoraphobia; and the aforementioned ECHOES by Alice Reeds, which features a pan heroine.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?

I was a voracious reader. Neither of my parents advanced very far in their schooling, and my mother was determined to see her children grow intellectually in the ways she’d been denied. She took me to the library every week, where they allowed me to fill a milk crate with book after book, then to bring them back the next week and start all over again. Once I was a teenager, I spent a lot of time at the mall, where I would switch back and forth between the arcade and the bookstore, working my way through every published Goosebumps book.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://medium.com/translating-everything/queer-editor-lists-almost-every-book-she-published-54da9aa819e5
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/StephMagister
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCthOh6CvMjwu–jcXfeebiQ