Creative Nonfiction Magazine and Behind the Prose teamed up this year to bring you a live sneak peek into the 2016 Creative Nonfiction Writers’ Conference. The Ask an Editor Panel was moderated by In Fact Books Associate Publisher, Ellen Ayoob and featured Hattie Fletcher, Creative Nonfiction’s own managing editor, and editors Jessica Bylander, and Geeta Kothari.

In this episode, you’ll get an insider’s view—our panel of editors answers questions about the revision and editing process. Learn how pieces change in revision with an editor’s help, and how you can apply these guidelines to your own work.

Hattie Fletcher

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Hattie Fletcher has been the managing editor of Creative Nonfiction since 2004 and is the co-editor, with Lee Gutkind, of True Stories, Well Told: from the First 20 Years of Creative Nonfiction Magazine.

Geeta Kothari

Geeta Kothari is the nonfiction editor of the Kenyon Review. She is a two-time recipient of the fellowship in literature from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the editor of ‘Did My Mama Like to Dance?’ and Other Stories about Mothers and Daughters. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in various journals and anthologies, including The Kenyon Review, Massachusetts Review, Fourth Genre, and Best American Essays. In 2004, she received the David and Tina Bellet Award for Teaching Excellence. In addition to teaching in the undergraduate program, Geeta also directs the Writing Center at the University of Pittsburgh.

Jessica Bylander

Jessica Bylander is a senior editor at Health Affairs and editor of the journal’s “Narrative Matters” section of health policy narratives. She also contributes reported pieces to the journal. Prior to joining Health Affairs, she was a reporter covering the medical technology industry for “The Gray Sheet.” Previously, she worked at Dickinson College. She is a playwright and writes frequently for the Washington Post Express. She studied writing and journalism at Johns Hopkins University and Northwestern University.

Ellen Ayoob

Ellen M. Ayoob is the co-director of online education at Creative Nonfiction Foundation and associate publisher for In Fact Books. She brings to CNF over 20 years of experience with writing and design in both academia and industry. She has an MDes from the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University.