Cecilia Whitehurst is everything you’d want a Copy Editor to be: keen-eyed, clever, detail-oriented and not afraid to bleed red ink all over an issue draft. And it’s no surprise, as a lover of words, she’s also extremely well-read.
In terms of books, I read a lot, always have. My current favorites, which I try and pressure everyone into reading, are:
- Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series (and his other series, but I read The Eyre Affair first, so it has a special place in my heart)
- The Hunger Games
- anything by Stephen King (but especially The Stand, ‘Salem’s Lot, Needful Things)
- Wuthering Heights
- George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, starting with Game of Thrones
- almost any post-apocalyptic or dystopian novel.
I love good young adult novels, and grew up reading Diana Wynne Jones’ delightful fantasy.
I just read Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrow’s The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, about the aftermath of German occupation of the Channel Islands during WWII (it made me laugh out loud, tear up, and then go do some research–that’s what a good book should do!).
I’m about to start Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay for my book club, which is something that’s been on my list for quite a while, so I’m excited to get into that.
Anyone looking for suggestions should go immediately to Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust (and its sequel, More Book Lust), which has suggestions about every possible genre of books (including some you may not know existed).
I don’t watch many movies, but I probably watch way too much TV — I’m a big fan of Buffy, Supernatural, Veronica Mars, Glee, Bones, and How I Met Your Mother. I watch pretty much every cooking competition show on TV (Top Chef, Iron Chef, The Next Iron Chef, The Next Food Network Star, Chopped).
For music, I’m on a big Josh Ritter kick. I also like the Decemberists, the Mountain Goats, She Wants Revenge, and, honestly, most of the poppy stuff that’s on the radio right now.
What’s your favorite piece you’ve done for The Land Press?
Well, if we’re talking about pieces I’ve written, it’s got to be my one and only — the Letter From Siberia. That was a fun one, and a nice way to ease into my writing debut. It was equal parts funny and humiliating to recall myself at age 13.
For copy-editing, I think my favorite was John Waldron’s “The Making of Miss Hornet” — he was my high school history teacher, so it was a little bit of payback to get to mark up his paper! Plus, it was a well-written and relevant article, which always helps.
What do you love about Tulsa and/or Oklahoma?
I love how many different things there are to do around here. I get a lot of the experience of living in a big city, without actually needing to move to one — we can go to the opera, the ballet, a variety of kinds of theater. I get to see some of the Broadway stuff before my friends in the northeast. We have two good museums, some cool art galleries, a great library system, and a really vast variety of bars. There’s always something to go do, or see, or experience (go check out Do What if you don’t believe me!). If I could change anything, though, I really wish we had a better public transportation system. And more (independent) book stores.
I drink a lot of beer. Mostly wheat, although I’m really enjoying Caldera Amber right now. I love white wine, especially Sauvignon Blanc. Those are my big two, although my guilty pleasure is ordering girly, fruity cocktails at bars and restaurants. If we’re talking non-alcoholic, I drink a lot of water and Coke year round, lemonade in the summer, and apple cider in fall and winter.
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Celicia Cecilia is a Tulsa native but left fled her homeland to attend school at Washington & Lee; but returned home after graduation, with new-found enthusiasm for O-K-L-A. She joined our stellar staff this summer and we’re glad to have her wielding that red corrections pen for us, even if it does cause physcologicalpsychological damage to our tender psyche.
Read the rest of Cecilia’s bio, here.
Editor’s note: Whitehurst, it should be noted, was not responsible for the multiple errors in this post.