Editing copy to perfection

 

“Some books that I've read on the Kindle, I've been like, 'I want that on my shelf.' Because it says, 'I'm the kind of person who has read this.' The kind of book that says, 'I'm serious and intellectual and historical and race-conscious.'" —Jennifer Lee

Born on the Ides of March in 1976, Lee holds the distinction of having the numeral 8 for her middle name.  After not being given a middle name at birth, she assigned this one to herself as an adult “because in the Chinese culture, that number signifies prosperity and good luck.”   

Author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles about "how Chinese food is more all-American than apple pie,” she is a part-time journalist and full-time writer while serving on a variety of boards including at the Center for Public Integrity and the Asian American Writers' Workshop.

Lee started writing as a journalist on The Harvard Crimson, then did a series of internships at some of the country’s best newspapers before working as a writer and editor for The New York Times.   There, she served as both a copy editor and a headline writer. 

 

“People often think that reporters write their own headlines. In fact, they almost never do,” she said.  “The people who do write headlines are the copy editors who are the front and last lines of quality-checking in a newspaper before it goes to print. “