Das bin ich – die Lektoratte.

Anya Lothrop, M.A.

The Editorat

I am a German American who was raised both in Germany and the USA. Language has always fascinated me. This is possibly a result of the lively mixture of English and German spoken at our house when I was a child. I certainly regard both as my native languages.

Whenever I learn a new language, I am intrigued by its inner workings. I automatically analyze structures; I compare expressions and idioms. It is no wonder that this fascination has led to me devoting my professional life to language: I’ve worked as a proofreader and editor, as an author, a translator, and as a teacher for German and English.

In my spare time, I’m usually bustling with creativity, either drawing, painting or sewing. Besides being creative, I enjoy learning new languages (I’m working on Spanish and Japanese at the moment) and training at the karate dojo.

  • Bilingual

    Born in the USA

    Schooling in Germany and the USA

  • Education

    Master of Arts in Cultural Anthropology, African Languages and Geography from Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany
    Studies in Cultural Anthropology at Arizona State University, Tempe, USA

    Training course (Level 4) "Proofreading and editing", College of Media and Publishing, Chichester, UK

    Training course "Editing fiction", Academy of German Media

    Training course "The plot in fiction", German Association of Freelance Editors (VFLL)

    Training course "Editing children's books", German Association of Freelance Editors (VFLL)

    Course "Translating fiction", German Translators' Fund

    Mentoring program of the "Bücherfrauen", Germany. Topic: Translating fiction

  • Professional experience

    2002-2003 Freelance editorial work for BC-Verlag, Wiesbaden

    2003-2004 English teacher and teacher training supervisor for Peace Corps USA in Mora, Cameroon (Africa)

    2004-2019 English und German teacher for Inlingua, Hamburg

    2005-2008 Freelance editor

    2014-2016 Self employed as Zentangle teacher and author

    2014-2016 In charge of the creative blog for Trinity publishing house, Munich

    since 2019 Self-employed as editor and literary translator

Why Editorat?

Contrary to their bad reputation, rats are extremely clean, social-minded and, above all, surprisingly intelligent animals. Scientists have found that rats can evaluate information just as well as humans can and that, based on the patterns they recognize, they make the same kind of decisions that humans would make. In fact, if a rat could read, I am sure it would make a fantastic editor.

Illustration einer Ratte von hinten
Rat-fact

Rats can laugh! Good-humored rats make a squeaking noise when tickled that can be compared to human laughter.

References

Some of my previous projects and clients.

Translation (English → German)

Das Black History Buch
(The Black History Book)
Dorling Kindersley (DK)

Translation (English → German)

Eine Reise zur inneren Heilung 
(The Gaslight Effect Recovery Guide)
by Dr. Robin Stern
KomplettMedia

Editing and translation (German → English)

Olibear Travels to the South Pole
(Olibär reist zum Südpol)
by Ueli Sonderegger
Pitanga

Buchcover: Die Fünf-Elemente-Küche Indiens

Editing (German)

Die Fünf-Elemente-Küche Indiens
Überlieferte Weisheit des Ayurveda – Gesund und vital für mehr Lebensqualität

by Martina Birgit Kobs-Metzger

Chief-Logo

Editing (English)

CHIEF PROJECT
Cultural Heritage and Identities of Europe’s Future
European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 770464

Translation (English → German)

Publications

(Text and illustrations)