Amanda Bell
Trading as: Clear as a Bell Writing Services
Based in: Dublin 6
Professional memberships
Irish Writers Centre (professional member and on mentoring panel), Irish Writers Union, Hibernian Writers, Children’s Books Ireland, British Haiku Society
Educational qualifications
BA Mod Hons TCD (French and English, first class with distinction)
Postgraduate Diploma in Library and Information Studies UCD
Masters in Poetry Studies DCU (first class hons)
Irish Tourism Board certification as a bilingual National Tour Guide (French and English)
Diploma in Textile Design
Training and professional development
Advanced Copy-editing with Margaret Aherne, Publishing Training Centre, 2019
Writing and Editing for the Web, Publishing Training Centre, 2016
Certificate in Desktop Publishing, Griffith College, Dublin, 2016 (distinction)
Book Design, Publishing Ireland, 2015
Onscreen editing with Microsoft Word, Publishing Ireland, 2014
Clé Grammar for Editors, 2007
In-house training as an abstract writer for The H.W. Wilson Company, a leading reference publisher, 1993
Languages
French (fluent), Irish (intermediate)
Experience
Over 25 years’ experience as an editor – in-house with the Lilliput Press (1994–7) and referencing service H.W. Wilson, and freelance since 1997
Services offered
Literary editing (especially poetry editing), proofreading, copy-editing, indexing, (re)writing, website copy
Media
Books, journal articles, poetry manuscripts, websites
Subject areas
Architecture, arts and crafts, children’s literature, cookery, creative writing (especially poetry), ecology/environment, gardening, history, humanities, tourism.
Clients include
Academics, indie authors, poets, publishing companies, tourism specialists. Details on request.
Examples of work undertaken
COPYWRITING: Tourism specialists – details on request
COPY-EDITING: Fluid Forms: Liam Flynn, Mary Leahy / Liam Flynn Estate, 2019
EDITING: Poetry Focus 2017 LC, Gill & MacMillan, 2015; The Lion Tamer Dreams of Office Work: An Anthology of Poetry by the Hibernian Writers, Alba Publishing, 2015; Maurice Craig: Photographs, ed. Amanda Bell, The Lilliput Press, 2011.
INDEXING: 80:20 Development in an Unequal World, 80:20, 2016; Memoirs of an Irish Auction House, Goffs, 2016; Proclaiming a Republic: Ireland, 1916 and the National Collection, Irish Academic Press, 2016; We were there: 77 women of the Easter Rising 1916 by Mary McAuliffe and Liz Gillis, Dublin City Libraries, 2016; Positive Economics, EDCO, 2012
PROOFREADING: Dublin City Development Plan, 2016
Additional information
I am a published poet and author. Titles include Undercurrents (Alba Publishing, 2016); The Lost Library Book (illustrated children’s non-fiction) (Onslaught Press, 2017); First the Feathers (Doire Press, 2017); The Loneliness of the Sasquatch (Alba Publishing, 2018).
Winner of the Allingham Prize; placed second in the Haiku Society of America’s Merit Book Award; shortlisted for the Irish Poem of the Year 2017 in the Irish Book Awards, the Shine Strong Award for best first poetry collection, the Patrick Kavanagh Award, the Touchstone Distinguished Books Award, and more.
I review for the Dublin Review of Books, The Irish Times, Children’s Books Ireland’s Inis Magazine, Books Ireland, and other journals.