Larissa Melo Pienkowski is a freelance editor and sensitivity reader, as well as the assistant publisher of Dottir Press. She holds a Bachelor’s in Social Work from Simmons University and a Master’s in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College. As the queer daughter of Brazilian and Polish immigrants, she speaks Portuguese and Spanish, and is always thrilled to work on books having to do with diaspora, migration, and LGBTQ+ identity. One of her favorite feelings in the world is helping authors dust off their words to reveal exactly what they want to say just underneath.
While Larissa edits across most genres, she holds a soft spot for YA that brings tears to her eyes, literary fiction that makes her feel seen, narrative nonfiction that knocks the air out of her lungs, and steamy romance that makes her fall in love herself. But if you find her without a book in hand, it’s probably because she’s playing with clay in her ceramics studio.
Sensitivity / Expert
- Brazilian and Polish identities
- Being mixed-race; being light-skinned
- First-generation immigrant family, diaspora, families split up by borders, language barriers
- Latinx people in predominantly white spaces
- LGBTQIA+ community
- Familial homophobia
- Being raised as an only child
- Issues related to fatness, fatphobia, body image, body dysmorphia, and eating disorders
- Mental illness (depression, anxiety, PTSD, attention deficit problems)
- Therapy and outpatient psychiatry
- Sexual assault and survivorship
- Fields of social work, sociology, and book publishing
- Attending a women's college
- Taekwondo and volleyball
- Traveling overseas
Preferred Genres
Young adult, literary fiction, memoir, narrative nonfiction, romance/erotica, anything LGBTQ+, middle-grade, coming-of-age stories, horror in the vein of Carmen Maria Machado, magical realism, social justice essay collections, books on beauty and aesthetics.
Avoided Genres
Military Slasher horror Fantasy Sci-Fi