ABOUT

A creative studio, full of real humans.

We do human-generated research, writing, and publishing.

We exist because writers deserve proper help from proper people: editors who read for what a book actually needs, writers who can make research sing, and a standard that doesn’t slip. We build books with you or write them for you, we teach the craft in the Academy, and we publish, all under one roof, all human-made.

THE DIFFERENCE

Anyone can generate words now. What’s rare (and getting rarer) is a real person reading or writing every line. At the Studio, that’s just what we do.

THE FOUNDER

Dr. Shelly Lorts

Scholar & Story was founded by Dr. Shelly Lorts, a story expert and narrative editor who writes the kind of narrative nonfiction that reads like a novel. She has spent more than fifteen years teaching people how stories actually work, from university classrooms to private book coaching, and she sets the standard the whole studio works to.
She personally runs the two services where her attention matters most— Book Coaching and Brainstorm Sessions—and everywhere else she’s the editorial eye behind a team she trusts.
American, she lives in a historic house in Canterbury, England, with her husband and a Westie named Samwise.

▸ Shelly’s Background

THE STUDIO

We’re a proper bench of researchers, writers, editors, and designers, each brought in where we’re best. And every project runs through the team to the same standard. That’s what a collaborative studio buys you…and you can tell.

Top view of a team planning and working together in an office setting with laptops and notepads.
Rosie Davis, MFA

Executive Assistant to Dr. Shelly

Megan Phillips, MA

Head of Digital Storytelling

Dr. Shelly Lorts, PhD

Founder & Director

Paula Hillier, MSc

Editor & Project Manager

Olivia Young, MSc

Senior Writer & Researcher

Chris Silkstone

Graphic & Cover Designer

TEAM

Meet the Crew

Creatives, nerds, and all-around good-time people. We’re scholars, storytellers, and artists…and all in different ways: history, myth, brand voice, tech, graphic design, and whisky. Together, this merry lot can research, write, and produce almost anything.

How we work

Research done properly.

Sources gathered, interviews run, facts checked…before a word is written.

Structure with real bones.

Architecture underneath every book, so that it carries a reader all the way through.

Read by a person.

Every sentence, every time. Never fed to a machine and never generated by one.

▸ Start with a discovery call

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