"I'm a geographer,” says Sarah MacLennan Kerr, a freelance writer, editor, and desktop publisher, “and I'm living in heaven.”

Many people think that Kerr has disappeared. “I've gone back to my maiden name,” she explains. “I was using my married name, Sarah K. Myers, when I worked in New York for the American Geographical Society (AGS) and was active in the AAG.”

The road to geography is full of twists and turns; for Kerr, it has come through the maze and brought her right back where she belongs. Kerr is an example of how, if you truly love something, let it go—and if it is really meant to be, it will come back to you.

After obtaining a bachelor's degree in Spanish from Oberlin College and a master's degree in Hispanic American and Luso-Brazilian Studies from Stanford University, Kerr entered the University of Chicago doctoral program in geography. “When I started in geography,” says Kerr, “I believed that the world in general wasn't receptive to a woman geographer, particularly if she was also a wife and a mother, even though the doors were open at Chicago.”

So, after receiving a second master's degree and her doctorate, Kerr faced another tough challenge: finding a job in geography. Fortunately, she was able to keep an office in the Chicago Geography Department for a year. There she continued her research in the geography of languages and wrote 1,240 entries for the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Then, through the geography faculty, she heard of a once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity: Editor of The Geographical Review. She landed her dream job and, in early 1973, became the third Editor of The Geographical Review since 1915.

While Kerr was working on The Geographical Review, she became Director of the AGS. “As Director/Editor, my door and pages were always open to nonacademic geographers,” Kerr recalls. “I initiated an 'Applied Geography' section in the GR and a 'Geographers in Action' feature in the AGS newsletter.”

“There's an enormous amount of room in the real world for the expertise and perspective that geographers provide. The trouble often isn't with the world, it's with geographers,” Kerr laments, “who don't call themselves such.”

“The world needs geographers now—and thank heaven it wants us much more than it used to.” After juggling her two jobs for a few years, Kerr relinquished her editorship and later resigned as Director of the AGS.

“In 1981 I left the AGS, freelanced for a while, served two years as Managing Editor of a scholarly publisher, and began to breed collies,” Kerr said with a chuckle. “I became a dog writer, with a monthly column on “Better Breeding” in the American Kennel Club Gazette. But Kerr yearned to return to her chosen field, so she sought freelance assignments in geography.

In 1997 Kerr moved to Oberlin, Ohio, where her family had been since the 1850's. “Now I copyedit large, complex books for university presses, and I desktop publish scholarly quarterlies like The Botanical Review. “But what occupies the majority of my time—again! —is The Geographical Review. I currently serve as its freelance copyeditor, proofreader, and indexer, and I also do the layout and prepare camera-ready copy for it.”

“It's incredibly goosebumpy to have the opportunity to return, after 25 years, to working on the journal to which I first committed my professional energies in 1972. It's especially satisfying now that Paul Starrs is eradicating the publication delay by producing six issues of the GR a year.”

“Every day I use geography in my work, and every day I learn more about its many facets,” Kerr muses. “Copyediting and producing the GR afford me a unique opportunity for an inside look at what's going on at the frontiers of our discipline, as well as at its core.”

From her unusual perspective, Kerr has some advice for students. “Go for it, but be prepared to wear your field boots! Look at the land and its people. Be computer literate. Learn how to write good English and how to get your work published. Above all, remember that you don't have to go to the far corners of the earth to be a geographer!”

“I'm living happily ever after,” says Kerr. “I'm in the heart of geography.”

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