Literature Expert

Literary scholars to build the close reading and interpretation scenarios frontier AI labs use to test model judgment.

AfterQuery builds the expert evaluation data that frontier AI labs use to measure and improve their models. We're hiring literary scholars as contractors to author and grade the close reading and interpretation scenarios those evaluations run on.

What you'll actually do

• Author literary scenarios that test real reading, from passage analysis to questions of form, voice, and tradition.
• Write reference readings with the textual evidence behind each claim, what the language does and how.
• Grade model output for textual fidelity, interpretive depth, and awareness of craft.
• Flag readings that sound sophisticated but ignore what the text actually says, the misses only a trained reader would catch.

Who this is for

• Literary scholars with an advanced degree in literature, English, comparative literature, or a closely related field.
• Teachers, researchers, editors, and published critics with at least two years of professional literary work.
• Readers who can ground an interpretation in the words on the page and know when one cannot be.
• Writers whose own prose demonstrates the craft they evaluate.

Contract and pay

• $50 to $100/hr, paid weekly via Stripe. Your rate is set from your experience, not negotiated down after you start.
• Fully remote, fully async. No fixed hours.
• Minimum 10 hours per week, no maximum. Scale up or down week to week.
• No screen recording, no keystroke monitoring, no idle timers.
• Independent contractor. Ongoing project work rather than single task batches.

How our hiring process works

• Apply at /apply/literature-expert. About five minutes. Resume plus a few structured questions.
• Resume review. Every application gets read against a published rubric and gets a decision.
• Written assessment. You may be asked to take a written assessment for further placement.
• Onboarding. Sign the contractor agreement, connect Stripe, and get platform access.
• Project match. You're matched to live work in your specialty, usually within a week of onboarding.

About AfterQuery

AfterQuery is an expert data lab. We build the evaluation and training data that frontier AI labs use to measure what their models can and can't do in real professional work. Our contributors are practicing professionals, not annotators, and the work is credited, reviewed, and paid at professional rates.

Required qualifications

• Advanced degree in literature, English, comparative literature, or a closely related field
• 2+ years of teaching, research, editorial, or published literary work
• Close reading depth across periods, genres, or traditions
• Clear written English for documenting interpretive reasoning
• Able to commit at least 10 hours per week

Why apply

• Work stays in your specialty, judged on rigor rather than output volume
• Set your own hours and scale up or down week to week
• Weekly pay via Stripe at a rate set from your experience
• Your judgment shapes how the next generation of AI reads and writes