I’ve always been interested in storytelling, but it wasn’t until undergrad that I really learned about the labor that goes into publishing and how gratifying the process can be. Beacon has consistently introduced me to authors I’ve ended up loving, such as Gayl Jones and Alicia Kennedy, so when the opportunity to be an editorial intern opened up, I jumped at it and here I am. Read more →

In late 2006, I was on the verge of graduating college with an English degree and had no clue what I wanted to do with it. I’d worked in libraries since age fifteen, always loved books and reading, and really liked helping people with their writing and essays. So, I thought, “Maybe get into book publishing and become an editor.” Read more →

I’ve known since I was little that I wanted to work somewhere in the world of books. My mom is a writer, so while I was growing up, she was my biggest inspiration and always supported me to lean into my love of literature. Some of my favorite childhood memories were discussing books with her—why we liked them, why they felt meaningful, and trying to persuade each other to read our current favorites. Read more →

Since elementary school, I always loved to read and write in my free time and always had my nose in a book. In fact, my mom would have to wrestle my book and flashlight out of my hands whenever she would catch me reading under the covers at night. As I grew older, books and stories continued to remain an important part of my life but fell to the backburner as other academic and cocurricular pursuits took my time. Read more →

As many in publishing would understand, I’m a hopeless bibliophile. My TBR is mountainous, and when I’m not reading, I’m glued to podcasts or YouTube videos about books—and trying my valiant best to persuade friends and family to give my newest hyperfixation read a shot (currently: “The Wedding People” by Alison Espach). Read more →

Like so many people who work with books, I love to read! Reading has always been a massive part of my life—I remember getting in trouble for reading my book during math class in fifth grade—but connecting people with the books I thought they needed felt just as important as reading for myself. As I got older, I started to do political organizing work around prison closure and abolition. In doing this work and speaking to and learning alongside people in prison, it became all the more essential that books reach the people who need them. Read more →

Image credit: Bequest Just what does one do when the sun blazes and the humidity churns the air into chunky Campbell soup? Tell that attention-seeking season called summer “Thank you, but no thank you” and camp out by the A/C... Read more →

Since I was little, books have been my favorite place of solace. Once I found out that there are people who work on books for a living and are a part of a little thing known as the publishing industry, I knew I had to make my way there. In my sophomore year of college, I was lucky enough to gain an internship with Books & Books in Miami, FL, a local bookstore chain. There, I started off as an intern and made my way to part-time marketing and events assistant. Read more →

By Alana Lopez | One of the first ideas taught in my Literature of the Harlem Renaissance course last semester at Boston University was the concept of Harlem as a haven. In Claude McKay’s “Home to Harlem,” it was, as its name suggests, a motivating factor for its main character, like that of Ithaca for Odysseus. It was a hub of inventive and unorthodox expressions of self as shown by Louis Armstrong’s jazz or Gladys Bentley’s blues. For Rudolph Fisher, Harlem’s culture is familiar and, though often written off as a fad, rich with history and ultimately timeless in “The Caucasian Storms Harlem.” To James Baldwin, it is home and birthplace as well and, much like him, I’ve come to find that “home” and “haven” are vastly different things. Read more →

A Q&A with Amy Caldwell and Perpetua Charles | I’d worked with Ra Page, Atef Abu Saif’s editor at Comma Press in the UK, on a previous book, The Drone Eats with Me, which chronicled Abu Saif’s experiences on the ground in Gaza during the 2012 Israeli incursion. And then last fall, after the post-Oct 7 Israeli campaign and invasion of Gaza began, Ra reached out. I didn’t know Atef had been visiting Gaza on October 7, and it was, of course, distressing to hear. Read more →

Publishing has been my opportunity to participate in a cause which best puts to use the skills I acquired throughout college. Read more →

In college, someone told me to think about the things I loved when I was younger, because those things would bring the most joy in my career. Books meant everything to me as a kid. Beacon was a great fit because of my political science degree and nonprofit internships in college. Also, I mostly read nonfiction. Read more →

Our New England summer is off to an overcast, monsoony start, but that’s not going to stop us from vibing with our seasonal reads and binges. Here’s what our staff has been enjoying. Read more →

When I first began exploring career possibilities in back high school, I decided pretty quickly that I wanted to work in publishing. For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a children’s author, but even back then, the practical side of me knew I would also need to find a day job I was equally passionate about to support myself. Considering my lifelong obsession with books, publishing was the obvious choice!  Read more →

When I started to think about career options in my first year of college, I knew I wanted to do something in the world of books and I knew I wanted, within that, to work somewhere that recognized the inherent political power of publishing and that was committed to using that power in a way that was both disruptive and purposeful. I also knew—or thought I knew at the time—that I wanted to be in New York. Read more →

A Q&A with Catherine Tung | This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time! Editors all have bucket lists of books they want to publish, and near the top of my list has been a book that introduces the rich world of kink to a general audience without sensationalizing, othering, or distorting the material. When I arrived at Beacon three years ago, my senior colleagues encouraged me to brainstorm ideas for new lists that I could develop. I started with the idea of a kink book, and the idea of a sexuality list flowed naturally from there. Read more →

I never planned on a career in publishing. After working in public accounting, I was offered a position at The Thomson Corporation in their publishing division. I thought I would try that for a few years and move onto something else. Shortly afterwards, I moved to their educational publishing group and ended up there for the next thirty years. Read more →

I initially wanted to be a writer, and I also wanted to live in New York, where many of my best friends were already living. In my last semester of college, my thesis advisor mentioned publishing as a possible day job—an industry that, of course, is also mainly based in New York. After college, I did some internships and freelance work at various New York publishers, magazines, and agencies, and then did an MFA in fiction writing at Brooklyn College, where I studied with author and editor Nathaniel Rich. Read more →

I’ve been a Beacon staff member and a publicity team member for seven and a half years! In that time, I’ve witnessed the rise of podcasts as legit and meaningful coverage for authors; the gradual expansion of book sections at major publications like the Washington Post and The Atlantic; and the ongoing growth of the indie book scene here in Boston. And, of course, my work and my life have changed since the onset of the pandemic nearly a full three years ago. Read more →

In undergrad, when I started working on my creative writing minor, I spotted a course on book publishing in the English department’s catalog. I’d always been “interested” in publishing, and I suppose the books and films I consumed growing up that glamorized the industry fascinated me as someone on the outside looking in—same with my other educational pursuits in film, journalism, art history, creative writing, advertising . . . I owe a tremendous debt to that class, as it made learning about the industry more accessible to those who couldn’t afford an elite summer publishing course or graduate program. Read more →