Join University of Tennessee English alumni Sierra Swanson and Leah Rang and other publishing professionals, including Katie Hannah and Kanika Lawton, for a roundtable discussion on careers in publishing including types of publishing jobs, internships in publishing, how to prepare for the job market, and more. This online discussion will take place on Wednesday, October 16th, from 5:00-6:00 PM EST on Zoom. Log in to join the conversation at http://tiny.utk.edu/englroundtable.

Sierra Swanson joined Atria as a Publicity Assistant in October 2022. Prior to supporting David Brown with publicity and Marketing for such authors as Jack Carr, Brad Thor, and Vince Flynn. Additionally, she is a co-star of the brand-new Atria Mystery Bus TikTok account (@atriamysterybus). Prior to working at Atria, she completed her Master’s degree at New York University’s Center For Publishing and interned at Workman Publishing. She holds a BA in Creative Writing and English Literature and Italian from The University of Tennessee. 

Leah Rang is a New York City-based product manager and instructional designer for educational content and software products. She holds an MA in English Literature from UT-Knoxville and a MEd in Learning Design and Technology from Penn State. After teaching composition and rhetoric courses, she began working in educational publishing at Macmillan Learning, developing the very textbooks and assessment products she had taught students from in Tennessee. Recently, Leah transitioned to content and software product management at an information security startup. She continues to consult product development of educational QuickStart Guides at a publisher (Clydebank Media) and software teams at startups (Security Scorecard). She lives in Brooklyn and volunteers with Badass Animal Rescue. 

Kanika Lawton is a Toronto-based writer, editor, and film and media scholar. They are a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto's Cinema Studies Institute and the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies. They hold an MA from the Cinema Studies Institute and a BA in Psychology with a Minor in Film Studies from the University of British Columbia. They have received fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminars, Pink Door, BOAAT Writer's Retreat, and the Sundress Academy for the Arts as well as a 2023 David Rayside Graduate Student Award, a 2022-2023 Queer and Trans Research Lab Research Assistant Award, and the 2021 Atom Egoyan Cinema Studies Scholarship. Their scholarly work has been published in Spectator and Media Fields, and their poetry and prose have been published widely and nominated for numerous awards, including the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Since 2021, they have served as the Staff Director of Sundress Publications, a 501(c)(3) non-profit literary press collective, where they direct the editorial internship program they have also interned under.

Katie Hannah is the Director of the University of Tennessee Press, where she oversees a publishing program that focuses on scholarly works in Appalachian studies, African American religion, and vernacular architecture, among other areas, as well as regional trade titles. Hannah brings a wealth of experience from a distinguished 20-year career at W. W. Norton, where she held a variety of roles, including sales representative, marketing manager for literature and composition, custom editor (a role and department she created), and director of the custom department. Hannah holds a BA in English from the University of Mississippi and an MA in English from Western Kentucky University. Her extensive background in publishing and education underscores a commitment to advancing scholarly and literary works.

This event is sponsored by the English Department’s Career Development program. Find out more about how our department supports its students and grads with career support at https://english.utk.edu/careers/.