April by the books
Happy late-May everyone!
This spring continues its theme of being A Lot and I want to thank you for your patience as I was two weeks behind on sending out my May dispatch. I mentioned last month that I was asked to write a review outside of this newsletter and the deadline for that landed at about the same time that I would have been writing this. That review, an in-depth look at Daniel Borzutzky’s books, will be published in Great River Review in late summer.
In addition to that project, I was recently hired as one of the new Events and Communications Coordinators at Wild Rumpus Books, which I am thrilled about. Transitioning from bartending back into the book world is an exciting shift for me and I’m particularly thrilled to be working at a store with a menagerie and catering mostly to young readers. Kid lit is a side of publishing I don’t know much about, so this role should be a fun challenge while still fitting my skills well.
A job at a kid’s bookstore has shifted my reading a bit, too, which I’m sure will become more apparent in the future. I’m exploring audiobooks a bit more and definitely reading a lot more YA and middle grade fiction. I haven’t been tracking picture books in my ongoing reading log because I would spend more time writing notes on the books than actually reading, so you won’t see those reflected in my reading lists, but trust: I’ve been reading a bunch of them.