Meagan Szekely

• West Virginia University, MA in Professional Writing and Editing, 2015
• Marshall University, BA in English Literature and Communication Studies, 2013
• Editorial Assistant
• Johns Hopkins University Press
• Baltimore, Maryland

I am an editorial assistant at Johns Hopkins University Press (JHUP). JHUP, America’s oldest academic press, publishes around 200 books per year and 80 journals. My role is to support two acquiring editors with the books on their lists. I send manuscripts and proposals through peer review, draft contracts, prep manuscripts for copyediting, and follow books through several other aspects of publication and post publication processes. I love being a part of taking an author’s idea from a proposal to a bound book and am thankful my PWE degree has allowed me to have this role. The organizational and communication skills I learned in the PWE Master’s program help guide me through my fast-paced, demanding workplace at JHUP.

During my time at WVU, my invaluable experiences prepared me for the job I have now. For my graduate assistant position at WVU, I was able to work at the West Virginia University Press and learn first-hand knowledge about academic publishing. Course like Editing, Digital Humanities, and Literary Research presented information about academic publishing and offered different perspectives of contemporary academic life that I take into consideration when dealing with authors, editors, and others at JHUP. After finishing the PWE program at WVU, I knew I was well prepared for a great beginning career in academic publishing.