A typical day as a publicist at Cornell University Press isn’t easy for Rebecca Brutus to describe. She might be corresponding with authors to set up events and interviews, pitching books to reviewers and magazines, or organizing databases for different books and authors. Every day there’s something new to do—Rebecca describes her job as having her fingers “in a lot of pots.”
After taking Writing’s editing and publishing course, Rebecca initially thought she would go into trade (commercial) publishing. But her senior year, she completed a marketing internship with Cornell University Press, where she was recommended for a Mellon University Press Diversity Fellowship. Receiving that award, she then worked for fourteen months as an editorial assistant for The University of Chicago Press. Rebecca’s writing department experiences, she says, helped push her towards success in her eventual career.
In academic publishing, Rebecca feels part of a process that puts important and influential work out into the world, something she’s come to value every day. “Getting books to people who want and need them gets me out of bed in the morning. I don’t drink coffee—it’s publishing.” Particularly, Rebecca enjoys sharing books with audiences who previously wouldn’t have considered certain genres.
While at IC, Rebecca tutored at the Writing Center, worked at the campus library, and interned at Buffalo Street Books. She was also the senior nonfiction editor for Stillwater magazine and wrote for Embrace, which focuses on highlighting the voices of underrepresented students at IC. Rebecca hopes to publish in literary magazines and potentially write a book of her own.