25th Trillium Award

Behind the Books, with Kaley Stewart: Part 2

 
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Kaley Stewart

Read Part One of Kaley's Behind the Books interview here.

When we think of the people behind the books we love, we generally think of writers. But many people work in a variety of professions to get those books onto your shelves. In our new series, Behind the Books, Open Book speaks with the printers, publicists, book sellers, book bloggers, event programmers and many others who work in the publishing industry.

Kaley Stewart has had a lifetime love affair with books, and it's one she hopes to continue with a career in the book industry. Her passion for reading led to the launch of Books Etc., her popular book review blog, in November 2010. Kaley is working on a publishing certificate from Ryerson University to complement her communications studies degree from Wilfrid Laurier University and her event management diploma from Conestoga College. In her free time, she enjoys playing with her bunny, Tonks, discovering new authors (especially Canadian ones), and meeting other book lovers.

In the second of her Behind the Books interviews, Kaley talks about her time as an intern with Project Bookmark Canada. Project Bookmark Canada places text from poems and stories in the actual physical spaces they occupy in literary works. As we learn in this interview, her experience as an intern with Project Bookmark gave Kaley many opportunities to explore some of the fine Canadian Literature the organization commemorates. And perhaps a few of those books will show up in Kaley's excellent blog, Books Etc..

Open Book:

How long did you intern for Project Bookmark Canada?

Kaley Stewart:

I was an intern at Project Bookmark Canada for 12 weeks from April to June.

OB:

What did an average work day look like for you?

KS:

I researched literary initiatives that were similar to Project Bookmark, did dedicated reading to discover potential Bookmarks, communicated with publishers regarding publicity copies or prizes and performed various administrative duties. With this internship I was working mostly from home but every other week or so I would travel to Hamilton to work with Executive Director Miranda Hill at her home office.

OB:

What was the best thing about your internship?

KS:

Reading was definitely my favourite part of this internship. I hadn?t read a lot of Can Lit prior to working with Miranda so getting the chance to read 20 novels set in one specific Canadian city was great.

OB:

Tell us about a memorable work experience.

KS:

Actually seeing some of the Bookmarks after reading the novels was a really eye-opening experience. I had seen the Midland one before (since that?s my hometown) but it didn?t mean as much until I read the book. Reading all these books with concrete locations and being able to see these locations made me realize exactly how important Project Bookmark and Canadian literature are.

OB:

When you were a kid, what was your dream job?

KS:

I wasn?t one of those kids who knew what she wanted to do when she grew up (and I always wonder if that?s my problem today?). I loved scribbling in notebooks and reading but had no idea what I could do with that. I also went through a brief phase of wanting to be in the WNBA!



For more Behind The Books interviews, please visit the Open Book Archives.

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