English Alumni In Publishing

In celebration of the recent launch of the Publishing Certificate at UGA, the English Department, The Georgia Review, and the University of Georgia Press are hosting an Alumni Working in Publishing Panel on Wednesday, April 1st, at 3 p.m. in Park Hall room 265. This event is sponsored by the Willson Center and is part of the UGA Humanities Festival.  The event is free and open to the public.

We are thrilled to feature four accomplished English Department alumni on the panel:

Carrie Olivia Adams - Carrie Olivia Adams lives in Chicago, where she is the executive editor for the nonprofit, indie press Black Ocean and the Promotions and Marketing Communications Director for the University of Chicago Press. She is the author of five full-length poetry collections, The Book of Marys and Glaciers (Tupelo 2026); Be the thing of memory (Tolsun Books  2021); Operating Theater (Noctuary Press 2015); Forty-One Jane Doe's (book and companion DVD, Ahsahta 2013); and Intervening Absence (Ahsahta 2009) in addition to the chapbooks  "Proficiency Badges" (Meeking Press 2020); "Grapple" (above/ground press 2017); "Overture in the Key of F" (above/ground press 2013); and "A Useless Window" (Black Ocean 2007).  She is the curator of the Poetry & Biscuits house reading series, and when she's not making poetry, she's likely making biscuits.

CJ Bartunek - C.J. Bartunek is a writer, editor, and photographer living in Athens, Georgia. Her writing has appeared in Oxford American, The Christian Science Monitor, Pacific Standard, and elsewhere. Managing editor of the literary journal The Georgia Review, she holds a PhD in English from the University of Georgia and an MFA from UGA’s graduate program in narrative nonfiction through the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. She is the Managing Editor and Nonfiction Editor at the Georgia Review.

Laura Theobald - Laura Theobald is a production editor at the University of Georgia Press and an English PhD candidate contemplating a creative dissertation at UGA. She is the author of three full-length poetry collections—Salad Days (Maudlin House, 2021), Kokomo (Disorder Press, 2019), and What My Hair Says About You (Metatron, 2017)—plus three chapbooks: Edna Poems (Lame House Press, 2016), The Best Thing Ever (Boost House, 2015), and eraser poems (H_ngm_n Books, 2014). She received an MFA from LSU, where she served as Managing Editor of the New Delta Review. Her poetry has appeared in jubilat, HTML Giant, The Volta, Hobart, The Atlas Review, Everyday Genius, Big Lucks, and Black Warrior Review, among others, and in anthologies including Women of Resistance (O/R Books, 2018). She is currently working on a fourth poetry collection and a work of autofiction. 

Laura Usselman - Laura Usselman is a literary agent at the Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency, where she represents narrative and idea-driven nonfiction and select literary fiction. Some of her notable clients include Sofi Thanhauser, winner of the Whiting Award and author of Worn: A People’s History of Clothing (Pantheon); Kaitlyn Tiffany, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of Everything I Need I Get From You (FSG) and the forthcoming The Housewives Underground (Crown); Katherine Blunt, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for her work at the Wall Street Journal and author of the bestselling California Burning (Portfolio); Zoë Schiffer, who leads the business newsroom at WIRED and is the author of Extremely Hardcore : Inside Elon Musk’s Twitter (Portfolio); and Soraya Palmer, whose novel The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts (Catapult) was a finalist for the PEN Open Book Award and winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Before joining SKLA, Laura earned her MFA in Fiction at Virginia Tech and worked in the marketing department of Cambridge University Press. A native of Atlanta and an alum of the University of Georgia, she lives with her spouse and her three daughters in Decatur, Georgia.

Each panelist will talk a little about their professional journey and current role, before answering questions from the panel moderator and panel attendees.