Meet our marketing intern, Annie Burkhart!

1. What brings you to Lerner?

I just finished my final semester at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota. I graduated with a B.A. in literature. When my academic adviser suggested this internship, I jumped at the opportunity to be a part of getting books into kids’ hands! My plan from here is to attend graduate school and earn my PhD in literary studies and become a professor, but I may possibly end up in the publishing world now that I have had this exposure to it.

2. Describe a day in the life of a marketing intern.

When I get to the office, I always pick right up where I left the last day in terms of projects. I actually have not felt that I have had much of a “typical day” here; I am always doing new and exciting types of projects. Lately I’ve been putting together Power Points for webinars. I’ve also done a good bit with coordinating mailings, compiling data, writing press releases, publishing reviews for our titles on various databases… all sorts of things!

3. What are you reading now?

I’m currently reading The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, A Queer and Pleasant Danger by Kate Bornstein, Although of Course You End up Becoming Yourself by David Lipsky, and The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket. (I want to finish re-reading the latter series before watching the television series!)

4. What’s your best source for finding new book recommendations?

Simple: my dad and my mom. The recommendations never stop coming, and they are always excellent!

5. What are your five favorite books?

Middlemarch by George Eliot, Stoner by John Williams, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, and Sula by Toni Morrison

6. Name some of your icons.

Sylvia Rivera, Kate Bornstein, Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Laverne Cox, Judith Butler—to name only a few. I really look up to women who stand up for (trans)gender issues and the furthering of feminism, women’s causes, and gender causes.

7. What is your ideal vacation?

Anywhere with mountains and independent bookstores.

8. Who is your celebrity doppelgänger?

People tell me that I look like a hybrid of The Devil Wears Prada-era Anne Hathaway and Juno-era Ellen Page. I’ll take it!