Graduates

Bernadette Baker-Baughman

Background: Bernadette Baker-Baughman came to Portland in 2002 to complete her college degree. She was looking for internships with a number of various publishers when an editor at Beyond Words Publishing told her about the publishing program at PSU. She took several of the courses as an undergrad and then went on to complete the Master’s degree. When she was preparing to graduate from the program in 2005, three things happened that led Bernadette on her current career path. She met author Gabriel Boehmer, she spoke with an investor who wanted to start an agency with her, and she was introduced to Victoria Sanders, an agent who became Bernadette’s mentor and colleague in the book agent business. Two months after she had started Baker’s Mark, she met her business partner Gretchen Stelter. Bernadette’s background is in marketing and sales, and Gretchen’s is in editing and journalism, so it was an excellent match.

During her time at Ooligan Press, Bernadette worked on a number of titles, but the most memorable were The Weight of the Sun, Ricochet River, and Speaking Out. She says that the main difference between the outside world and the Ooligan world is that in the outside world, the demands of the market rule the decision-making. The publishing program allows a lot of room to be creative and innovative without having to answer to the demands of the marketplace. If Bernadette were to do it over again, she would take much greater risks in how she applied what she was learning to the books she was working on.

On how she got into agenting: “Like most people, I think I discovered it by accident. I really thought I wanted to be on the editorial side of things, but after experience in marketing and sales I found that I liked that side as well. Agenting appealed to me because it really relied on all of the aspects of publishing that I enjoyed.”

On internships: “I was an editorial intern first for Beyond Words Publishing and then for Collectors Press. I also volunteered for The Portland Review and The Grove Review. I would say that these were the most influential experiences during my education and they gave me an extraordinary amount of experience and training that was invaluable. I strongly encourage anyone who is in the publishing program to complete at least one internship while working on their graduate degree. Coupled with my education I was really able to test my knowledge and ability and found myself applying my education in very innovative ways.”

Advice for current students: “Ooligan is the one place where you truly get as much as you give. The resources of the Publishing Program at PSU are incredible. My advice would be to take as much advantage of the resources and experience offered by Ooligan as you can while you are in school.”

Karli Clift

Why did you choose publishing as a career? The answer to this question is often the same: I love to read. So when I asked Karli Clift, a native Portlander and an Ooligan graduate, why she decided to pursue publishing, I was not surprised to hear: because I have always been a reader. While in Japan teaching English, Karli learned of the Publishing Program at Portland State University. It was then that she realized reading could lead to a job—even a living.

Karli entered the program thinking that her primary focus would be editing. As with many students, however, it quickly became apparent that there are other steps within the publishing process, and she was interested in learning all that she could about them. Her curiosity led to her involvement in the Design and Acquisitions Workgroups. While working in Acquisitions, she played a large role in acquiring 42 by M. Thomas Cooper. And while in Design, one of her larger projects was designing the cover for Fort Clatsop: Rebuilding an Icon by The Daily Astorian.

Working at Ooligan Press and taking publishing classes provide graduate students with a rare experience. Students are involved with real life projects. Real authors. Real books. This was a reason why Karli did not pursue an internship during her time in the program. She notes that there is always enough Ooligan work to be done. Plus, students actually run the press and do things that many interns can only dream of doing.

Karli credits Ooligan for helping her develop the skills she needed to find a job after she graduated. When asked what she learned from Ooligan that carried into her professional life, she simply replied: everything. She went on to say that if it hadn’t been for the program, she would not have had the confidence to start Inklings—her own freelance editing, design, and indexing business. In addition, Karli recently became an Associate Editor at the Mighty Pen, another freelance editing business. Wanting to share the knowledge she gained from Ooligan, she has also taught a workshop about the publishing process for individuals who are not familiar with the industry. She would like to lead this workshop again. In her free time, Karli enjoys writing children’s books, which she hopes will be published someday.

Karli’s ultimate dream is to own a children’s book publishing company. In fact, she created Inklings with the original goal of learning how to run a startup. Building upon that experience, she would then start her own publishing house. She doesn’t know when or even if this venture will happen. However, if ten years from now Karli is still working from home and making her own schedule, she’ll be happy.

Karli would like to tell Ooligan students preparing for graduation to just be confident. She adds that Ooligan graduates have learned more than they think, and they have plenty of experience to tackle any jobs that come their way.

Audrey Coulthurst

Audrey Coulthurst, a graduate from the Publishing Program in March 2008, is now working as a Desktop Publishing Consultant for Dimensional Fund Advisors in Austin, Texas. In addition to her full-time schedule, she also works as a freelance proofreader, editor, and ad designer.

“I consider myself the unlikely designer,” she says. “When I started at PSU, if someone had told me I’d wind up specializing in design, I would have laughed. Strangely, I think I fell into it because it was the area I knew the least about. I was forced to learn a lot more in both software and concepts. As I became a better designer, I realized that my other talents served to strengthen those skills. My preexisting knowledge of proofreading and public relations was an enormous asset.”

Her job with Dimensional Fund Advisors involves compiling and designing books and presentations. Although she works for a financial firm rather than a publishing company, she says there are many similarities between her current job and her work for Ooligan Press. “Most notably, red tape, lack of comprehension regarding my sense of humor, and org structure that sometimes gets in the way of productivity,” she jokes. “But like Ooligan, there is constant change, and a lot of people putting effort in to improve both the system and the books produced.”

Audrey was initially attracted to the program while she was “bored and surfing the internet in corporate hell, hoping that there was something better to do with my life.” The program was convenient because it was located in her hometown of Portland, and the schedule permitted her to keep working; she kept her full-time schedule for all but the first three months she was in the program.

“I’d been involved in a writer’s group and also doing some freelance proofreading and writing in Austin, Texas, so expanding upon that experience was a good direction to take both academically and professionally,” she says.

Projects she worked on for Ooligan included marketing plan consolidation for Ft. Clatsop, ad design for Dreams of the West and Deer Drink the Moon, editing and marketing for Good Friday, and jacket design for Do Angels Cry?

She also took on an independent study in developmental editing. “Getting experience with a non-Ooligan book was a good way to add some variety to my studies,” she says.

Audrey says that the most valuable thing she gained while at Ooligan was her software skills. “Without my knowledge of InDesign and the other Creative Suite programs, I wouldn’t be able to do my current job at all—a job I enjoy. Also, something Ooligan reinforced was that to be successful, you need to know how to take criticism and respond positively to it, and be willing to implement the changes. All of my best work is work that other people gave me feedback on.”

Olivia Dunn

Olivia Dunn became interested in PSU’s Master’s in Publishing program while she was an undergrad in Karen Kirtley’s Book Editing course. While she’d always had a strong interest in editing, she’d been planning to get a Master’s in English lit. But, she decided to go in to discuss the program with Dennis Stovall. “When I found out that the Publishing program had a portfolio option, as well as offering applicable, on-the-job, real-world experience, I was hooked,” she says.

Now working as a publicist for Timber Press, Olivia first chose her focus in the publishing field while taking Michele McCann’s Children’s Book Publishing class, which included mock marketing plans and publicity tours. “As discussion swirled throughout the program it became more and more clear to me that the easiest way to break into publishing was through marketing, sales, and publicity,” she says, “and once I took the Marketing and Publicity course I decided that it suited me enough to want to pursue it further.”

While at Ooligan, she was in the work group for Survival League, by Gordan Nuhanović, and was the project/group manager for Zagreb, Exit South, by Edo Popović, and American Scream, by Dubravka Oraić Tolić.

As for differences between working for Ooligan and working in the professional publishing world, Olivia says that “besides the whole ‘getting paid and no homework’ thing, I think the greatest difference is the number of books I work with on a daily basis, and the fact that work doesn’t end when the term does.”

For her, the best part of the Ooligan experience was the people she met through her work. “Ooligan is great for networking, and creating relationships with people who genuinely encourage and help you to find work after, or even before, graduation,” she says. “My two Portland publishing jobs were due to friends and Ooligan staff who heard of positions opening and recommended me, or pushed me to apply.”

Abbey Gaterud

Assistant Publisher, Adjunct Faculty, Ooligan Press
Associate Editor & Marketing Director, Blueroad Press

After Abbey graduated with her Master’s in Publishing in 2007, she returned to Ooligan Press as adjunct faculty, becoming indispensable to students as a mentor, ally, and the high guru of production schedules. Abbey oversees the operations of Ooligan workgroups and teaches a popular course in publishing software. She has recently launched Blueroad Press with her father.

How did you choose your particular area of focus?
My first job out of college was working as a catalog manager for a knitting outfit in Vancouver, WA. I did all the layout and copywriting for them, which was a good way to learn the minutiae of InDesign. I had very basic skills in desktop publishing from high school and the yearbook, but really I hadn’t touched a computer design program for years until I got to that job. Come to think of it, I don’t know why they hired me. But they did and I worked there for just under a year. Ultimately, I was bored out of my mind in a cubicle, cutting and pasting all day, and somehow came across Ooligan. It sounded like an awesome thing to do, so I applied in October 2005 and started in January 2006. Since I had the technical skills, it seemed like I was most needed in design, so that’s where I started, and that’s where I stayed during my year and a half in the program.

Which books did you work on, and in what capacity?
Deer Drink the Moon, The Portland Red Guide, Dreams of the West, Fort Clatsop, a little with Classroom Publishing right at the beginning of their process, and since I’ve stayed at Ooligan, a little bit of everything since. The Red Guide and Dreams were the only two where I feel like I really drove their production, but at Ooligan you do a little here and there where you’re needed.

Were you an intern? If so, how did it contribute to your education?
I guess I was, but I never claimed it for credit. I designed a few chapbooks and did a little marketing for Kevin Sampsell at Future Tense Books. […] I got to send one of his authors on a radio tour across America, which was fun to set up, and pretty eye-opening to see that you can actually […] get someone on the radio in Ann Arbor, Michigan, if you just keep calling enough.

Can you share a disaster story?
Oh, I’m the queen of Ooligan disasters. If it was a problem, I probably did it or was involved somehow. One of the easiest to see is the Deer Drink the Moon cover. I had been in contact with the printer and they sent me the spine width like this: 19/32″ in a typewriter font so that it was spaced really loosely. I read it as one inch and nine thirty-seconds. It was just a disconnect in my brain, because anything over an inch as a spine width is huge and this was only a 256-page book. The real width was supposed to be nineteen thirty-seconds, just over a half inch. So, idiot that I am, the cover we sent to the printer had a huge spine, which they caught and when they sent the proofs back, they asked me if it was right. I realized what I had done, slapped myself on the forehead, and sent them a new file with the correct spine width. The tragedy is that somewhere along the line, they didn’t use the new file on the book. So if you look at Deer Drink the Moon, you’ll notice that both the front and back covers are totally off-center. It was awful to open those boxes of 3000 books when we got them back. But, lesson learned, and it doesn’t hurt quite so much now.

Where do you currently work?
Well, I work mainly at Ooligan Press as an adjunct. I organize the Studio and Lab classes, which basically means I’m the day-to-day manager of the press. Dennis has been kind enough to call me the assistant publisher, but that’s really just a nice gesture on his part. I also do freelance design and editing, more than I thought I would when I graduated, and I’m a nanny to pay the bills.

Last summer, my dad and I launched Blueroad Press with our first book, Stardust and Fate: The Blueroad Reader. It’s an anthology of work from thirty-eight writers and eight artists from around North America that explores the road and life around it. The road has a different meaning for each of the contributors, from the actual, literal road traveled, to a metaphorical, spiritual, or imaginary one. It’s been a ton of fun to meet this wide range of people and to develop friendships all over the country. It’s a great excuse to get on the road myself. We’re putting out our second book, Stompin’ at the Grand Terrace, a collection of poems by a wonderful guy, Philip Bryant, sometime this fall, with the second Blueroad Reader to follow shortly.

How has your experience with Ooligan Press informed your professional life?
Well, since I’m still around, doing the job I am at the press, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the experience at Ooligan. The ability to juggle a zillion things at once is essential anywhere though, and even more than that, I think the attitude at Ooligan, where we have to work so closely with others so much just to function day-to-day, really helps with life in general. Ooligan is a place where you have to learn to let go of a certain amount of control and just let things happen as they do. Students and faculty both work incredibly hard on every project we take on, but there’s a huge amount of trust and faith that you just have to have in your colleagues. It’s a pretty amazing environment and it’s helped me so much in dealing with freelance clients and just life in general.

How is the “outside” world different from or similar to Ooligan?
It’s much more of a hierarchy, which is good and bad. While it certainly allows daily tasks to be much more streamlined, you lose a lot of the input and control of the product you’re putting out. That’s one of the reasons I’ve stayed at Ooligan and then started my own press: I like to have a say in things and I’ve found from my previous professional experience that often you don’t get that unless you want to be in charge. I like to work with people, rather than for people, and this is a great place to do that.

What advice do you have to offer up-and-coming Ooligan students?
Get involved with the press right away. It’ll be daunting, I’m not going to lie, but it will be so worth it. I jumped right in at Ooligan and I knew more in just a quarter or two about every part of publishing than I could have gotten just going into a job at a company. Ooligan lets you see everything in the process and you get to direct the way the press moves and changes. It’s pretty amazing. So jump in, ask lots of questions, everyone’s really helpful. Oh, and read your handbook. It’ll help immensely with the everyday stuff.

Jodi Giddings

Freelance Designer and Editor, J.L. Giddings Design

Jodi graduated from PSU with her Master’s in Writing/Book Publishing in March, 2007. Since then, she has launched J.L. Giddings Design, a freelance design and editing operation run from her country home on “sixteen quiet acres” just outside of Banks, Oregon. Jodi first became attracted to Ooligan Press as an undergraduate at PSU, when Susan Applegate’s Book Design course inspired her to combine her love of writing with a newfound “passion for the art of book design.”

How did you choose your particular area of focus?
One of the last classes I attended when I was close to completing my undergraduate work was Susan Applegate’s book design course. Up until that point I’d focused primarily on my writing. I had taken two desktop publishing classes that focused more on magazine layouts. But Susan’s class was different, and I soon discovered that I loved designing books much more. I do enjoy editing, also (which Susan tells me is rare in the industry—for someone to have both skills), but designing I find a much more enjoyable outlet for my artistic side.

Which workgroups did you participate in?
The workgroups, as they are now, evolved as I was midway through the program. We had (I think) three groups, each of which was responsible for publishing a book or two at a time. So I was in charge of design for the book group (rather than the current “design group”). I did eventually join the design group, but by then I was nearly done with the program.

Which books did you work on, and in what capacity?

• The Broken Olive Branch (see “disaster” below!) – design
• The Weight of the Sun – design
• Deer Drink the Moon – marketing
• Fort Clatsop – design mentor

Were you an intern? If so, how did it contribute to your education?
Yes, I probably did too many internships! Excluding Literary Arts, I may have had more than half a dozen. The internships definitely contributed to my education, absolutely. I learned a lot about the complex process of bringing a book into publication from its infancy, including the process of getting the files prepared for print, collecting printer quotes, and reviewing/editing proofs. I also edited several of the books I worked on, which familiarized me with the books’ content, an invaluable asset in creating a complimentary design.

Can you share a disaster story?
That would be The Broken Olive Branch by Dr. Harry Anastasiou, the very first book I worked on for Ooligan. I was the head designer, but unfortunately we had an author who just didn’t know when to stop editing. We’d already created a lovely cover including artwork supplied by Harry’s wife, and I’d completely typeset all but one chapter when, after much unheeded pleading with the author from many sources, Ooligan made the difficult decision to kill BOB (a name affectionately coined by our workgroup). Needless to say, we were all disappointed. We’d spent months coming up with a cover, and even longer typesetting the book (I think it was in excess of 400 pages), all for naught. Maybe someday, someone will resurrect BOB.

Where do you currently work, and in what capacity?
I work freelance from my home, though I’m not terribly busy at the moment. I have a six-year-old daughter who just started elementary school last fall. She attends kindergarten in the morning, which leaves little time for much official work for me. I am working on a book for Dame Rocket Press (an imprint of Ink and Paper Group) called Give My Love to Everybody, which is due for publication this fall. I also design the anthologies for Literary Arts’ Writers in the Schools program. I have worked with them since 2004, when I began the publishing program. I’ll start on the next anthology in the fall, my fifth book with them.

How has your experience with Ooligan Press informed your professional life?
It’s helped me tremendously, particularly with industry networking. It really does take knowing someone to get started in this business. I know many of the people at Ink and Paper Group from the publishing program, and still others at various other publishers. I got my first two paying jobs partly because of recommendations from staff at Ooligan.

How is the “outside” world different from or similar to Ooligan?
Well, I think that because I did so many internships (design outside of Ooligan), that it really reflects the experience I had during my time in the program. I still do my own book quoting most of the time, and I prepare the files, but I also take lots of direction and input from whoever it is I’m working with on what they’d like to see in the design, just like in the Ooligan workgroups. It’s always a collaboration, and almost never goes as planned!

What advice do you have to offer up-and-coming Ooligan students?
I think Ooligan is a completely unique program. Students have so much freedom to learn about the industry (at least in my experience) on their own that it’s completely different from what you typically do as an overstressed undergraduate. So I’d say that given the program’s relaxed nature, it can be easy to get lazy. But pour everything you have into it, and you’ll get more back than you can ever put in. Making [a book] is like raising a child. You receive it in its infancy, grow it, nurture it, mature it, and when it’s just the right time, you release its beauty into the world for all to see. What could be more rewarding than that?

Marie Hix

Assistant to the President/Editor-in-Chief at
Beyond Words Publishing

Marie Hix has always been fascinated by books, and it was when she was finishing up her BA in English that she took Dennis’ Intro to Book Publishing class and “was hooked” by Ooligan. It was then that “the combination of art and business, creativity and structure that merges to create a book” really reeled her in.

During her time in the program, Marie did editing work on The Portland Red Guide, Deer Drink the Moon, Dreams of the West, Ft. Clatsop: Rebuilding an Icon, and Tillamook 1952. Editing was the natural choice for her, coming from a literature background, but she also enjoys writing, especially when working with people in publicity, sales, or marketing, “the idea people.” One of the most important things that Marie has taken away from her days at Ooligan is “the collaboration, the sense that you have to step forward and really put yourself out there and help in a wide variety of ways.”

Wide variety is something that she knows a lot about. Working at Beyond Words Publishing—a small company, but a partner with Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster—Marie gets the benefits that come from working in a close-knit group as well as the benefits that come from working on a larger scale with people all across the country. Describing her job as the assistant to the President/Editor-in-Chief, she says “I basically review and organize all incoming submissions, draft contract paperwork, write tip sheets, draft white sheets, and read manuscripts for review and provide editorial recommendations. I also work with our managing editor, and occasionally support publicity.” And she got this job, as a self-described Jill-of-all-trades, when only halfway through the program! “In my job, literally every day, I use something I learned directly from the course. It is so practical, fresh, and applicable.”

Bo Björn Johnson

Bo Björn Johnson, Publisher of Bowler Hat Comics, left his job in Oklahoma as an editor for mathematical textbooks and moved to Oregon in 2005. He had always planned on moving to the Northwest, but it was Portland State’s publishing program that motivated him to finally do so.

While at Portland State, Bo worked on several Ooligan titles: The Portland Red Guide, You Have Time for This,and 42. The most work he did on an Ooligan title was for Artless. Bo did the clean-up edit and copyedit and also served as the marketing lead during the pre-release period. His time working in the press has taught him many things. “Involvement in the workgroups is a student’s bread and butter—get involved,” Bo said. “Try to contribute to each aspect of book production for the diverse experience, but don’t do it all for the same book. Doing the production, editing, and marketing all for the same book brings an emotional attachment to the book that isn’t necessarily healthy for the book. Publishing is a collaborative process.”

While taking classes and working at Ooligan, Bo learned of several aspects of publishing, giving him the confidence and knowledge necessary to pursue comics publishing. “There’s no other experience like [Ooligan]. If you love publishing and want a career in books, there’s no better start.”

Bo also mentioned that there has been a steep learning curve regarding how the business of publishing actually works in a small press. As a co-founder of Ink & Paper Group and the Publisher of Bowler Hat Comics, Bo is not only concerned with editing and design, but also with numbers. “[Ooligan is] somewhat insulated from the realities of the business of publishing. In some ways it’s an advantage for Ooligan, because students can really get experimental with things like book design and marketing.” But outside Ooligan, there are other concerns to be considered.

“Publishing isn’t exactly a stable business… But I work with exceptional people, and our dedication is strong. We can build a company with a strong reputation, and that will be the key to our success.”

Vinnie Kinsella

Vinnie Kinsella teaches Book Editing at PSU. Many of us have taken his class. He also owns a business and has two websites that advertise his skills. One is www.declarationediting.com and the other is www.declarationdesign.com; this latter site is under construction, and he has not marketed it.

“Why Declaration Editing and Design?” I asked him when we sat down in April for this interview.

“Everything that you publish is, in my opinion, a form of a declaration,” he said. Therefore, his focus and his mission statement revolve around helping people to declare what they really want to declare. “My slogan is, ‘Say it like you mean it.’” His philosophy is that his job as an editor is to help the author say what he really means to say—to get his message across the way that he wants to get it across—and he thinks that this philosophy applies to both editing and design.

His company is doing well. He recently brought in an associate editor. He also loves teaching—watching people grow not just in skill, but also in confidence. Self-confidence grows, he says. This is the most valuable thing to him—to know that he played a part in helping someone to increase their confidence.

He wants to build his business, adding more associates. He expects to work with more authors, and eventually start his own publishing company—a separate entity. He has selected an intern to assist him with projects such as his poetry anthology. For summer, he plans to start a flash fiction anthology—stories of fewer than 500 words generally, though some might be 750 to 1,000 words—a collection that he expects will become a regular feature of his business. He also wants to be able to connect with editors in the area and convince them to open up more internships.

While he was in college, Vinnie did an internship with the Vancouver Business Journal—owned by the Daily Journal of Commerce. He also worked for KGW.com—Channel 8 on line. He wrote and edited news stories for the web site. However, he stated, “At Ooligan, I got more experience as a workgroup leader than I did during my two internships as an undergraduate.” He feels that the work at Ooligan is much more thorough.

He’s been doing design for years, and finally decided to make newsletters, company brochures, and documents. He did this work for pay when he was earning his BA in Humanities at Washington State University in Vancouver, Washington (WSU). His Humanities degree holds a primary emphasis in English (most of his classes in this area were writing classes) and history. He obtained a professional writing certificate from WSU Vancouver, but the school didn’t offer a degree in writing.

Vinnie is fundamentally a writer. He has always written—mostly nonfiction work. He prefers to write in the creative nonfiction genre.

During early childhood, Vinnie lived in central California—near Modesto—in an agricultural community characterized by orchards for a variety of crops, especially almonds. In fact, one of Blue Diamond’s factories was located there.

When he came to Ooligan Press, his skills lent him to editing. While an undergraduate at WSU Vancouver, he was the editor of the student newspaper, The VanCougar—a publication that came out once every other week. He started there as a reporter, but within two weeks, the assistant editor quit. The editor knew him, knew his work, and promoted him instantly. Soon, however, the editor quit school, and Vinnie was asked to rescue the paper mid-quarter, which he did. He was also working on campus as a writing tutor, and taking writing classes, and reading and responding to writers’ work. He was able to put a name to this process: editor. He knew that he wanted this work to be his vocation.

Six months after graduation, he did informational interviews regarding editing work. While interviewing a woman at Literary Arts, he asked how to break in to the publishing world. The woman recommended that Vinnie talk with Dennis Stovall; this was right after Ooligan Press and the Publishing Program started at PSU. Vinnie ultimately enrolled in the program, later graduating in 2006. He turned thirty this May. He noted the three main things from the Ooligan program that helped him:

1. Ooligan helped him to demystify the publishing world; it showed him how to break in to a career in this arena.
2. The program gave him confidence in his skills and showed him that he was on the right track.
3. Ooligan helped him to build the connections that he needed to enter this seemingly closed off realm of publishing.

While a student in the Publishing Program, Vinnie helped edit The Survival League. Later, his cover design was selected for American Scream. The author had sent the photo in and really wanted it on the cover; Vinnie and his team decided to honor her request. The picture is from a Croatian art exhibit and features blindfolded dummies that depict Croatians—it’s a political commentary. The artwork is by Miroslav Šutej. It’s called “Covered Eyes.” Vinnie played around with not having the image (namely, the dummies), be the prominent design, but still having it there in a muted form within its depiction of lines, boxes, and colors. He received inspiration from one of his favorite artists, Piet Mondrian. He tied the cover in with The Survival League by using the exact shade of red—both are Croatian books. Zagreb Exit South doesn’t have the red color. Vinnie participated in a book release party and some marketing for this book.

He helped edit Speaking Out. And as a member of the acquisitions team, he helped acquire The Portland Red Guide, José Builds a Woman, and Deer Drink the Moon. He participated in early acquisition group decisions about Do Angels Cry—the fourth Croatian book, which Katrina Hill acquired. He copyedited this book in Fall, 2007, at a point when he had become an instructor in the publishing program. Thus, the book came full circle for Vinnie.

The tips that he would pass on are as follows:

• Be as involved as you possibly can be (leaning more toward workgroups). You’re building a portfolio and skills that will make you very appealing to the publishing world. You’re learning in two years what would take you ten years to acquire in the actual world. You can avoid many mistakes. It’s a very compact program. When you start a job, you’re starting with the experience of someone who has been around for five to ten years, easily.
• Try different things, even things you don’t think you’re going to like.
• Familiarize yourself with local publishing events to make connections with potential authors, events, and clients. Get your foot in the publishing world.
• Don’t be afraid to admit that you don’t know. For example, while editing, if you come across a problem that you don’t know how to treat, you can advise the author that you are not sure, but that you will look it up in your grammar books and resources. This is much better than acting like you’re ‘God’s gift to grammar and a know-it-all.’ There’s a difference between being a guru and a professional. Then authors can trust you to research and come back with the correct answer about grammar, things about the industry, and trends. This is an important lesson.

What is the difference between Ooligan and the real world? “You get paid,” he said, laughing. “In a weird way, Ooligan is starting to become the hub of Portland publishing. Volunteer for the conferences, if that’s the only way that you can get in. Go to launch parties. Network.” Vinnie describes himself as a natural networker.

Stefan Lombard

Stefan Lombard has always had two passions—cars and writing. As the managing editor of Sports Car Market, he’s lucky enough that his job involves both.

Stefan and his wife moved to Portland in search of something new. Stefan got the itch to go back to school and so he discovered the Portland State Publishing Program and thought it was a great opportunity, “the chance to take writing classes while also learning about the business of writing.”

Along the way, Stefan wanted to try it all, to do as much as possible within the program. To that end, he worked as an editor on The Weight of the Sun, The Survival League, and Speaking Out. He also worked on marketing and proofreading Ricochet River. He was even present the day the first box of Ricochet River arrived from the printer.

During his time at Ooligan, Stefan had two internships. At Timber Press, he spent three months filing author press clippings, sending out review copies, posting choice blurbs on the web site, and doing various odd jobs. His interest in cars and magazines led Stefan to volunteer at Portland’s very own car magazine, Sports Car Market. While an intern, he performed various editorial duties and published two articles. By staying in contact with the magazine, he got an editorial job with them as soon as he graduated.

Stefan credits Ooligan with helping him develop his work ethic. “The master’s program—even in its relative infancy at the time—challenged me not only to work hard for myself, but to work to build the program as well. I guess I saw how passionate Dennis was, as well as the other folks guiding the program, and I was thrilled to be a part of that in its early stages.”

Now that Stefan is experiencing life after Ooligan, he’s realized that the program and the “real world” are quite similar. “The chaos is there, as are being short on funds and taking advantage of contacts for other, newer opportunities. What I learned at Ooligan I’ve built on in my professional life, and the benefits are quite rewarding (even if the pay isn’t).”

Ali McCart

Senior Editor of Indigo Editing & Publications
Publisher of Ink-Filled Page quarterly literary journal

Ali McCart grew up around words, specifically working in the printshop that her parents owned and ran out of their house. They published a quarterly travel journal and paid her to saddle-stitch them before she could even read. During high school and college, Ali discovered that she enjoyed helping others make their writing better more than the process of writing her own works. Thus editing seemed like a good fit. She came to PSU’s publishing program on Craig Lesley’s recommendation—he had been her writing professor at Willamette.

While at PSU, her favorite and most useful experiences came through the Ooligan workgroups. She said, “It was an incredible experience to know I was doing work not just for credit but to produce these wonderful things called books. I loved working with the authors, and it was great to see the designers and marketers in our groups getting all those details solidified too. We worked together to brainstorm dingbat designs, vote on cover designs, and compile marketing ideas. I feel a great sense of pride for all the books I worked on because I made the decision to get so involved.”

She worked on many books, including Ricochet River, Mugshots, The Survival League, Speaking Out, and Zagreb, Exit South, and she was on the acquisitions committee for José Builds a Woman, Dreams of the West, and The Portland Red Guide. Ali also had internships at Tualatin Riverkeepers and Collectors Press. She highly recommends the internship experience. She was also a bookseller at Borders and says, “While I technically got paid for that, it wasn’t much, so I consider it an internship.”

Once graduated, Ali continued to work with authors she had met through Ooligan Press and started her own freelance editing company, Indigo Editing & Publications. Everything she learned during the program has been useful for her, in one way or another. Even though she doesn’t design books, she does oversee it, and it helps to know about the process. She also uses marketing skills to evaluate trends in the market and pass that knowledge on to her clients. In addition, she uses basic PR skills to grow her business.

Indigo Editing & Publications publishes a literary journal, Ink-Filled Page, and offers a quarterly internship to help with this process. The website, indigoediting.com, also features new literary events in Portland, a weekly editing tip, and book reviews.

Ali says that the “real world” feels faster-paced than Ooligan did, primarily because now she is only involved with the editing part of the process. Other than that, her experiences at PSU were invaluable. As advice to future students, she says, “Do all the hands-on work you can—whether in workgroups or through internships. I see a lot of students get wide-eyed when they think about workgroups because it seems like too much responsibility too fast, but it’s the best way to learn. The more you do as a student, the better prepared you’ll be as a professional.”

Linda Meyer

COO at Ink & Paper Group, Publisher of Three Muses Press,
and Chief Editor at Ink & Paper Group

Linda Meyer always knew that she loved words. She grew up in Minnesota, but by the time she heard about Ooligan Press and the book publishing program—from a small write-up in the Portland State University alumni magazine—she was already living in Oregon. The choice to attend was a no-brainer, but she didn’t jump into the deep end right away; instead, she signed up for Dennis Stovall’s Introduction to Publishing class so that she could get a feel for the program’s curriculum.

On the first day of the class, however, she knew she was hooked. She signed up for the program and, gradually, fell in love with editing. She took all the editing classes that Ooligan had to offer. She also became involved in many of the workgroups. She handled acquisitions and marketing on José Builds a Woman, but focused mainly on the Croatian titles. On Survival League she did interior design and was senior editor; on Zagreb, Exit South she was lead editor and proofreader, and assisted in the design; and on American Scream she was senior editor. About her experience with Ooligan and the publishing program, Linda says, it “gave me a good grounding in publishing ‘generalism.’ I can edit, I can design—I can publish.” She started freelance editing while she was still working toward her degree and occasionally still does work for the company that first hired her.

For Linda, the program was also about building relationships. In her opinion, Ooligan is “a network and a fabulous support mechanism” and Dennis is “an amazing resource.” (She says that any time she has a question, she shoots Dennis an email.) The workgroups are a great way to build connections with people who work in the industry; Linda became good friends with Julienne Buŝić, the translator of The Survival League, while in the Croatian literature workgroup. Julienne later edited a book for the former Ink & Paper Group imprint Grey Sunshine Press.

Currently, Linda is the publisher of Three Muses Press, an imprint of Ink & Paper Group. She is also the editor and the chief operations officer (COO) of Ink & Paper Group. In her capacity as COO, she coordinates the classes that Ink & Paper Group offers, runs the intern program, and generally makes sure that things at Ink & Paper run smoothly. For most of the day, she “wears her COO hat.” When she graduated, she “had no intention of starting a publishing imprint,” and intended to work with Ink & Paper Group—a publishing company which was formed by four Ooligan graduates, including Linda—only as an editor. The group realized that they would benefit from a literary imprint, however, and Linda was tapped to be a publisher; thus, Three Muses Press was born. The imprint has achieved success with its most recent title, Keeper of Secrets…Translations of an Incident. She says that her experience at Ooligan prepared her for the everyday activities of a publisher, and gave her a good understanding of the technical elements of the field. She suggests that all students take the Publications Management course, which gives students an overview of the practical aspects of running a press, and was not a part of the curriculum when she attended. (She also plans to attend the course when it is offered in the fall.)

Irene Ridgway

Irene Ridgway’s afternoon break is the highlight of her workday. It’s not that she dislikes her job—it’s the best one she’s ever had. It’s just that for an American working in a largely British office in Germany, it doesn’t stop being funny that, “no matter what stage of production we are in, we always break at 15:00 for Tea Time.”

Leisure wasn’t as carefully scheduled into Irene’s routine when she was a graduate student in the PSU Book Publishing Program, dividing her extracurricular time between work at The Tidal Wave Used Bookstore in Northeast Portland and acquiring a translation of the German book, Best Dancer, for Ooligan Press.

Irene came to PSU and Ooligan after teaching English in Germany and realizing she wanted to make more use of her interest in communication. The fact that the program was in her hometown and would allow her to be close to her friends and family was “definitely a selling point.”

Once she returned to Portland, Irene jumped right into her work at Ooligan. In addition to the acquisition of Best Dancer, she also helped to edit You Have Time for This and The Portland Red Guide.

The work she did on those books and the editing classes in which she developed her skills have served her the most in her career; her job in Germany—the one she takes the tea breaks from—is for a mostly English teen magazine called Spot On. It took Irene nine months to get a job there as an editor, mostly because no one seemed to “believe an American could actually speak German,” but after only three months she has been promoted to lead-journalist. This advance is due, among other things, to Irene’s thorough understanding of the whole publishing industry and her ability to facilitate communication between departments—things she credits to her classes at PSU. Whether it is keeping an eye out for misplaced modifiers or contacting authors about revisions, “having the hands-on experience with real projects [at Ooligan] gives you the confidence that you need in a professional situation.”

While Irene plans to stay with the publishing industry, the specifics of her future in the field are unknown: “I think more varied freelance would be fun, more of my own work. But I also like working in the office with a team. I could see myself having more responsibility in a similar situation…but the flexibility is also tempting.”