Harriet lands dream editorial job thanks to uni’s course
A CREATIVE Writing graduate from Edge Hill University is continuing to write her own future, landing a dream job at a Liverpool publishing company.
Harriet Hirshman, who gained a first-class BA (Hons) degree in Creative Writing and an MA in Creative Writing, has started a new job with fantasy fiction and sci-fi publishers, Heroic Books.
Her new role as Editorial and Production Manager sees her working with a host of authors, guiding them through the various stages of publishing, which allows her “countless opportunities for creativity”.
She said: “It’s incredible to have found a publishing job in Liverpool. The industry is painfully London-centric and trying to find a job outside of the capital can be quite disheartening. I lost my last publishing job because of the Covid pandemic, so finding a job at an exciting new start-up was an absolute dream.”
She says her time at Edge Hill equipped with the skills and knowhow to land her dream job and she embraced everything the university had to offer.
Harriet said: “Before I’d even decided on a career in publishing, studying Creative Writing allowed me to develop my editorial skills massively. I took advantage of as many opportunities as I could at Edge Hill.
“I flew to Michigan to complete a short internship with the Ann Arbor Film Festival, I had an internship with Edge Hill University Press and also The Edge Hill Short Story Prize. I also worked on the university’s literary journal, the Black Market Re-View, initially as the short story editor, and then as the editor-in-chief.”
As an intern, Harriet gained handson experience of working with an established publishing company to produce Head Land: 10 years of The Edge Hill Short Story Prize, a collection of short fictions by highly soughtafter fiction writers. The project culminated in a series of a high-profile events around the country including the Edinburgh Book Festival, leading her to pursue a career in the publishing industry.
Harriet said: “I fell in love with publishing when I first experienced the process of nurturing something from just an idea to a published book. Seeking out further opportunities gave me an invaluable view of the industry. Having worked with authors, publishers, agents and journalists, they became people that I was able to reach out to.”