Name: Sarah Olson
Position: Project Editor
Hometown: Plainfield, IL.
Alma Mater: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Tell us a little bit about your position at the press.
As a project editor in the Editing department, I am responsible for managing a portion of new projects each season as well as supervising all of our paperback reprints. I work with a project from the time it is launched as an unedited manuscript until it is printed as a book.
What’s one of your favorite UPK titles and why?
I have always enjoyed The Prince of Jockeys: The Life of Isaac Burns Murphy by Pellom McDaniels III, which happens to be one of the first UPK books I ever read!
If someone was visiting Kentucky for the first time and you were their tour guide, where would you take them? Any specific restaurants, landmarks, etc.?
Maybe it’s because I’m from the flatlands of Illinois, but I tend to take visiting guests out to either the Red River Gorge or the Cumberland Falls area for some hiking or kayaking. Within Lexington, I love showing off horse country—I was captivated by the rolling green hills the first time I ever flew into Lexington! I also tend to take visitors to Great Bagel because I have a sick obsession.
What’s your favorite word?
I honestly can’t say that I have a favorite word.
Do you have a favorite font? If so, what is it?
Hmm, I think Garamond.
Did you always know you wanted to work in publishing? When you were a kid, did you want to do something different as an adult?
I have always been drawn to a career with books in some capacity.
What’s something most people don’t know about you? What’s a random factoid about yourself?
I have been volunteering with a local nonprofit specializing in youth mentorship, therapeutic horsemanship, and horseback riding for a little over two years and I absolutely love it.
If you could bring any fictional character to life, who would you choose?
That is a tough call, but my gut instinct says Ron Swanson.
What was the last book you read? Would you recommend it? Why or why not?
I am currently finishing up Not that Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture, edited by Roxane Gay. It is compelling and I highly recommend it.
If you could live in any TV show, what would it be and why?
Friends. I saw my first episode a few years ago (after assuming I wouldn’t like the show), and have been hooked ever since.
If you could try out any job for a day, what would you like to try?
If I were to do anything else as a job, I would definitely want to do something that involves working with children.
