Featured Publishing Professional: Arely Guzmán
As sent to Gianna Lakenauth
What made you decide to pursue publishing, specifically children’s editorial?
I've wanted to work with books since I was a child. I'd found refuge and escape and magic in books, and I wanted to be a part of it. During college, I applied for nearly forty different internships for agencies and imprints alike, and heard back from one, working for Steven Malk. After my first day was over, I was convinced that my dream job was working for children's publishing. I loved everything about it: the complex layers of children's storytelling, the supportive community of children's professionals and writers, and the impact it has on its readership. Not only do I love children's publishing, I believe in it and it's potential to generate change.
How do you think managers can be better advocates for retaining BIPOC employees?
I think the first step is being aware of the extra challenges that their BIPOC employees face as a community and how these can affect us in the workplace. I'd also encourage employers to see the cultural differences as an asset, rather than a challenge or something to be fixed.
What kind of stories and voices do you hope to acquire?
I want to acquire stories that will reverberate with the unseen communities, the intersections people rarely speak of—Black, Indigenous and Asian Latinxs stories, bicultural children, young boys with eating disorders, queer immigrants— but also fantastic stories for children who never saw themselves as protagonists— neurodivergent pirates, nonbinary merpeople, and fantasy realms based on non-European myths. Growing up feeling stuck between several different worlds, I found solace in books and would love to help children find stories that make them feel the same way.
In the past year we have been through a lot as a society. Did you find refuge in anything? How do you balance work with the weight of the world creeping in?
As an avid lifelong reader, I spent the first months completely unable to read. I spent that time instead trying to prioritize my mental health and focusing on my relationships with my family. Finding work-life balance was challenging and I haven't quite figured it out, but finding several strategies like creating routines and being patient with myself on not-so-great days has helped.
What is one book you have read in the past year that you cannot stop thinking about?
The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen. It was a complex exploration of personal and cultural mythologies, queerness and generational growth, a perfect coming-out and coming of age story.
Are you working on anything right now that you are especially excited about?
I'm so excited about Does My Body Offend You? by Mayra Cuevas and Marie Marquardt. It's a powerful story about friendship, privilege, and intersectional feminism that manages to be both a page-turner and a deep, complex exploration of gender and race.
Arely Guzmán is an editorial assistant at Knopf Books for Young Readers and Make Me a World. She grew up in the Tijuana-San Diego border, where she fell in love with reading as a little kid. She drinks too much tea but not enough water, enjoys deep conversations with her cat, and can't pronounce the word "burger."