Open Book 2024 interns announced
The successful interns for the 2024 Open Book: Australian Publishing Internship have been announced.
Chosen from over 320 applications, the 2024 interns are Olivia Garcia, Tayla Goodman and Nashin Mahee.
Garcia, who will undertake placements at UNSW/NewSouth and Hachette Australia, moved from Aotearoa New Zealand to Argentina before settling in Sydney, where she grew up immersed in languages and stories. Garcia completed a postgraduate degree in editing and publishing at UTS, where she was involved with student publications. Being raised in a Spanish-speaking home, she values the importance of unique voices in the stories we share. She also loves getting involved in literary events and communities—always looking for her next favourite read despite an endless TBR pile. Through publishing, she hopes to explore her passion for stories that transform, impact and inspire.
Goodman, who will be undertaking placements at Allen & Unwin and Ultimo Press, is an Indigenous woman from Sydney. She is currently completing a business administration certificate at TAFE. She is an avid reader and loves to track her reading goals and achievements on Goodreads and other platforms. She has always wanted to work with books and is interested in all areas of publishing, especially sales and editorial.
Mahee, who will be undertaking placements at Affirm Press and Cambridge University Press, is a proud Bengali-Australian Muslim woman who loves all things arts and culture. She loves reading literary fiction, history, and speculative fiction. Currently undertaking the Master of Creative Writing, Editing and Publishing degree at the University of Melbourne, Mahee believes that storytelling is the most natural way of preserving human history and discovery. She aims to champion diversity of representation in the publishing industry by combining her lived experience with the transcendent power of storytelling. Presently, Mahee is the MZ Blog editor for Grattan Street Press and spends most of her free time reading, café-hopping and eating pastries.
The 2024 interns will be supported during their placements by Open Book mentor and digital business manager at Pan Macmillan Australia Olivia Whenman.
Open Book program manager Rebecca Slater said the program organisers were ‘blown away by the number and calibre of applicants this year’ and encouraged any hiring publishers to contact Open Book, which has ‘an outstanding cohort of job-ready shortlistees’.
Launched in 2021, the Open Book paid internship program is a joint sector initiative which ‘aims to foster cultural and linguistic diversity in the Australian publishing industry’.
Last year’s recipients were Enchinea Close-Brown, Keerthana Ravindran and Isabelle Webb.
Pictured (L–R): Olivia Garcia, Tayla Goodman and Nashin Mahee.
Category: Local news
