Georgetown University Press, our esteemed publisher, was named by Book Business Magazine among the top ten best book publishing companies to work for in the United States, ranking #3 on the list. GU Press is certainly in good company on this list as the only academic publisher among a slate of well-known companies such as Chronicle Books and Random House. So why is GU Press a great place to work? Here’re director Richard Brown’s reasons:
Our publishing program is consonant with principles underlying Georgetown University—intellectual openness, an international character, and a commitment to justice and the common good. All of that tends to attract publishing professionals who care about ideas and their impact on the world. We love what we do, and we have fun doing it.
Sherry and I extend our congratulations (and thanks, of course) to Richard and the rest of the great GU Press staff for this well-deserved honor. We also extend the idea to you, dear Working World readers, of publishing as a possible international career. Not only are the ideals of the publishing world similar to those we espouse in the fields of international education, exchange, and development (as Richard explains above), but you also get to work with an international slate of authors and possibly take some trips abroad from time to time too.
UPDATE: I neglected to mention that the weather in Beijing has been incredibly strange. When we arrived on Tuesday night, the smog was so bad that it had drifted into the airport and our hotel, giving everything a hazy feel and campfire smell. You could actually taste the pollution. But by Wednesday morning, a nice northwesterly wind from the Gobi had cleared it all out and gave us a brilliant, sunny (albeit very cold) day. I’ll post a picture when I actually get around to downloading some from my camera.
UPDATE #2: The rest of our time in Beijing was marked by clear and sunny skies. Five days in a row of clear skies in winter is, from what I gather, pretty much a miracle in Beijing. It makes the city a pretty pleasant place to be, that’s for sure, even if the bitter winds sometimes made me want to curl up and cry. Here’s the famous Bird’s Nest, first back from my visit in June on a normal, smoggy day, then from last Wednesday on a cold and sunny day. The difference is not un-noticeable:
