Hello! I’m Olivia and I’m excited to be joining the BookNet team as the Marketing & Research Intern! I’ll primarily be working on the The state of publishing in Canada 2025 report that will be released later this year.
A bit about me: I’m from Halifax, Nova Scotia, where I studied English, History, and German at the University of King’s College.
I’ve worked as a bookseller for almost seven years; I started out working seasonally at that big, unnamed bookstore chain before moving to the cozy independent bookstores where I spent most of my time. I loved being able to connect with readers and authors and play a small part in building the local literary community.
I originally planned to pursue teaching, until a summer class — Editing & Publishing — reminded me why I had chosen to study English to begin with: I wanted to work with books and the people who create them. That realization took me to the complete opposite coast, to Vancouver where I am completing the Master of Publishing program at Simon Fraser University.
Coming from the bookselling side of things, I’m interested in how information moves from publishers to distributors to booksellers, and how that communication can be improved. I love seeing reading and publishing trends take shape firsthand on the bookshop floor, so I’m a bit of a nerd for those bookseller observations reflected in BookNet’s sales data.
I’m also a co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of Bitter Magazine, a literary magazine publishing experimental work with feminist, horror, and speculative leanings. Unsurprisingly, I enjoy weird literary fiction, especially literature in translation, and books that get inside the heads of horrid characters who make me cringe or feel incredibly, terribly seen. On the other side of the spectrum, I’m always a fan of memoir about cooking and food.
I’m a big audiobook listener and am currently listening to Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-zi, which has the best of both: translation and food description that always makes me hungry.
Outside of books, my interests include: junk journaling, yoga, nature walks, jewellery making, and baking treats to share with friends.
I’m looking forward to everything there is to learn during my time at BookNet and to getting to know more about the people, data, and work that shape Canada’s publishing industry.
