Name: Sarah Yankelowitz
Role: Project Editor
Company: Penguin Random House New Zealand
My first job in publishing was… While I was studying at Whitireia, I’d hop across to Gecko Press a couple of afternoons each week to help process and pack their online orders. That was the beginning of my collection of enchanting children’s books. My favourite is still Shaun Tan’s The Arrival. My first full-time publishing job started with a six-month internship at Penguin Random House New Zealand (thanks to PANZ and Creative New Zealand for funding those internships!). With a little bit of luck, that internship turned into the role I’m in now. This is my third year at PRHNZ and I feel really lucky to be part of the small, tight-knit team that produces all of the local PRH books.
I’m currently reading… I’ve got A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne on my bedside table (at the top of the stack, at any rate). I’ve been assured it is as good as The Heart’s Invisible Furies but I’ve definitely been procrastinating starting it because I loved Furies so much. The other book I’m reading at the moment is Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan, which was recommended to me by one of our in-house designers, Rachel Clark. It’s the sort of historical thriller that I wouldn’t normally gravitate towards but I’m completely hooked and finding it hard to put down when I really should be nodding off to sleep.
My biggest career highlight so far was… Working with the legendary Gavin Bishop on his landmark Aotearoa: The New Zealand Story has been a definite highlight. The production process was wonderfully creative and involved long phone conversations back and forth with Gavin trying to get each page just right. The other book that was a real tick off the old bucket list was the graphic novel Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas. Ant Sang and Michael Bennett are the absolute best to work with.
