Publishing Roundtable: From Internship to Industry

The JMU Creative Writing program hosted its first Publishing Roundtable: From Internship to Industry event on Novemeber 11th, 2025. With there being a growing interest of students wanting to pursue a career in the publishing industry, Professor of English and Creative Writing Minor Coordinator, Greg Wrenn, planned this event so current students could hear directly from Dukes who have walked the path they might be considering. This dynamic online roundtable featured: 

Bella Bledzki graduated from James Madison University in May 2025, majoring in English with a minor in Creative Writing. During her time at JMU, she led several LinkedIn workshops and completed two internships, one at Random House and the other at William Morrow Group at HarperCollins. She now works as a Marketing Assistant for Random House Children’s Books.

Morgan Vega Gomes earned her B.A. in English from Bridgewater College, she then continued her education graduating in 2019 with her M.A. in Writing, Rhetoric & Technical Communication from James Madison University. She has led many roles in the publishing industry – freelance editor, part-time romance editor at Scarsdale Publishing, marketing assistant at intersectional feminist publisher Kore Press, and sales and marketing manager at No Starch Press. She now works at Penguin Random House as their Senior Client Operations Associate in the Publisher Services division. Furthermore, she has written two coming-of-age YA contemporary novels, Sleeping Around (2021) and Hooking Up (2025).

Ava Menoni is a current senior at James Madison University, majoring in Media Arts and Design with a minor in Creative Writing. This past summer, she completed a summer internship at Penguin Random House, working as a Publicity Intern at Random House Publishing Group.