Profile
Paul Ryan, '11
Graduate Student Paul Ryan Talks About the Writing, Literature & Publishing Program
Graduate student Paul Ryan talks about the Writing, Literature & Publishing program, from his courses to his work outside the classroom.
Q. Why did you choose Emerson?
I was looking for a publishing program that understands that the industry is changing quickly.
Q. What do you love about your field/major?
I love that nobody has exactly figured out how to balance e-publishing and print publishing.
Q. What do you like about Emerson?
I love being in the city. I like Boston, the community of artistic people at my school, and that I know all of the faculty in my program.
Q. How does the Emerson community help you thrive as a student?
Grad school was a great chance to network with a lot of up-and-coming publishing professionals who are in the program and meet an experienced faculty there to support me.
Q. Describe a typical day or week.
There is no typical day. But sometimes I wake up early to do homework in the morning or to work on writing assignments. In the afternoon I'll work at Emerson—I was a desk receptionist for the publishing department and an assistant to the graduate program director. Then at night, I'll either enjoy being in Boston or go home to get more work done.
Q. What do you hope to do with your Emerson degree?
I'd like to work with online content. I like web writing, but someday I hope to be more of a strategist, directing online editorial stuff from behind the scenes.
Q. What advice would you give to an incoming Emerson student?
Make sure you know what type of publishing experience you want from Emerson when you get here. There's a big difference between online, book, and magazine publishing, and an even bigger difference between taking a creative writing class and a class that'll teach you how to build a website.
