Introducing our Fall Intern
Sarah Burke, an intern at History Through Fiction, lives in Minneapolis and is attending Augsburg University.
My name is Sarah Burke and I am the Fall 2021 intern with History Through Fiction. I am currently a senior at Augsburg University majoring in English: Creative Writing and Communication Studies. I chose this path for myself because I have always wanted to delve deeper into what makes good stories. I believe that stories are the lifeblood of communities and individuals, so I wanted to learn more about where these stories come from and most importantly, who gets to tell them.
When I was very young, there wasn’t a moment I didn’t have my nose stuck in a book. I was captivated by reading (even before I could actually read!) and I already knew the immense power language has in shaping who we are. I took my very first writing class in second grade and I fell in love. I had a faux leather bound notebook that I brought everywhere I went, determined to be the next great author. As I got older, I looked into careers in many other paths: teaching, sociology, nonprofit management, professional singing, and many others. After many semesters of confusion and some real soul searching, I realized I wanted to do what I had wanted to do since I was little: work with stories.
Last summer, I worked at Cow Tipping Press, a local nonprofit dedicated to teaching adults with disabilities to write their own stories and then the press would publish their stories into a book. I have always been passionate about making sure that individuals with disabilities are able to advocate for themselves and this opportunity was a wonderful intersection of my worlds. This job helped me to dip my toes into the publishing world and learn how important it is that we are not silencing stories because of physical or developmental differences. Publishers bear some of the responsibility of curating which stories are being presented to the world and which don’t make the cut. I am so enthusiastic about being a part of History Through Fiction because a large part of the company’s work is telling stories about important moments in history in an engaging and thought-provoking way. We can change the typical narratives of history and tell the other side of the story, or the parts that have long since been forgotten.
My hope for myself is that I will work at a press that pushes the industry to reach out for more stories that are not being told, whether that be marginalized individuals or people that current narratives tend to alienate. I see myself graduating from Augsburg and working at a press for a few years before getting my masters in publishing or creative writing. I hope to one day write my own YA fantasy series.