Hannah Mae Karau is an undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota, where she is majoring in English, minoring in Creative Writing, and obtaining a Certificate in Editing and Publishing. Also an avid reader and writer, she recently began a book review blog to bring attention to new books and debut authors, as well as build a portfolio for herself. She is very excited to work with History Through Fiction and to begin her career in publishing. Bringing these important stories into the world for many people to learn from is something Hannah is eagerly looking forward to!

Hey! I’m Hannah Mae Karau and I am History Through Fiction’s publishing intern for spring 2023. I have loved everything I’ve done for this internship so far and I can’t wait to start seeing my work come to fruition with our next book and other projects coming up. 

Publishing was not my dream career growing up. I was raised a STEM kid through and through. I thought I was supposed to go to college to become an engineer, a doctor, or physicist. “You’re so smart! So good at math!” My family always told me these things. “You’ll buy me that yellow mansion on the lake when you become a doctor, right?” my aunt would joke. No, sorry, I won’t. But I will buy it for you when I become a bestselling author with movie deals and my own publishing house.

It took me far too long to realize what I was passionate about. Credit for that discovery goes to my high school AP English teacher for telling me that I was a good writer and he hoped to see me the next year for the senior class. Me? A good writer? No, I’m good at math, I had thought. Then I thought again. I thought about the twelve page story I had written in fourth grade, ten pages longer than required. I thought about the many 300+ page novels I had finished in single weekends. And lastly I thought about all those story ideas I had rolling around in my head and all the notes of unwritten works I had typed away on a Google Doc. Maybe I wasn’t destined for math and chemistry and all those things I hated.

The next year, I was writing my book, a book that I submitted a one page excerpt from in my application to this internship. That excerpt helped get me here. It’s still a WIP, but that book has gotten me through so much struggle to this day. I’ve published a poem, have a book review blog, and have my writing posted around the internet and it all started with that book. One day it will be on shelves. 

All this is meant to tell you how happy I am to be here. I found where I want to go in life and now it’s just beginning. After so much time dreading my future as an engineer/doctor/(insert STEM career here) I know what I want to do with my life and I am doing it. 

Thanks for reading! Do what makes you happy.