Gail (Feinberg) Brussel ’90

Current occupation:

Deputy Director of Publicity, Penguin Press at Penguin Random House

Why did you choose to Major in English Literature? 

I have always loved to read fiction. In college, I wanted to understand both how books worked and how to become a better writer of fiction myself, and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend four years than studying other people’s work. It felt like a gift to have that time and close focus with books. Within a few weeks of starting classes, I was talking with friends in and out of classes regularly – about our own writing, the books we loved, poets we were discovering.  I hadn’t considered how it would help me professionally yet. It was really more about being compelled to read more widely and how I wanted to fill my days on campus.   

What did you enjoy about Majoring in English at Trinity?

The English building was its own world; I loved the small classes and my professors, who created an atmosphere where books and writing felt important. I studied with Fred Pfeil, still the best writing teacher I’ve ever had (including graduate school) and Hugh Ogden and Jim Miller, both of whom were so inspiring.  I think of them and their classes all the time.  

How did an English Major prepare you for your career? 

Those conversations I had at Trinity — the way we thought about books, wrote about them, and talked about them – it gave me the language and many of the skills I use daily in my job as a book publicist, where I help to edit opinion pieces, write press materials, and persuade media to cover books that start wider cultural conversations. We publish many different kinds of authors: novelists, historians, journalists, Senators, music producers, economists, philosophers. Being an English major taught me how to locate the most compelling ideas in any text and communicate them to an audience. At Trinity I was also an editor of the literary magazine, and I helped run the reading series sponsored by the English Department. Both of those experiences helped to prepare me for my current role where I work so closely with authors.