A very outdated self-portrait.

Hello! My name is Daniela Medina. I am a native Houstonian and currently live in New York, where I serve as the Senior Art Director for Forever Books at Grand Central Publishing.

I graduated from Rice University in 2008 with a B.A. in English, because it seemed like a good idea at the time (I stand by it). I moved to New York after college to pursue my M.F.A. in creative writing at The New School, because it also seemed like a good idea at the time (was on the fence about that decision for a while, but now also stand by it). I graduated in 2010 during the hiring freeze of the Great Recession, and took the first publishing job I could get (just being honest), which fortuitously was as an art assistant at Penguin Random House née Penguin. I had a grand plan to eventually switch over to the editorial side of things, but (spoiler alert), ended up staying in design. Since then I’ve also worked at Macmillan Publishers, before ultimately landing at Hachette Book Group.

I have won no awards and you will find me in no press because in my spare time I prefer reading (obviously) and keeping a books-read list that I get anxious about at the end of every year; running at paces that get slower and slower; baking and cooking not very well (actually, it’s getting better); maintaining a blog that I return to with sincere enthusiasm every couple of years; giving myself little writing projects; fantasizing about a return to making weird jewelry no one buys; and laying under a specific tree in McCarren park.

You can reach me by email at daniela.medina.design@gmail.com. I’m pretty bad at checking it.