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Tracey Guest, director of publicity at Simon & Schuster, has been promoted to vice president, director of publicity.

Guest has been with Simon & Schuster since 1998. In her time at the publisher, she has worked on a wide range of books by authors including: Hunter S. Thompson, Bob Woodward, Don Rickles, Mike Birbiglia, Bob Dylan, Paula Deen and Sylvia Nasar. Guest’s most recent publicity campaign was for Jaycee Dugard‘s bestseller, A Stolen Life. Guest began her career at Dutton/Plume in 1991.

In an email, Adam Rothberg, SVP, corporate communications at Simon & Schuster, wrote: “Through it all, Tracey has demonstrated excellent judgment, warmth, spirit, and an ability to make good things happen for our authors in all forms of media.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The finalists for the $5,000 Thurber Prize have been revealed. Follow these links to read free samples of the finalists: Sleepwalk with Me & Other Painfully True Stories by Mike Birbiglia, Half Empty by David Rakoff and Sports From Hell: My Search for the World’s Dumbest Competition by Rick Reilly.

This year’s panel of judges included two-time Thurber Prize winner Ian Frazier, 2010 Thurber Prize finalist Jancee Dunn and novelist Meg Wolitzer. The winner will be revealed at the awards ceremony on October 3rd in New York City’s Algonquin Hotel.

Here’s more from the release: “The 2011 Thurber Prize for American Humor will be conferred upon the author and publisher of the outstanding book of humor writing published in the United States between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010. Initiated in 1996, thirty-five years after the death of this key figure in the development of American humor, it is the nation’s highest recognition of the art of humor writing.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Nearly a year has flown by since we awarded Steve Hely the Thurber Prize for American Humor for his hilarious novel, How I Became a Famous Novelist, and we’re excited to announce this year’s prize finalists!

They are:

Mike Birbiglia – Sleepwalk with Me and Other Painfully True Stories

David Rakoff – Half Empty

Rick Reilly – Sports from Hell: My Search for the World’s Dumbest Competition

If you’re not familiar with the Thurber Prize for American Humor, here’s a little bit about it: The Thurber Prize for American Humor is the only recognition of humor writing in the United States. It began in 1997 as a biennial award, and then it became an annual award in 2004. Each year, the winner is announced at a special event at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City (where James Thurber used to live). The Thurber Humor Prize comes with a monetary award for the winner, who comes to Columbus for a ticketed event within a year of winning the award.

Past winners have included Ian Frazier, The Onion, David Sedaris, Christopher Buckley, Jon Stewart, Alan Zweibel, Joe Keenan, Larry Doyle, and Steve Hely.

This year the Thurber Humor Prize event is Monday, October 3. Stay tuned to find out who won!

The other day, as I was talking about my new work as a high school yearbook advisor–or maybe it was about taking on some union duties–no, I think it was a discussion about me volunteering to chaperon a bus heading to a football game–a friend turned to me and asked, “Is there anything you don’t do at that school?!”

I’m pretty open about one of my career (and life) goals: to never have a “That’s Not My Job” moment. In other words, never to balk at those odd little (and big) things that come up in the course of my school library day, never to pass the buck or leave a student out in the cold.

So what’s my job?

First, I should be clear on a few things that, in fact, aren’t my job:

Being the school nurse (we have a school nurse for that!)
Being an assistant principal (we have assistant principals for that!)
Being the school police officer (are you sensing a theme yet?)

While there are certainly legal and professional consequences that can come with overstepping your bounds within (and without) a school or library building, there are also the more fuzzy consequences: are you stepping on someone’s toes? Are you alienating a colleague, or a student? Are you spreading yourself too thin?

And depending on the structure of your school or library, you might have very clear Not My Jobs that aren’t the same as my Not My Jobs. If you work as part of a team or have volunteers, interns or assistants, for instance, job descriptions may clearly prevent you from doing certain tasks. And if you’re in a public library, you may be thinking less about other employees in your building and more about outside agencies and professionals, like social workers, doctors and counselors.

Let’s be clear: taking on new tasks, or wearing new hats, can be fantastic. Your teens may see you in a new light, your colleagues may begin to view you as a leader in your building, and you may discover a brand new passion. …Then again, you might also get really burnt out, find yourself frustrated with parts of your “regular” job, or establish once and for all that you’re terrible at Dance Dance Revolution.

So, what’s my job?

Advising the yearbook
Volunteering at sporting events
Letting kids eat in the library during lunch
Listening to impromptu jam sessions
Advising the Gay Straight Alliance
Answering tattoo questions
Watching (and recommending) YouTube videos
Offering sound bites for video yearbook
Exchanging tweets with nerdfighters
Talking about how great Mike Birbiglia is

…And, you know, books and databases and stuff. That too.

What’s your job?

Related Reading:

I’m a doctor, not a… from Memory Alpha
My New YA Job by Erin Daly on the YALSA Blog
Risky Business & More by Linda Braun on the YALSA Blog