Story by Logan Jackson
For the past decade, the Unbound Book Festival has welcomed world-class authors to mid-Missouri to discuss their books, their work and their life. The goal of the festival is to bring together participants to inspire a life-long love of books and reading.
The Mizzou Honors College has partnered with the festival for several years, including offering a 1-credit hour course – “Unbound: Reading Without Limits” – which allows Honors students to dive deeper into a variety of writing styles, including books written by the keynote speaker.
During the 2024-25 academic year, the two have collaborated again, this time on a marketing and communication internship.
The inaugural recipient was McKenna Riddle, a junior journalism and political science double major. She has been working with the festival’s board and various committees to showcase all the exciting happenings.
“This has been a really great opportunity and a lot of fun,” Riddle said. “I honestly didn’t know much about the Unbound Book Festival, so it’s been exciting to learn more about everything that goes into the event.”
This year’s festival will run from April 17-20 and Min Jin Lee, author of Pachinko and Free Food for Millionaires, will serve as the keynote speaker. Her talk is free and open to the public and registration is currently open for the event. Numerous other authors will be featured throughout the weekend.
As part of the internship, Riddle is a member of the outreach committee and is helping with the promotion of the festival in a variety of ways. When she first started, Riddle helped brainstorm event ideas and potential fundraising opportunities. Once Riddle was able to learn more about the ins and outs of the festival, she moved into social media content creation. She created many of the graphics that announced which authors would be in attendance.
“I can’t praise the team I’m working with enough,” Riddle said. “They made me feel like part of the team immediately and have welcomed my thoughts and feedback throughout the internship. I just really appreciate the spirit behind the festival and how everyone involved is so passionate about it.”
While Riddle has taken on traditional marketing and communication projects, she’s also been able to gain experience in several other fields through the internship. She’s been part of conversations about merchandising, sales and event planning.
“It’s been fun because I’ve been able to jump into several roles and gain experience in a wide variety of fields,” Riddle said. “I’ve never been involved in sales or merchandising, for example, but it’s been a privilege to have a seat at the table during those types of discussions. I really appreciate that the internship has allowed me the freedom to explore.”
Riddle added that she hopes Mizzou students will take advantage of the opportunity that the festival provides.
“There are some really fascinating authors who will be in attendance, much like every year,” Riddle said. “We’re really fortunate to have a festival of this nature available to us. I especially hope Mizzou students will take advantage of the incredible events and the opportunity to interact with the authors.”