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The Freelance Academic: Transform Your Creative Life and Career
Higher education has changed—and we have to change with it. The Freelance Academic will show you how.
When Katie Pryal started her career in higher education, she did everything right—she thought. With a law degree, a doctorate, and a federal clerkship, how could her career go off track? But this is higher ed in the new millennium. “Off track” is the new normal. So, slowly, she made her own career, one she dubbed “the freelance academic” in a long-running column in The Chronicle of Higher Education of the same name.
Five years after leaving academia, Pryal has created a living for herself. In The Freelance Academic, she tells her story and provides accurate (and sometimes blistering) critique of how higher ed as pushed its workforce to the margins. Best of all, she gives plain, practical advice for how to make the career you want, one that uses your strengths, and your creativity, to thrive.
When Katie Pryal started her career in higher education, she did everything right—she thought. With a law degree, a doctorate, and a federal clerkship, how could her career go off track? But this is higher ed in the new millennium. “Off track” is the new normal. So, slowly, she made her own career, one she dubbed “the freelance academic” in a long-running column in The Chronicle of Higher Education of the same name.
Five years after leaving academia, Pryal has created a living for herself. In The Freelance Academic, she tells her story and provides accurate (and sometimes blistering) critique of how higher ed as pushed its workforce to the margins. Best of all, she gives plain, practical advice for how to make the career you want, one that uses your strengths, and your creativity, to thrive.
200 pages, Paperback
Published June 3, 2019
About the author
Katie Rose Guest Pryal
37 books140 followersKatie Rose Guest Pryal, J.D., Ph.D., is a bipolar-autistic author, keynote speaker, neurodiversity-affirming writing coach, and expert in mental health and neurodiversity. Before turning to writing full time, she worked as a university professor with a research focus in disability studies.
She is the author of many books on mental health and neurodiversity, including:
Your Kid Belongs Here: An Insider's Companion to Parenting Neurodiverse Children (Johns Hopkins 2025)
A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education (Univ. of Kansas Press 2024), winner of the 2024 IPPY Bronze medal in Education
Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education (Blue Osprey Books 2017, Blackstone Audio 2022)
Even If You’re Broken: Bodies, Boundaries, and Mental Health (Blue Osprey Books 2019, revised and expanded edition 2023), winner of the IPPY Gold Medal in women's issues.
Her newest nonfiction book is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press, Navigating Neurodiverse Pregnancy.
Her fiction includes the Hollywood Lights series of standalone linked novels:
Entanglement
Chasing Chaos
Fallout Girl
Take Your Charming Somewhere Else, Winner of the IPPY Gold Medal for Romance
Dr. Pryal attended Duke University for her undergraduate studies before earning her master’s degree in creative writing from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, where she attended on a fellowship. She then earned her law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law and continued on to a federal clerkship. While practicing law, she earned her doctorate in rhetoric from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she attended on a fellowship. After finishing her studies, she began her full-time teaching career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she remains adjunct faculty.
She writes frequently for national publications, is a columnist for Psychology Today, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. For keynote talks, she is represented by BrightSight Speakers.
Dr. Pryal’s first name is Katie Rose; her middle name is Guest; and her last name is Pryal (which rhymes with “trial”). Her pronouns are she/her.
She is the author of many books on mental health and neurodiversity, including:
Your Kid Belongs Here: An Insider's Companion to Parenting Neurodiverse Children (Johns Hopkins 2025)
A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education (Univ. of Kansas Press 2024), winner of the 2024 IPPY Bronze medal in Education
Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education (Blue Osprey Books 2017, Blackstone Audio 2022)
Even If You’re Broken: Bodies, Boundaries, and Mental Health (Blue Osprey Books 2019, revised and expanded edition 2023), winner of the IPPY Gold Medal in women's issues.
Her newest nonfiction book is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press, Navigating Neurodiverse Pregnancy.
Her fiction includes the Hollywood Lights series of standalone linked novels:
Entanglement
Chasing Chaos
Fallout Girl
Take Your Charming Somewhere Else, Winner of the IPPY Gold Medal for Romance
Dr. Pryal attended Duke University for her undergraduate studies before earning her master’s degree in creative writing from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, where she attended on a fellowship. She then earned her law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law and continued on to a federal clerkship. While practicing law, she earned her doctorate in rhetoric from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she attended on a fellowship. After finishing her studies, she began her full-time teaching career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she remains adjunct faculty.
She writes frequently for national publications, is a columnist for Psychology Today, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. For keynote talks, she is represented by BrightSight Speakers.
Dr. Pryal’s first name is Katie Rose; her middle name is Guest; and her last name is Pryal (which rhymes with “trial”). Her pronouns are she/her.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 17, 2019
I suggested this book to a few of my graduate students interested in exploring non-academic careers after finishing PhDs, mainly based on the recommendation of a friend. I picked up the book this morning to flip through and ended up reading it cover to cover in one sitting. It was that good. Guest Pryal weaves her own story (and she is an outstanding, and at time hilarious, storyteller) together with her clear knowledge of the job situation in higher education, gained both from her own experience and from writing about it extensively as a freelance journalist and columnist. Her Freelance Manifesto in the introduction will resonate with many (even those not in academia who may feel pressure to do work that is unpaid, underpaid, and/or undervalued). And perhaps most importantly for me, as a tenured full professor who directs a program that employs dozens of outstanding, full-time, renewable contact, but “untenurable” faculty (which was the kind of position Guest Pryal was in), it gave me cause to reflect deeply on my work and to consider what significant, meaningful steps I might take from my own secure position to speak out and speak with integrity about the problems of our employment practices in higher education. Highly recommended.
July 4, 2019
A few years ago I was doing book reviews for a local publication, and I wrote an article on the importance of reading the Forward of a book. I told my readers that if you skip the Forward, you sometimes are missing an important part of the book. That’s the case with The Freelance Academic, which is LOL hilarious! After reading the Forward before I even got to the main text I had two threads of thought. 1: it reminded me of my challenging undergraduate experience; and 2: the strength of maintaining your sanity, grace, and thought process to constantly update and change your resume depending on the circumstances surrounding your changing lifestyle.
Let me clarify. I began my undergraduate studies as an older adult so that meant I was ‘the only older student’ in all of my classes. My teachers varied from the newly doctorate pool to the seasoned professor. All of them seemed to ooze a prejudice to my existence in their classrooms; I had some world experience, and that was a threat to these pros. In The Freelance Academic, the main character Katie shares similar stories of stogie self-centered academics blocking change and growth for others.
Now to the second thread which is also a central theme within the pages of The Freelance Academic. I have admiration for anyone who works out the equations necessary in today’s world in order to move forward in the workplace. Someone who can work with the tools they have under constantly changing circumstances. It is a gift that allows that person from getting lost in the gray fog of a job for years to come. That is how I would describe the life of Katie in this book; she removed herself from the fog and found it was freeing.
After eleven years, Katie worked as an adjunct professor at a top university with no possibility of tenure. She finally left the life of academia, putting her skills to work in other, more meaningful avenues. Katie had analyzed the absurdities of the higher education hierarchy. She had tried to address the harder questions of how to make higher education better for students, staff and faculty. She finds that it takes stepping back from something before you can take notice of how much improvement it needs.
Survival is something not everyone can achieve. I connected with Katie’s stories on many levels. I saw many of my colleagues who had trapped themselves in positions for years never growing. Unable to embrace change, captured by the stereotyped ‘shush librarian’, lost in the fog of their profession. In The Freelance Academic, we see Katie escape the mist; shine above the rest and recreate herself over and over and grow professionally and personally.
Her journey includes a decade of school (achieving two PHD’s), and over a decade teaching at a top-notch university. When Katie finally breaks the bonds with her academic entity and frees herself of a ‘regular job’ she suffers an identity crisis. While she is not immediately prepared for the break, she continues to plough forward to design her new self-employed lifestyle.
The Freelance Academic follows Katie as she realizes that for many of us, our lives are just copies of what others are undergoing, and that once we can discard the guilt, we can move forward. In freeing herself from her prior life, Katie will create new communities in the areas required for her career change; she will put her work out there on different venues; create a new website; use social media to showcase her writing skills and begin her new business as a writer. Her story comes with a host of realizations that carry Katie down many pathways on her journey.
This book has so much good advice; I found myself reading excerpts out-loud to my husband (who is finishing a writing project). Finally, I told him he needs to read the book himself. I cannot say enough good things about all the informative work in this book. A great book for writers. Oh, and if you are a James Bond fan; well you will have to read the book to know what I mean. Happy Reading!
Let me clarify. I began my undergraduate studies as an older adult so that meant I was ‘the only older student’ in all of my classes. My teachers varied from the newly doctorate pool to the seasoned professor. All of them seemed to ooze a prejudice to my existence in their classrooms; I had some world experience, and that was a threat to these pros. In The Freelance Academic, the main character Katie shares similar stories of stogie self-centered academics blocking change and growth for others.
Now to the second thread which is also a central theme within the pages of The Freelance Academic. I have admiration for anyone who works out the equations necessary in today’s world in order to move forward in the workplace. Someone who can work with the tools they have under constantly changing circumstances. It is a gift that allows that person from getting lost in the gray fog of a job for years to come. That is how I would describe the life of Katie in this book; she removed herself from the fog and found it was freeing.
After eleven years, Katie worked as an adjunct professor at a top university with no possibility of tenure. She finally left the life of academia, putting her skills to work in other, more meaningful avenues. Katie had analyzed the absurdities of the higher education hierarchy. She had tried to address the harder questions of how to make higher education better for students, staff and faculty. She finds that it takes stepping back from something before you can take notice of how much improvement it needs.
Survival is something not everyone can achieve. I connected with Katie’s stories on many levels. I saw many of my colleagues who had trapped themselves in positions for years never growing. Unable to embrace change, captured by the stereotyped ‘shush librarian’, lost in the fog of their profession. In The Freelance Academic, we see Katie escape the mist; shine above the rest and recreate herself over and over and grow professionally and personally.
Her journey includes a decade of school (achieving two PHD’s), and over a decade teaching at a top-notch university. When Katie finally breaks the bonds with her academic entity and frees herself of a ‘regular job’ she suffers an identity crisis. While she is not immediately prepared for the break, she continues to plough forward to design her new self-employed lifestyle.
The Freelance Academic follows Katie as she realizes that for many of us, our lives are just copies of what others are undergoing, and that once we can discard the guilt, we can move forward. In freeing herself from her prior life, Katie will create new communities in the areas required for her career change; she will put her work out there on different venues; create a new website; use social media to showcase her writing skills and begin her new business as a writer. Her story comes with a host of realizations that carry Katie down many pathways on her journey.
This book has so much good advice; I found myself reading excerpts out-loud to my husband (who is finishing a writing project). Finally, I told him he needs to read the book himself. I cannot say enough good things about all the informative work in this book. A great book for writers. Oh, and if you are a James Bond fan; well you will have to read the book to know what I mean. Happy Reading!
March 16, 2019
Drawing on her own experiences in and out of academia Katie Guest Pryal clearly identifies the forces driving talented people from academia and provides a road map for building a satisfying career after leaving. While deeply rooted in the contingent labor crisis facing academia, Guest Pryal's book contains sound advice applicable to building a contemporary career. The core principles in her Freelance Manifesto apply broadly to our lives and are worth remembering. In The Freelance Academic, Guest Pryal is the friend who gently, but firmly, reminds us who we are and helps us find the best path to get us where we need to be.
Read
June 17, 2019Many people eschew the label “freelancer,” believing it projects the image of a low-level worker typing away in their parents’ basement. But if you’re an untenured academic, chances are you’re already a freelancer—even if you don’t identify as one. And the sooner you embrace your status as a one-person business, the sooner you’ll be able to start crafting a livelihood that allows you to thrive using the knowledge, talent, and skills you spent years honing. That’s what Katie Rose Guest Pryal, Ph.D., J.D., realized after more than a decade of working as a lecturer and contingent faculty member in higher education. Pryal—who’s a novelist, journalist, essayist, attorney, and former law professor—recounts her breakup with academia and reimagining of her career in her new book, The Freelance Academic (Blue Crow). The result is both a piercing examination of how higher education institutions exploit adjunct faculty and untenured staff and a roadmap that’s as practical as it is hopeful for anyone with an advanced degree wondering if there’s a better way. (Spoiler alert: There is.)
Pryal is hardly the first to note that in the U.S., higher education runs on underpaid and overworked staff who have little to no chance of joining the prestigious but ever-narrowing ranks of tenured professors. (Four decades ago, close to 80 percent of college faculty members were either tenure or tenure track. Today? Two-thirds of faculty are non-tenure—and most have to work several different teaching jobs to make ends meet.) Says Pryal toward the beginning of The Freelance Academic, “As scholars and teachers, we work in overstressed conditions with inadequate resources, many of us hoping that somehow—some way—the academic world will right itself again. But the academic world isn’t going to right itself again. It’s changing, and it’s not going to change back.”
The rest of the review: https://booktrib.com/2019/06/302017/
Pryal is hardly the first to note that in the U.S., higher education runs on underpaid and overworked staff who have little to no chance of joining the prestigious but ever-narrowing ranks of tenured professors. (Four decades ago, close to 80 percent of college faculty members were either tenure or tenure track. Today? Two-thirds of faculty are non-tenure—and most have to work several different teaching jobs to make ends meet.) Says Pryal toward the beginning of The Freelance Academic, “As scholars and teachers, we work in overstressed conditions with inadequate resources, many of us hoping that somehow—some way—the academic world will right itself again. But the academic world isn’t going to right itself again. It’s changing, and it’s not going to change back.”
The rest of the review: https://booktrib.com/2019/06/302017/
June 14, 2019
I picked up this book because when I saw “freelance” in the title, not initially realizing the “academic” part referred to professions in higher education (which I never made it into). I kept reading, as Katie Guest Pryal’s writing was interesting, as were her stories, and soon found myself realizing this book could be good for anyone in any profession that needs to figure out a better, more fulfilling career path, which I am. She gives an honest accounting of the challenges she faced and her recommendations. She doesn’t gloss over the journey, as it is likely everyone will face challenges. Her advice is logical and has left me pondering my path and how I am going to get started.
Guest Pryal gives information and a basic road map that works for anyone, and I highly recommend it to anyone considering making a career change. Don’t pass it up if you think it doesn’t apply because you aren’t an academic.
#tallpoppywriters #bloomreads #thefreelanceacademic #katieguestpryal
Guest Pryal gives information and a basic road map that works for anyone, and I highly recommend it to anyone considering making a career change. Don’t pass it up if you think it doesn’t apply because you aren’t an academic.
#tallpoppywriters #bloomreads #thefreelanceacademic #katieguestpryal
April 29, 2022
I’ve been dipping in and out of this book on nights when My son is having trouble going to sleep or I’m waiting for appointments or meetings. I miss freelancing for local pubs and this book had practical, solid advice for getting back into freelancing and some of the business side of things. It’s also an interesting look at her experience as a NTT academic.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews