Sydney Smith & Hamilton Smith, summer 2024 interns

This summer, Sydney Smith and Hamilton Smith spent their Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons in the New England Review office. They researched other literary magazines and conducted interviews with outside editors for our “How the Work Gets Done” project, created episodes for the NER Out Loud podcast, read submissions, and created original content for the web. Here they interview each other for our “Meet the Interns” series.

Sydney Smith: All right, Hamilton, let’s kick this interview off with a question I know you love to answer: where are you from and what brought you to Middlebury? [laughter]

Hamilton Smith: Missoula, Montana! The “last best place,” but really just the best. I really have to credit my mother for mentioning a school like Middlebury as a potential avenue post-high school. I wanted to go somewhere small, cold, and isolated, where I could ski . . . I know that’s a strange criteria . . . and towards the end of high school I had a slew of small liberal arts colleges in the northeast at the top of my list. My mother and I toured them the summer before my senior year and after driving down into Middlebury during golden hour . . . the rest is history. How about you?

SS: I’m from Chicago, the best city, actually [laughter]. I am really surprised that I ended up at Middlebury. I was seriously considering taking a completely different path in life, but my college counselor assured me that Middlebury was a really great college and felt that, as a strong writer, I would thrive here. She vaguely talked about Harry Potter and skiing, which didn’t really resonate with me, but when she mentioned the maple syrup I was all in! 

HS: The syrup here definitely lives up to the hype. Why was it the maple syrup that stuck out?!

SS: One of my favorite foods is and always has been pancakes, though I haven’t eaten very many of them here. What’s your favorite food?

HS: Yeah, I don’t even like pancakes but I can tell the pancakes here are dreadful. Ah, that’s one of the toughest questions for me to answer, but I would have to say steamed spinach and goat cheese. I get a great rush imagining the volume of spinach I eat when it’s steamed, and I’ve recently learned what a superfood it is. Goat cheese on sandwiches, goat cheese with apple on a cracker, goat cheese in salad . . .

SS: Ah, very yummy. I love spinach too! I definitely want to try it with goat cheese now. How’d you end up working in the New England Review office this summer? I know you’re a neuroscience major, and I think it’s very cool that you found yourself in one of the most literary spaces on campus.

HS: I’ve loved studying neuroscience at Middlebury but have been encouraged and inspired to really take advantage of the liberal artsiness of this place. I’ve taken poetry classes every year and have really developed a passion for poetry. I also grew up reading a few literary magazines, so when I saw the internship opportunity with NER, I was instantly drawn in. 

How did you hear about this internship?

SS: Oddly enough, I discovered NER when I moved into my apartment in town. I found a fresh pad of NER sticky notes in my desk drawer, along with a pencil and a few other miscellaneous items. The same person, I’m assuming, left behind an issue of NER on the coffee table. After picking it up and perusing the pages, I was very intrigued. A few days later, the English department sent out an email to all the majors and minors about the internship, and it felt like fate. 

HS: That absolutely sounds like fate to me. What has been your favorite thing about working here?

SS: Well, I have really enjoyed working with you, Carolyn, Leslie, and Mary Heather (and Cinder). As someone whose presence on campus has been a bit spotty due to COVID and studying abroad, I have found a lot of joy and happiness in the consistency and community this internship has brought into my life. Aside from the mushy things, I really appreciate how this experience has broadened my horizons. I have come out of my “prose bubble” and am a lot more open to reading and discussing poetry. It’s been cool to see my tastes and preferences evolve. How about you?

HS: Not to hop on your answer, but the beautiful (chilly) office and awesome people (and dog) has made for such a wonderful experience. I have loved everything else about it as well: learning about what it takes to run a magazine, reading submissions, producing the podcast and working on special projects . . . It is really fun to be a part of something that I admire and think is an amazing publication. Outside of NER, what has been your favorite on-campus activity?

SS: Definitely reading prose submissions for Blackbird. It’s pretty similar to some of the things we do here at NER, but it’s really taught me a lot about writing. Yours?

HS: I’ve loved becoming a part of the Charter House Coalition student organization, a club where we serve the Charter House Coalition mission by providing quality home-cooked meals to the Middlebury community members who need them, and establishing friendly connections with those folks. I’m assuming the role of president in the fall and can’t wait to keep cooking and meeting more awesome people. 

SS: All right, Hamilton, now it’s time for a really important question. What is your favorite dining hall location and meal? I worry that your answer to this question might destroy our friendship. [laughter]

HS: Oh, it probably will. I like when they have that massive vat of steamed spinach in Proctor with coconut sweet potato curry and rice. I add the ‘oil and herbs’ pasta to finish off the plate. I love the ski lodge vibes upstairs at Proc. 

SS: Hmmm. I’m definitely a Ross enthusiast—well I’m not sure I’d say enthusiast, but I like Ross the best out of the three. I like the food at Atwater, but I normally dine alone and find that the large round tables aren’t conducive to my introverted lifestyle. I don’t think I frequent the dining halls enough to know all of their meal combinations, but I think my favorite thing they serve is probably the onion rings. 

HS: I have an even more important line of business to inquire about.

SS: And what might that be? 

HS: If you could have a super power, what would it be?

SS: Definitely speed reading. Having the ability to read a book in seconds would be so cool. I remember developing one of my first and most persistent existential crises at about ten years old or so when I realized that there are so many books that I will never get the chance to read. It would take so many lifetimes to read every book ever written! Working in the library doesn’t help this anxiety, but I’ve been coping. What would yours be?

HS: Speed reading would be awesome! Excluding some righteous answer about saving the world, I have to say time travel. I have always been fascinated by it and many of my favorite movies and books have focused on the possibility of time travel. 

SS: I would like to time travel back to the start of this internship!

HS: Me too! I can’t believe it’s over. It’s so bittersweet . . .

SS: I know! I feel very fulfilled and am beyond grateful for this opportunity. I’m walking away from this place with so much knowledge and experience, and so many lovely memories. I’ll never forget our New England Review summer.