Murtaza Bugti & Caroline Jiao, Fall 2024 interns
Last fall, Murtaza Bugti and Caroline Jiao spent their Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays at the New England Review office. They helped produce content for NER‘s website, read paper submissions, coordinated our student reading series, and tended to other administrative tasks. Here they interview each other for our “Meet the Interns” series.
What is your favorite spot on campus to study?
Caroline Jiao: The big window tables on the second floor of Davis Library, Ross Commons’s tall tables, the sofas at the Art Center, and my bed.
Murtaza Bugti: Either my room or in Axinn. There’s one other secret spot, but I won’t say.
What is your favorite on-campus activity?
CJ: When I have a lot of work to do, I spend my mornings at Ross and supply myself with milk tea made with dining hall materials—iced tea or Earl Grey.
MB: Going for a walk, especially around the Knoll.
What was your favorite task to complete during your New England Review internship?
CJ: Reading paper submissions and shelving literary magazines (it’s very therapeutic). Reading and formatting the Contributors’ Notes was also fun.
MB: Reading submissions; it’s a calm, relaxing process.
Which is your favorite dining hall?
CJ: Ross. Points for the panini press.
MB: Proctor—it’s quiet and rustic.
What’s your favorite class?
CJ: There are so many: Fiction Workshop with Professor Cohen, Religion in Modern China with Professor Morrison, and the Literary Studies Senior Colloquium with Professor Pavlos and Professor Maria. I also enjoyed working on my thesis with Professor Wang. By the way, this is not a class, but my internship at the Knoll has been pivotal to my Middlebury experience!
MB: English 458 with Professor Berg. I think I grew most as a thinker and writer in that class.
If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
CJ: I’m struggling to decide between having a photographic memory or teleportation. Maybe both?
MB: The ability to instantly absorb knowledge from any book. This somewhat defeats the purpose of reading and thinking critically, but it would certainly be nice.
Where are you from? What brought you to Middlebury?
CJ: I’m from Beijing, China. I knew Middlebury had strong language programs, and I also really wanted to be in an environment that’s different from where I grew up. I’ve come to appreciate the small community at Middlebury, both the college and the town.
MB: I was raised in Katy—it’s a small town in Texas that’ll likely be eaten up by Houston in the next decade or so. As for why I chose to come to New England and, specifically, Middlebury, I’ll say that my main motivation was a liberal arts education, for which New England is, of course, renowned. As I was choosing between the colleges here, Middlebury stood out to me because of its language programs. I knew I was going to study German and some classical languages in some capacity, so I decided to come here. And I’m glad I did.
What brought you to your major?
CJ: I was exploring a lot in my first year, dipping my fingers into many different things, which has its own pros and cons. By my first winter, I needed to declare a major so that I could apply for study abroad, and since I really enjoyed my classes with Professor Pavlos, I landed on literary studies because I wanted him to be my advisor. This has allowed me to freely explore a variety of literature.
MB: As an incoming freshman, it was my intention to study something that would allow me to engage with philosophical, literary, and religious texts. I also thought that it would be great if I could approach texts outside of the English-speaking tradition in their original languages. The comparative literature major gave me the flexibility to do exactly that—I’ve been able to read literature from multiple literary traditions, and I’ve had ample opportunities to engage critically with both philosophical and theological texts.
How did you find out about this internship?
CJ: I got to know NER more deeply through the first student reading series event in the winter of 2024. I volunteered to read for the event and got to know a lot of amazing people. That was what inspired me to apply for an internship at New England Review. I wanted to learn more about how a literary magazine is put together, and how it manages to carve out space for literary minds.
MB: I read some translations of the Persian Shahnameh by Dick Davis in an older issue of NER, which made it known to me that NER was, indeed, a thing. I also took a course on literary translations, and Carolyn Kuebler (NER‘s editor) was a guest during one of our sessions. These two instances of interacting with the journal pushed me to apply for the internship.
What do you enjoy about working at NER?
CJ: It was eye-opening to discover the landscape of contemporary writing. At the beginning of the internship, we were introduced to the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP), and it’s just a great resource.
MB: My favorite thing about working at NER was the exposure to contemporary literary movements. My academic interest is exclusively in the Early Modern era, so it was nice to see how modern writers and thinkers are responding to the world around us.