New England Review

NER Interns: Where are they now?

Juliette Luini

Audio Producer/Story Editor Juliette Luini ‘18.5 talks to intern Noah Hochfelder ‘22.5 about her exciting new career development, winning a Tribeca Film Festival Award, and her time working at NER.

Noah Hochfelder: You recently became a story editor for the Spark and Fire podcast at WaitWhat. Can you briefly describe the work that WaitWhat does?

Juliette Luini: WaitWhat is creating a portfolio of content at the intersection of daily habit and human potential. It’s not just a podcast company; WaitWhat extends its content into formats, including tech products, live events, higher education, corporate curriculum, publishing, video, and more.

NH: What does a day look like in your work for Spark and Fire? What are you finding to be the most enjoyable aspects about this work? Most challenging?

JL: I just started this position last week, so my focus right now is onboarding. While onboarding is a challenge in the era of remote work, the team is giving me time to adjust to the company culture and familiarize myself with the WaitWhat ethos. I’ve been meeting my coworkers one-on-one on Zoom and listening to WaitWhat podcast episodes and taking notes. I’ve really enjoyed being able to continue living in Colorado while having the opportunity to work for a NYC-based media company that is making really innovative stuff.  

Once I start digging into my role, I will be editing scripts and audio from a longform interview into a compelling non-narrated story. So on a typical day, I may be spending time in ProTools cutting tape, in Google Docs leaving comments on possible story beats, or in production listening in on an interview. The most challenging thing I anticipate will be figuring out a creative process that works for everyone and is productive and inspiring even though we all are working from home. 

NH: With the Denver-based podcast production company House of Pod, you helped produce Guardians of the River, a podcast which won the 2021 Best Narrative Nonfiction Podcast at the Tribeca Film Festival. Describe your experience working on this project. What about this project did you find most fulfilling? What was your reaction to winning this award?

JL: I joined House of Pod in the summer of 2020 as an assistant producer. My primary job was to help produce a show about a group of people trying to protect the Okavango Delta, one of the largest wetlands on the planet. We had hundreds of hours of tape from National Geographic expeditions, but no sense of the characters, tension, or, really, what the story was. (Not to mention, my boss, Cat Jaffee, who reported the story, was going through cancer treatment, our team was spread out among three different countries, and it was, of course, a pandemic.) So I dug into the tape log, lucky to have studied Portuguese at Middlebury to translate the tape from Angola. I went to the hospital to storyboard the series with Cat as she went through chemo. And in a few months, I was promoted to producer to create the outline for the series, scaffold each episode, and audio edit.

The most rewarding aspect of this project was helping produce Episode 3 in Portuguese so that the podcast would be accessible to folks in Angola. Working with our host, Kerllen Costa, a biologist based in Luanda, to make this localized version of the episode was very rewarding. It was beautiful to hear him express this story that is so close to his heart in his first language and speak directly to his people. 

Our team’s reaction to winning the award was complete shock! We actually all got to attend the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2021, but booked our tickets back in Denver before the awards ceremony because there was no way we thought we would win. It was deeply gratifying to know this podcast—the lush sound design, folklore, and exploration of what it means to protect a place—resonated with the judges. It felt like all of our hard work during these unprecedented times was worth it, and that care and resilience was reflected in the final product.

NH: I see that you graduated Middlebury with a degree in Contemporary Literature before ultimately attending (and graduating from) the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine. What led you to pursue graduate work in documentary storytelling? 

JL: I pursued a degree in documentary studies, specifically audio storytelling, because I knew I wanted a career in podcasting. After being part of the Narrative Journalism Fellowship at Middlebury, interning with the Kitchen Sisters, and producing some of my own passion projects (including starting a podcast at NER), I wanted more tools on how to create a podcast. I wanted to learn the technical skills of working in ProTools; I wanted a cohort of fellow audiomakers who I could collaborate with; and I wanted to explore the ethics of journalism and how to handle the responsibility of editing someone else’s story. 

NH: Are there any memories, moments, or skills you developed from your time at NER that have guided you professionally? 

JL: I am so grateful to NER, because the team gave me the opportunity to help launch and produce the podcast, NER Out Loud. The podcast was an amazing learning experience for me to practice my audio production chops. It also affirmed how much I love audio as a medium; it was so rewarding to hear how student actors could bring poems and essays to life. I loved working with the team at NER so much that I kept working as a contract producer for the podcast after I graduated. NER felt like a safe, supportive space for me to experiment and grow. It also showed me that I had a lot to learn, and ultimately guided my path in choosing to study at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. 

Juliette Luini in the NER office as an intern, editing the podcast project she created, NER Out Loud.

NH: Who is your all-time favorite storyteller—whether it be a writer, podcaster, or documentarian?

JL: My favorite podcaster is Dan Taberski, host of The Line, 9/12, Missing Richard Simmons, and many other shows. All of the stories Taberski tells give a fresh take on something we think we understand. He takes the listener on a journey with the perfect balance of humor, surprise, and seriousness, and like any compelling story, at the end, the listener leaves the show transformed, but craving more. 

NH: What are you reading for pleasure these days?

JL: These days I’m reading Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami and Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.

NH: Juliette, it’s been such a pleasure hearing how you have taken some of the passions you developed at NER and explored them through your various career paths. The folks at NER wish you a smooth transition into your new job!

Meet the Readers

Tiana Nobile

“I was excited for the opportunity to read what people are thinking and feeling in the age of COVID-19, climate change, political unrest, etc., etc., etc. What are our obsessions, fears, desires, and griefs right now?”

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from and what do you do when you’re not reading for NER? 

I was born in Daejeon, South Korea, grew up in the suburbs outside New York City, and have been calling New Orleans home for the past thirteen years. When I’m not reading for NER, you can usually find me in the kitchen making bread or pasta, going for walks on the bayou, or hanging out with my partner and our cat, Empy.

What made you decide to be a reader for NER, and how long have you been on staff?

I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since I started reading for NER! I was excited for the opportunity to read what people are thinking and feeling in the age of COVID-19, climate change, political unrest, etc. etc. etc. What are our obsessions, fears, desires, and griefs right now? I love the insight reading offers into the sense of the moment we find ourselves in.

Have you ever read a submission that later got selected for publication? 

Yes! “Thank You for Reminding Me” by Emma Trelles and “Frances” by Burnside Soleil.

What is your reading process like? What do you look for in a submission? 

I’m looking for a piece with emotional resonance, striking imagery, and creative syntax. In terms of process, I read every submission at least once. For the ones that stand out, I wait a week or two before returning to see if they still hold the same impact or if my reading of it has changed or evolved in any way. After the second reading, I’ll go back and read closely once or twice more before making a final decision. This way, I’m sure I feel strongly about a piece before sending it up the ladder.

Of the pieces you’ve read at NER—whether in the magazine or among the submissions—which was your favorite or most memorable to you personally? 

I read both Emma Trelles’s and Burnside Soleil’s poems during my first round of submissions, and both were super memorable. I loved walking through Burnside’s poem, the visceral experience of people interacting with nature. And the diction and sonic qualities of Emma’s poem lit up all of my senses when I first read it.

How has reading for NER influenced your own writing/creative pursuits? 

I haven’t been writing much lately, but I am reading a bunch, and it’s been lovely to integrate NER submissions as part of my reading rotation.

What do you read for pleasure? Is there something you’re reading at the moment that you would recommend?

I’m a member of the adoptee collective, The Starlings Collective, and our book club pick this month is Surviving the White Gaze by Rebecca Carroll, which is a memoir about growing up as a black transracial adoptee in rural New Hampshire. Highly recommend! I’m also trying to read more classics this year and just finished Giovanni’s Room, my first James Baldwin – soooo good.

Our staff readers, all volunteers, play an essential role in our editorial process and in our mission to discover new voices in contemporary literature. A full list of staff readers is available on our masthead.

New Books from NER Authors

February 2022

This winter has been a busy publication time for New England Review authors! Here are seven titles to help you transition from winter to spring.

Enduring and celebrated poet Carl Phillips combines new and older work from the previous thirteen years in a collection of poems that allows readers to revisit Phillips’ earlier work while witnessing the poet’s evolution to a contemporary presence in the American landscape. Then the War and Selected Poems, 2007-2020 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) stands as a testament to Phillips’ refusal of pessimism. This selection also includes Phillips’ recent lyric prose memoir, “Among the Trees,” and chapbook, Star Map with Action Figures. Phillips has appeared in multiple issues of NER, most recently in NER 39.1. 

In this short collection of poems, Rob Hardy’s new chapbook Shelter in Place (Finishing Line Press) showcases the present moment through keen observation of the natural world and examination of human nature. Hardy’s new collection challenges the contemplation of the future with a fearless examination of the present, offsetting dread and absence with the depth of the familiar. Hardy has appeared in multiple issues of NER. Most recently, Hardy’s nonfiction piece, “Deceit only was forbidden: A Brief Literary Biography of Richard Henry Wilde” appeared in NER 37.2.

Informed by the music that shaped him as a young man, The Perfect Sound: A Memoir in Stereo (Penguin) recounts author Garrett Hongo’s audio obsession and decades-long quest for the perfect stereo setup. This memoir follows Hongo’s penchant for music from a young boy in Hawaii to his worldly adventures as an adult yearning to find his now-celebrated poetic voice. Hongo has appeared in multiple issues of NER. Most recently, Hongo’s poem, “Orison: February, Eugene, Oregon” appeared in NER 39.2.

Paul Tran’s debut collection of poems, All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin) meditates on processes of reckoning and recovery in a powerful testament to the human capacity for resilience and love. Tran’s poems take on forms that mirror the physical and emotional responses and transformation experienced in the aftermath of abuse in the form of intergenerational trauma, sexual violence, and U.S. imperialism. Tran’s poem “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus: Oil on Canvas: Pieter Bruegel: 1520” appeared in NER 42.2.

Maud Casey‘s latest book, City of Incurable Women (Bellevue Literary), reimagines the nineteenth-century female psychiatric patients confined in Paris’s Salpêtrière hospital and reduced to specimens for study by the celebrated neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot and his male colleagues. In an exploration of the female psyche, linked prose portraits restore the humanity of history’s long forgotten—those deprived of recognition and proper care due to their gender and class. Casey has appeared in multiple issues of NER, most recently in NER 41.1.

After a compounding series of hardships—the transgenerational impact of mental illness, a struggle with disordered eating, a father’s death from cancer, the loss of loved ones to addiction and suicide—Brian Tierney reckons with the impacts of loss and pain in his debut book of poems, Rise and Float (Milkweed). Tierney’s poems provide a cathartic experience of remembrance and transcendence through lines of confession and intimacy. Tierney’s poem “Greystone Park” appeared in NER 38.1.

Lyrical and steamy, unflinching and diaristic, Richie Hofmann’s book of love poems catalog everyday experiences and encounters imbued with sex. In A Hundred Lovers (Knopf), Hofmann explores erotic desire and the complicated relationship between pleasure and pain. The speaker observes, “Our bodies manufacture their odors. I taste earth / on his skin.” These poems are filled with the tastes and textures of the carnal appetite. Hofmann’s poem “The House of Red and White Lions” appeared in NER 39.2.

Visit our page on Bookshop.org for cumulative seasonal lists of NER author releases.

NER Award for Emerging Writers

Announcing the Finalists for 2022

It is with enormous pleasure that we announce the finalists for the eighth annual New England Review Award for Emerging Writers. 

Helene Achanzar
Scott Broker
Jung Hae Chae
Emelie Griffin
G. K. Heart (Geeta Tewari)
Marguerite W. Sullivan

This award provides a full scholarship to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in August 2022 and is given annually to an emerging writer who offers an unusual and compelling new voice and who has been published by NER in the past year. The winner will be announced in March.

Congratulations to all six finalists!
We are proud to have published such strong work from emerging writers in 2021.

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