New England Review

Meet the Interns

Sarah Miller & Emma Johnson

Sarah Miller and Emma Johnson, Fall 2022 interns

This fall, Sarah Miller and Emma Johnson spent their Monday and Wednesday mornings at the New England Review office. They helped produce content for the website, read submissions, tried to update the Wikipedia page, and helped out with other administrative tasks. Here they interview each other for our “Meet the Interns” series.

Shall we start with the business? 

Sarah Miller: From Philadelphia, class of 2024, major in Creative Writing, opinions editor for the Middlebury Campus and co-host of Into the Weeds (Thursdays, 9:00-10:00 pm, WRMC 91.1). 
Emma Johnson: From Chicagoland area, class of 2023.5, double major in English and Film & Media Cultures, writing tutor at the CTLR, regular attendee of the ceramics studio, and co-host of Carbonated Milk (Mondays, 7:00-8:00 pm, WRMC 91.1).

The more important business?

EJ: Taurus sun, Capricorn moon, Gemini rising, and in case you were wondering, my Venus is in Aries. 
SM: Aquarius sun, Aries moon, Scorpio rising. I have no idea where my Venus is or what that means. I need to catch up on my lingo. 

Do you believe in astrology?

EJ: Depends on the day. I do love how talking about astrology lets people be vulnerable with each other and do a little introspection. Overall? Fun and largely positive. 
SM: Depends on what mood I’m in. I think I want to believe and always find it to be a very fun party trick/conversation piece, but I remain somewhat skeptical about the mystical world ever since I saw a psychic who made a very faulty prediction about my fall semester. 

Best classes in the English department? Favorite professors?

SM: My favorite classes have to be Intro to Creative Writing, the Advanced Fiction Workshop, and Contemporary Literature—all with Professor Cohen. However, I’m doubly biased because I’m a Creative Writing major and Professor Cohen is my adviser.  
EJ: Professor Cohen’s Fiction Workshop is definitely a highlight for me too. I’ve also loved the classes I’ve taken with Professor Gottshall, and Professor Billings.

Favorite classes at Middlebury outside of the English department?

EJ: Some of my favorite English classes have actually been outside of the English department. I’ve loved taking Russian literature classes with Professor Walker (The Art of Nabokov, and Gogol & Romantic Melancholy). I’m currently in Literature and the Mystical Experience with Professor Hatjigeorgio and that’s been fantastic. I’m also partial to any film class taught by Professor Keathley. 
SM: Professor Dickinson’s Intro to American Politics has been one of the most interesting and tangibly useful courses I’ve taken at the college. During family political arguments, it’s nice to have data up my sleeve. I’ve also enjoyed dabbling in the Gender Studies department and particularly recommend Professor Essig’s Gender and the Body. This semester I’m in Decolonizing Porn, which I’ve had to field a lot of questions on!    

What’s been your experience of the NER student reading group?

EJ: I’ve been a part of the reading group for almost two years now! I think the most challenging part of reading submissions has been reckoning with how my own tastes and biases shape what pieces I advocate for. There are genres I am more inclined to like and some I find myself dismissing. I’ve made a conscious effort to look under the hood of a piece and see how it’s working. At times, this has freed me to see beyond taste and look deeper into craft. 
SM: I’ve only been part of the reading group for nine months or so, and I’ve really enjoyed it! Throughout my time at Middlebury and beyond, I’ve had a fair amount of experience workshopping the pieces of my peers so in the reading group it’s been very exciting to apply my critical skills to pieces operating at a higher level of craft. During my time in the reading group, I’ve definitely seen my analytical lens refine and have gotten to read some very fun, exciting work—both of which I hope, and think, have helped my own writing. 

Favorite pieces published in NER?

SM: In Professor Cohen’s class, we read Suzanne Rivecca’s incredible story, “Uncle,” which I was delighted to discover was published in NER in 2007! More recently, I loved Bradley Bazzle’s “Where the West Begins,” which we read in the reading group before it was published in 43.3. I’d recommend giving both, and many many more NER pieces, a read. 
EJ: Of all time? Crazy question. I’ll give you my favorite piece from the upcoming issue, 43.4. “The Last Tenants” by Yume Kitasei is a piece I think about often. In part because I fell in love with it during our reading group this summer. I think it might have been the first time I really advocated for a piece to move forward with such sureness. 

Favorite NER cover? 

EJ: I love this question because I just got to spent some time combing through the NER covers. Some highlights include: 43.2, 40.3, and 32.1. Don’t ask me why, I went on instinct. 
SM: That’s a tough one. I’m especially drawn to 35.4, 41.3, and 40.3. Don’t ask me why either, otherwise I might need to go back and peruse the archives again.  

Highlights of working at NER? 

EJ: My absolute favorite part of working at NER has to be reading paper submissions. I’ve learned a lot of literary magazines no longer accept them, and I’m a bit of a luddite, so I love that NER is still willing to sift through the mail. There’s something special about opening manila envelopes and finding stories and poems tucked inside. It makes the connection between the reader and the writer feel more intimate, not as mediated. There’s nothing quite like spending half an hour learning how to read someone’s handwriting. 
SM: I agree. I feel so privileged to hold someone’s paper submissions in my hands and feel a special little communion with them. It’s such a treat to be the first pair of eyes on an NER submission. I also really enjoy proofreading the issue because it gives me a chance to dive into some fabulous NER pieces.

Office Dos & Don’ts? 

EJ: Do make tea often. Pet Oscar when possible. Do not forget to bring a sweater as it is often cold. 
SM: Do sit in the comfy butterfly chair while reading submissions. Do print out reading group submissions. Do try and figure out how to update the NER Wikipedia page. Do not forget to bring a mug. I second the tea. 

A collaborative list of favorites across genres: 

Fiction:
Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
The Broom of the System, David Foster Wallace
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard
Franny & Zooey, J. D. Salinger
White Teeth, Zadie Smith 
The Secret History, Donna Tartt 
Normal People, Sally Rooney 
Middlemarch, George Eliot 
Trust Exercise, Susan Choi 
Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante 

Nonfiction:
Speak, Memory, Vladimir Nabokov 
Trick Mirror, Jia Tolentino 
The Right to Sex, Amia Srinivasan
The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson
The White Album, Joan Didion 
Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke 
Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner 
Slow Days, Fast Company, Eve Babitz 

Short Stories:
“The Moon in Its Flight,” Gilbert Sorrentino 
“Parker’s Back,” Flannery O’Connor
“Symbols and Signs,” Vladimir Nabokov 
“The Aleph,” Jorge Luis Borges 
“The Nose,” Nikolai Gogol 
“The Itch,” Don DeLillo 
“An Affair, Edited,” Mary Gaitskill 
“The Custodian,” Deborah Eisenberg
“Gender Studies,” Curtis Sittenfeld 
“Evolution,” Joan Silber 

Poetry:
“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” Emily Dickinson
“Scheherazade,” Richard Siken
“Kitchen Song,” Laura Kasischke
“Elegy,” Aracelis Girmay
“The Orange,” Wendy Cope
“The Pomegranate,” Eavan Boland

Meet the Interns

Kate and Andrew

Kate Sadoff and Andrew Grossman, summer 2022 interns

Kate Sadoff and Andrew Grossman spent the summer at New England Review, producing two episodes of the NER Out Loud podcast, to be released in August and October. They also designed a new display for Davis Library, created posts for our website, weighed in on cover art, and helped out wherever needed. Here they interview each other for our “Meet the Interns” series.

Should we start with the basics? Hometown, year, major, fun fact?

KS: Los Angeles, CA, 2023.5’, Creative Writing, I hate doing those. 
AG: Greenwich, CT, 2023.5’, Creative Writing, I also hate fun facts.
KS: Fun fact is that Andrew and I are part of the same original Feb class. 
AG: Fun fact is that we hadn’t spoken to each other until this year, oops.                

Andrew, what was your favorite part of this internship?

KS: Andrew is too busy editing our podcast to answer this, so I’ll answer instead. Even though I was extremely nervous, my favorite part was interviewing authors for our podcast. We chose the pieces we were both drawn to. The more we read them, the more we loved them, so hearing authors speak on pieces we became genuinely attached to was special and rewarding. Our conversations ended up flowing much more organically than I expected.  

AG: I’m done editing, for now. Inevitably I will return to LogicPro as a podcaster’s job is never done until Carolyn tells me I have to be done. I thoroughly enjoyed coming to a beautiful bright office and getting to read exciting new pieces from so many different authors. I also loved reading slush pile pieces and pieces from the new issue back to back. Never has being a creative writer felt so approachable and yet so out of reach.  

Kate, what’s your moon sign?

KS: Pisces. Yours?
AG: Virgo. 
KS: I knew you reminded me of my mother. 
AG: My mother’s also a Virgo. Curious.
KS: And your Sun?
AG: Capricorn. But you knew that already. 
KS: Sorry, I wanted this to come off a little more natural. Makes sense. I love Capricorns.
AG: I forgot you were a Gemini. That makes sense too. Andrew grimaces and breaks the fourth wall. 
KS: What’s that supposed to mean? Kate scoffs. 

They both scroll on the CoStar app.

KS: We have to work to understand each other’s moods and emotions. Andrew, I never know what you’re feeling. 
AG: It’s hard opening up; being vulnerable is something I’m working on as a Cap, but if I can learn to trust a Gemini, I can learn to trust anyone. 

Do you want to know a secret about Andrew?

AG: No. 
KS: He doesn’t know his left from his right. 
AG: I just think it’s funny that you asked “Am I clear on the left” when you were in the driver’s seat. Food for thought.

What’s a tip for writing good emails? 

KS: Don’t be yourself. 
AG: Just avoid them at all costs. Text messages too. If you wait long enough, Kate will do it. 
KS: I can’t answer my own text messages, Andrew. I’ve been getting bogged down in email punctuation. How to be lighthearted with exclamations without sounding superficially ecstatic, how to use periods without sounding too stern, how to alternate periods and exclamation points without sounding like a robot—can anyone help me?  

Earliest book crush?

AG: Kate from the Mysterious Benedict Society 
KS: Bunnicula
AG: ?
KS: …

Formative books from your childhood?

AG: I remember being intrigued by the cover of When You Reach Me and reading it over the course of a single day because I was so hooked. It was baby’s first twist ending, but my mind was thoroughly blown; it showed me the power and beauty of a well written story. 
KS: When I was in fourth grade, I read this book called Diary of a Chickabiddy Baby by Emma Kallok. She wrote the book when she was ten years old and it was published when she was thirteen. I became obsessed with the book, and started copying the main character, borrowing phrases from the text, ultimately deciding it was feasible for ten-year-old me to be a published author too. I then submitted a story to Stone Soup, titled “How the Ladybug Got Its Spots.” Needless to say, I faced rejection early. I still wonder, though, if I’d be a STEM major if not for Chickabiddy baby.  
AG: Honorable mentions include Because of Winn-Dixie and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, and The Tale of Despereaux. 
KS: In agreement with Andrew, anything by Kate DiCamillo, the Malory Towers series by Enid Blyton, the Judy Blume canon, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly, Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan, and the Wayside School series by Louis Sachar. 

Bonus round, rapid fire: Where are you? What’s your favorite book? What’s your biggest unfulfilled dream? What’s your biggest regret? What was the last nightmare you had?

KS: NER office swivel chair, Sylvia by Leonard Michaels, opening a diner in the midst of the desert that only serves different kinds of pancakes, not taking a language at Middlebury, I’d prefer not to comment.  
AG: NER office floor, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, Hiking the PCT, not having our interns’ outing at the route seven used book shop, Kate’s goose impression makes its way into my nightmares pretty often.

Horoscope do’s and don’ts? 

AG: DO focus group, white Flag, erasers, DON’T grasping at straws, keyboard smash, pocket lint. 
KS: Pretty apt. You look ready for a keyboard smash. Mine are DO phone calls, waxing poetic, FM radio, DON’T plot twists, feedback loops, half-truths. 

NER internship do’s and don’ts. 

Do
KS: Look through the earliest exclusive NERs.  
AG: Watch for the baby wagon that passes the office once a day. 
KS: Pay attention during “staff meetings” and wait for fantastic tangents. 
AG: Pet Oscar. 
KS: Try Carolyn’s kombucha (if she offers it). 
AG: Keep working on getting NER verified on Twitter and IG. 
KS: Triple check names and spellings. 

Don’t
AG: Use zoom to record an interview (go see Gary [WRMC]).
KS: Take the earliest exclusive NERs from the shelf. 
AG: Smell Oscar’s breath. 
KS: Try to print from the intern computers (Eli will be on the phone for hours). 
AG: Try to change the Wikipedia article (but actually do, sorry in advance). 
KS: Sit in the comfy chair unless you’ve already committed to napping in the office. 
AG: Come to Marquis Trivia ever, because we’ll beat you (and there’s never space).
KS: Take it personally. 

Kate and Andrew’s compiled book recs (we realized early on in our friendship there was some overlap): 

Kate and Andrew’s aforementioned favorites: 
Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders) 
Sylvia (Leonard Michaels) 

For classics: 
East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
Franny and Zooey (J. D. Salinger)
White Noise (Don DeLillo)

For something a bit heady:
Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera)
The Argonauts (Maggie Nelson)

For the beach:
An Absolutely Remarkable Think (Hank Green)
Nothing to See Here (Kevin Wilson)
Sharp Objects (Gillian Flynn) 

For tears: 
We the Animals (Justin Torres)
Tiny Beautiful Things (Cheryl Strayed)
Men We Reaped (Jesmyn Ward)

Excellent short stories:
Sonny’s Blues (James Baldwin)
The Moon in Its Flight (Gilbert Sorrentino)
The Masters Castle (Anthony Doerr)

Favorite non-fic essays: 
The Fourth State of Matter (Jo Ann Beard)
Living Like Weasels (Annie Dillard)
Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley (David Foster Wallace)
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Joan Didion) 

Breaking: Andrew and I just decided to start a book club this year. Let us know if you want to join! (Currently Full 2/2, accepting applications for our waitlist). 

TBR:
The Night Watchman (NER author Louise Erdrich)
Nine Stories (J. D. Salinger)
The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
How Strange a Season (Megan Mayhew Bergman <3)
Jazz (Toni Morrison)
A Visit from the Goon Squad (NER author Jennifer Egan) 
Norwegian Wood (Haruki Murakami)

John Vaaler and Eleanor Pontikes

Meet the Interns

Our Spring 2022 interns, John Vaaler and Eleanor Pontikes, sat down to chat about their experience at NER.

Eleanor: Okay, I think we’re rolling!

John: Eleanor, tell me about what led you to the New England Review.

E:  I vividly remember walking into a professor’s office back during my second semester at Middlebury, and I came to show her something I was working on and ask for advice on how to become a writer. She had many great recommendations but one of them was to get an internship at the New England Review. I participated in the reading submissions group for a few years and here I am during my senior year! 

Tell me about your path here, John!

J: I love writing film and book reviews, and wanted to get the inside scoop on the publishing process. My advisor, Jay Parini—who cofounded NER—recommended the job, and I am so glad I got to intern this Spring. 

I didn’t realize going into the internship the amount of work it takes to keep a publishing house or literary journal on its feet. It’s not just editing: there’s fact-checking, contract work, design. 

E: I was also surprised that we pay our authors since not many literary journals compensate authors for their work. The administrative side of the journal was also fascinating to me, and I enjoyed working with Eli on the various platforms involved in the process of publishing.

J: I didn’t know how many drafts and rewrites go into a story before it’s ready for publication, or how collaborative the editing process is between NER and its authors. I assumed it was more like submitting a letter to the New York Times, where the editors might be the main tinkerers of the submission after you send it in. It’s a very collaborative process and I didn’t appreciate that until working here.

One favorite task in the office is reading the mail-in submissions, which are often especially lively.

Eleanor, tell me what stuff you are involved with on campus. 

E: I’ve definitely overextended myself this semester! But I run the Women’s Club Soccer team, am president of the fly fishing club, MiddFly, and am a senior editor of Clover Magazine, Middlebury’s first fashion publication. 

To create some balance between work and extracurriculars, I love going to the gym and walking around town. I usually treat myself with a latte every morning too. I think going to different coffee shops with friends has been one of my favorite self-care rituals this semester.

What about you, John?

J: I sometimes contribute to the Middlebury Campus. I’m a member of our Omega Alpha Social House, where I used to be the social chair. I am also a peer writing tutor at the CTLR (Center for Teaching Learning and Research), where I help freshmen students with their papers. A lot of the work I do with their papers is teaching them not so much to write well, but rather how to write well in an academic context. It’s a skill and not a talent, so it’s pretty great just helping all of these really brilliant first years make their first steps as academic writers. And I, too, love to go to coffee shops with friends. 

E: And what’s your favorite one?

J: Little Seed.

E:  I’ve found I enjoy different coffee shops for different needs. I go to Little Seed when I need to sit and work for hours, Haymaker when I want to talk to friends for hours, and Royal Oak when I need a break from everything!

Are you reading anything for fun right now? 

J: Finals are looming, so I really shouldn’t be reading anything . . . but yes, I am making my way through Temporary Kings, the penultimate book in Anthony Powell’s bittersweet, very funny A Dance to the Music of Time series. He’s a little like Dostoyevsky . . . Dostoyevsky by way of Wodehouse. The characters often think they’re living in a tragedy, but the series is obviously comic. 

What have you been reading?

E: I was traveling this weekend and started Mary Oliver’s Upstream. I’ve read various poems of hers through my time in the Environmental Studies department but it’s been lovely reading this collection in its entirety.

John: I love her poem “Wild Geese.”

E: “Attention is the beginning of devotion” has always stuck with me. Oliver’s keen observation of humanity and the natural world compel me as both a reader and writer. 

J: What is your ideal reading environment?

E: I think this office deserves some credit in this interview because it’s such a cozy, warm place! Overall, my ideal reading environment is just comfy enough so I don’t fall asleep because the Davis library chairs are way too comfortable, and I fall asleep every time I’m in there.

But ultimately, I need to have a cushioned seat and a drink in hand while reading—coffee or tea, of course.

J:  I am a believer in what Virginia Woolf once said: You have to read alone in a room of your own. But there are exceptions to Woolf’s rule. The other day I was waiting for a friend in Two Brothers Tavern, and I read some of Temporary Kings for a few minutes. Reading Anthony Powell in a bar is an interesting experience. A lot of the characters in his novels do that sort of thing more frequently than they probably should. 

E: What is your favorite task here in the office?

J: My favorite task was copyediting the pieces we published on the website. After reading some of them in the reading group last summer, it was a real treat to see NER authors get the publicity their incredible work deserves. 

E: I think my favorite task was doing the author book posts every month. Every month we post new releases from authors who’ve been published in NER. This past weekend, I wandered through a bookstore in Colorado and saw Ocean Vuong’s Time is a Mother featured in their “New and Noteworthy” section. I wrote about his new poetry collection for the April new book post. NER authors are so talented and it’s a rewarding experience to have even a small role in their path to success, one that maybe began with the New England Review. Gosh, it also makes me want to read and read and read! (And then maybe one day write my own “New and Noteworthy” book!)

You’re graduating in a few weeks! Any plans for the summer and what’s to come?

J: I’m moving to New York and starting a job at an expert network company! Currently trying to find an affordable room in Manhattan. And what are your summer plans?

E: I’m going back home to Colorado, returning to work at a fly shop, and waiting to hear back from remote summer publishing internships, so I’m a little stressed (nervous laughter).

J: You mentioned your passion for fly fishing. What is your favorite fly fishing story?

E: Hmm. I’d have to say the story in Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It when Paul is swept through the Blackfoot River, holding his rod high above the water with a trout at the end of his line. 

For me, there are many moments I can think of, but my best fishing stories are less about the size of the fish and more about the places I’m in and the people I’m with. 

Do you have a favorite genre of submissions to read and go through?

J: I enjoy the nonfiction submissions, particularly the reviews of works I have never read before. It’s so exciting reading non-academic reviews, especially when the subject is a topic that the author is clearly passionate about.

How about you?

E: I also tend to gravitate towards nonfiction, especially essays centered on adventure and self-reflection. I am especially fond of Thomas Dai’s “Driving Days” from NER 42.2. 

J: I absolutely loved Mark Harman’s erudite, hilarious piece published in NER 43.1 “Borges Translates Joyce Who Translates Himself.”

It was so nice talking with you about your experience at NER, Eleanor!

E: You too, John! I wish you all the best, this summer and beyond!

NER Interns: Where are they now?

Elisse Ota

Elisse Ota ’11 talks to NER intern Bel Spelman ’23 about the influence learning Japanese has on her writing and storytelling.

Bel Spelman: Where are you now, geographically and professionally? 

Elisse Ota: My husband and I have been waiting for the past year and a half to move to Japan, but, unfortunately, due to the pandemic and the closure of Japan’s borders, we’ve been held in limbo. Currently, I am living in California and am at work on a collection of short stories that I hope to finish this year.  

BS: What was one skill you developed as an undergraduate—either in school or through internships—that most benefits you today in your professional work?

EO: One of the greatest gifts I received at Middlebury was learning a new language, specifically Japanese. When you’re learning a new language you wade clumsily towards meaning and you don’t always get there via words alone. You find that you need other things to help you—body language, facial expression, intonation—and, as you gather up every clue you can find to understand what is being said, you realize that communication is not merely a matter of grammar and words, and that what is said reveals as much as it conceals. Often, what’s unsaid is the most important thing, especially in a high-context culture like Japan’s in which politeness dictates certain verbal acknowledgements that conceal one’s true feelings to preserve group harmony. As a learner of Japanese, I both learned how to speak Japanese and how to pay close attention to things other than language to understand what a person truly thought and felt. This ability to both use language and to read the subtext of a conversation has helped me tremendously as a fiction writer. People are complex. They don’t often say what’s truly important to them, and this is the reason I love storytelling. It is a way to show the truth when it’s too difficult, or painful, or coarse, or simplistic to tell it directly.     

BS: Do you have any book recommendations?  

EO: I recently finished Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry, which I thought was fantastic!  It’s a beautifully rendered portrait of a small farming community in Kentucky, and I appreciated Berry’s elegant and heart-wrenching exploration of what it means to hope while shedding expectations. I also love William Trevor’s work, especially his short story collection After Rain, and Mary Yukari Waters’s collection The Laws of Evening is one I go back to again and again. Tessa Hadley’s book, Bad Dreams and Other Stories, is also a gem!

BS: Is there a past project that you’re particularly fond of?

EO: Out of all the stories I’ve written, “Girl From the Moon,” which was published in Narrative, is one of my favorites.  I am also looking forward to the publication of another story called “The Paper Artist,” that will come out as a Ploughshares Solo this fall.  

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