New England Review

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.  

NER Interns: Where are they now?

Camille Kellogg

Camille Kellogg ’17 talks to NER intern Bel Spelman ’23 about editing manuscripts, books as mirrors, and reading widely.

Bel Spelman: What do you remember from your NER internship?

Camille Kellogg: I remember my time at NER vividly. I was so excited to intern there. At the time, I was writing my thesis, so I would leave the library and tramp through the snow over to the NER office, which is this lovely, cozy building full of books. It was a very warm place, in every sense of the word. Everyone who worked there was so kind and friendly and put me at ease right away.

At NER, I got to sort query letters, format website posts, choose art for the website, proofread pieces, and read submissions then discuss them with the team. One of my favorite tasks was editing audio recordings of authors reading at Bread Loaf: I got to listen to incredible readings from Garth Greenwell, Natasha Tretheway, Peter Ho Davies, and more.

Interning at NER convinced me that I wanted to work in publishing. I looked at the NER team and saw a life I wanted to lead. It’s a lot of work and it’s not all reading and editing (there’s plenty of paperwork!) but the work was inspiring and exciting. When I got the issue of the magazine we’d worked on and held it in my hands it made me very sure that this was the kind of future I wanted.

BS: What were some of the steps that brought you to Bloomsbury Publishing?

CK: Once I graduated from Middlebury, I attended the Columbia Publishing Course to get an overview of the publishing industry. When the course ended, I crossed my fingers and moved to New York without a job. I actually had a broken arm at the time from a rugby injury, so I only brought one suitcase with me! I applied to as many editorial assistant jobs as I could find and got hired at HarperCollins Children’s Books. A few years later I moved over to Macmillan, but I was only there for about a year before my entire imprint was shut down during the pandemic. They say if you work in publishing long enough, you’ll eventually get laid off, so I’m hoping that was my one time! While I was unemployed, I spent my time working on a book of my own, which is being published by Penguin Random House next year. After four months, I was hired at Bloomsbury Children’s Books. I’m now an editor here, working with the wonderful Bloomsbury team and acquiring books from truly incredible authors.

BS: How does your work challenge you?

CK: Editing a manuscript is always challenging, no matter how many times you do it, because every book needs something slightly different. The first time you read a manuscript through, you know there are parts that you love and parts that feel off. Then you have to sit down and figure out why things feel off. Is it the pacing, the character development, the plot? Once you can identify the problem, then you can work with the author to come up with a solution.

The biggest challenge in publishing, though, is always time management. There’s so much to do! There’s always paperwork to fill out, emails to send, and submissions to read. The job is never really “done.” I always wish I had more time, especially for reading.

BS: Bloomsbury has a focus on publishing children’s and young adult stories. What do you enjoy about working with these stories?

CK: I decided to go into children’s books because, as a queer person, I didn’t see myself in books growing up. It’s so important for kids to see themselves in the stories they read—it helps them develop confidence and feel like they can be the hero of their own story. I wanted to help make sure every kid gets that experience. Being a kid or teen can also be really scary and overwhelming, so I tend to be drawn towards books that don’t shy away from the darkness of childhood but instead show readers how to find light when things get dark.

Kids and young adult books are also fun. One of the goals of every book I publish is to teach young people to love reading, to publish stories that they don’t want to put down. It’s hard to take yourself too seriously when you’re editing chapter books about dragons or YA novels about K-pop stars. There’s always a note of fun in the work I do.

BS: Any advice for college students looking to enter the publishing industry?

Camille Kellog (right) and a fellow intern in the NER office.

CK: The best advice I can give to anyone who wants to work in publishing is READ. Read a ton of books in the genre you want to work in and read RECENT books. When you go to an interview, you want to be able to talk about books published in the last two to three years, not just the books that you read in your English classes. Read a really wide range of books, too: commercial books, literary books, bestsellers, flops, everything. When you finish a book, think about what worked in the book, what didn’t, and what you would suggest changing if you were the editor. Doing this helps you get to know the current publishing market and also develop your editorial skills.

BS: Do you have a long-term goal for your editorial career?

CK: My long-term career goal is to publish a lot of wonderful books, do my absolute best for my authors, and help to put more stories out into the world for people who might not have seen themselves in stories before. That’s also the same goal I have for my career as an author: my debut novel, which is a queer adult romcom, comes out in 2023 and is for queer people who feel lost or uncertain about how to navigate the world. It’s the book that I desperately needed when I was younger to tell me that things were going to be okay.

NER Interns: Where are they now?

Brita Fisher

Brita Fisher ’15 talks with NER intern Hannah Frankel ’22 about social justice organizing, teaching, and following your interests.

Hannah Frankel: What did you study at Middlebury and where do you live now?

Brita Fisher: I majored in Literary Studies and minored in French. I’m currently living in Calais, Vermont.

HF: Tell us a bit about what you did after you graduated and how you decided what to do.

BF: Right after college I taught English in France for a year, and then taught high school French and a literature elective in English at a private school in southern Vermont for two years. Throughout my time teaching, the curricula I was writing focused on both literature and issues of social justice. For example, we studied immigration, racism in France and the US, decolonization movements and how they intersected with the Civil Rights movement in the US, as well as mass incarceration and the Movement for Black Lives.

During that time I got involved with community organizing through the Root Social Justice Center in Brattleboro, the Vermont Workers’ Center, and Resource Generation. The Root focuses on local racial justice organizing, the Vermont Workers’ Center is an economic justice organization with a campaign for health care as a human right, and Resource Generation organizes young people with access to wealth and/or class privilege for the equitable redistribution of resources to social movements.

After two years teaching in southern Vermont, I thought that I wanted to do something more aligned with organizing for work, so I got a job through AmeriCorps at Vermont Legal Aid in Burlington doing community legal education and community outreach. In the end, I found that working at a nonprofit felt very different than the organizing I felt more passionate about. When my contract ended after a year, I got a job baking to prioritize mental and emotional space for the unpaid community organizing work I had continued to do. I baked for a year and a half before getting a job delivering packages for FedEx. This fall I started a two-year program through Goddard College where I’ll get an MA in teaching and a license to teach English in high school. The program is self-designed so I’ve gotten to center an intersectional social justice lens.

Brita during her time as a literature student at Middlebury College.

HF: How has your professional life changed between then and now?

BF: My professional life has gone through a lot of changes since I graduated. I suppose where I am now—in school for teaching, working part time in food service, and deeply involved in the Vermont Workers’ Center and Resource Generation’s Vermont chapter—represents a blend of where I’ve been since graduating. The biggest changes have been orienting my life around community organizing and then making the decision to go back to teaching in a school. I really value what I’ve learned and accomplished in different organizing contexts, especially in developing and facilitating political education workshops as part of campaigns, and I am excited to add teaching back into my life.

HF: What’s one thing you remember about your time as an intern with NER?

BF: I remember the feeling of being in the cozy and welcoming office and the awe I felt at getting to be involved, in any small way, in the work NER was doing. For Literary Studies we were reading almost exclusively books published before the 1930s, so participating in the active publishing of new material, and seeing how that happens, felt exciting and inspiring to me. The generous way that Marcy and Carolyn brought me into the different processes feels central to my time at NER.

HF: What would you say you learned as an undergrad that really benefits you today, either personally or professionally?

BF: I would say what I learned about my own analysis and writing process—how I like to approach it and what works for me.

HF: What advice do you have for current students that have similar interests and goals as you had when you were a student?

BF: The most concrete advice that comes to mind is to not wait until senior spring to take an intro level class you’ve been wanting to take. I write poetry for myself and waited until senior spring to try to take an intro level creative writing class. I wasn’t able to get into it because I was a senior and wasn’t able to take any of the upper level classes because I had no prerequisites. I’d known for a while that it was something I wanted to do, so I wish I had prioritized taking that class earlier.

HF: What are your favorite ‘guilty pleasure’ reads and what have you read lately that you enjoyed?

BF: I came across the books Daughter of the Forest and Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier when I was in eighth or ninth grade. Something about the way she writes about trauma, healing, and the power of myth and storytelling in a fantasy context really moved me then, and I read them multiple times. I periodically return to them when in need of a comfort read. As for what I’ve enjoyed recently, last week I read Passing by Nella Larsen, which is a short and intensely powerful novel about race, racism, and power.

HF: Thanks so much for taking the time to answer all my questions! I hope school goes well and wish you happiness and fulfillment in the future.

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