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Meet the Interns

Will and Anja

December 8, 2017

Anja Kuipers and Will McDonald are NER’s fall term interns. For the past several months they spent their Tuesday and Thursday mornings helping out around NER, sorting submissions, creating posts for the website, drafting emails, occasionally reading submissions, and licking envelopes.

Will McDonald is a senior Political Science major from Westport, Connecticut. He is currently working on a thesis dealing with the impact of social media on political polarization in America.

Anja Kuipers: What brought you to NER?

Will McDonald: My sophomore year I went to NER Out Loud (an event in which students read pieces from NER) and they mentioned they had an internship. I take a lot of creative writing classes, so I’ve always been interested in writing and literature and it seemed like a very cool opportunity.

AK: What part of the internship do you enjoy the most?

WM: I enjoy sorting through the submissions to make sure that they get read by the correct person. It’s inspiring to see how many people out there are committed to writing and mind-blowing to me that there are so many established, award-winning writers who I’ve never even heard of.

AK: What are some of your favorite books?

WM: Catch-22 and The Sun Also Rises are two books that knocked me off my feet when I first read them. I once found an inscribed copy of Catch-22 while looking through an old bookshelf with my friend at his grandparents’ house and it felt like I was holding the Holy Grail. When I was younger, I really liked City of Ember – I feel like when you’re younger you can’t appreciate the writing as much, so it’s all about how cool a book’s concept is, and City of Ember’s whole plot got me going. That’s why I can’t tell if the sequels weren’t as good or if I was just too old by then.

AK: Any classes at Middlebury that made a particularly deep impression?

WM: I took this cool interdepartmental course called “Art & Craft of Statesmanship.” It was taught by (economist) David Colander, Governor Jim Douglas, and one of his former speechwriters. I learned a lot about speechwriting, which was a lot different than any other writing I’d done up until that point. You’re writing in someone else’s voice, you’re trying to write as clearly – not as flashy – as possible, and it’s a good experience for anyone who likes writing.

AK: What are some things you do in your free time?

WM: In the summers, I work at this summer camp for kids with chronic and serious illnesses called The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, which I’d argue is probably the happiest place on Earth. At school, I’ve mostly been living in my thesis carrel, but I’m near some friends so that’s been fun – maybe a little unproductive sometimes.

AK: Are you a dog person or a cat person?

WM: Dogs, 100 percent. I have a wiener dog named Scout, and while I’d like to claim the credit for picking a name that was inspired by To Kill A Mockingbird, it was all my sister. The whole claws thing freaks me out when it comes to cats.

AK: Any plans for after graduation?

WM: Maybe law school, but not next year, and maybe not even the year after that. I’m trying to take the long view and enjoy these last few months here as much as possible.

℘

Anja Kuipers is a senior English and American Literatures major from Hilo, Hawaii. She is currently spending her fall semester dancing, finishing up a creative writing poetry thesis, and gradually losing her summer tan.

WM: So as an English major, you must be reading a lot. What’s on your list currently?

AK: Lots of poetry, mainly for thesis inspiration. Interning at NER has been great because I’m constantly surrounded by new authors to check out and names that I wouldn’t have otherwise come in contact with. In my down time I’ve been interested in contemporary American authors writing and race and ethnicity… Danzy Senna who writes about multi-racial and white passing identity, Junot Diaz… And separate from that I love Angela Carter’s books, Janice Galloway’s The Trick Is to Keep Breathing, and John Irving.

WM: You mentioned that you liked being surrounded by new authors at NER. What else do you like about interning here?

AK: Generally getting a sense of how the literary world operates on a logistical scale has been eye opening. I’ve always been interested in reading and writing, but have never had any insight or access to the literary world itself. Something as simple as emailing an NER author or sorting through submissions is still very cool to me.

WM: What was it that brought you to NER?

AK: I had a friend I worked with my freshman year who did the winter term NER internship. She loved it, and since then interning here was always in the back of my head. I work at the library in town and love being around books.

WM: What’s the biggest non-meteorological difference between Hawaii and Vermont?

AK: Wild boars. And the cultural makeup of Hawaii is vastly different.

WM: Any plans after graduation? Only 200 days away!! (tick-tock)

AK: Agh, don’t remind me. Senior year panic is already kicking in. I’m hoping to find a city to land in where I can work in something literature related, get paid enough to get by, and find enough time to keep doing acrobatics. I’m fairly open to where life takes me, so I’m mainly just excited for the next steps and seeing how things unravel.

WM: Did you hear about all these people who already have jobs?

AK: Constantly.

WM: What’re you going to do with your life?

AK: Hopefully I’ll find some crazy situation in which I can be an acrobat/writer/dancer/educator/children’s librarian/artist/editor and live by the ocean. That’s the long-term plan. Stay indecisive for as long as possible.

WM: Will you continue with your passion for poetry, or do you think you’ll sell out?

AK: I think I’ll keep up with it in some capacity, even if it’s not how I make a living. I don’t want to make too many predictions about the future, though—who knows what will happen.

Filed Under: NER Community, News & Notes

Ellen Hinsey’s “Mastering the Past”

March 10, 2017

Congratulations to NER international correspondent Ellen Hinsey, whose collection of timely essays—some of which appeared first in our pages—has just been released by Telos Press. Her poem “The Illegal Age” has also recently been reprinted at Tagesspiegel and is available online.

Over the last decade, Ellen has traveled across Central and Eastern Europe researching a critical shift in the European political landscape: the rise of illiberalism. A quarter of a century after the changes of 1989—and as former Soviet sphere societies come to terms with their histories—the specters of populism, nationalism, extreme-right parties, and authoritarian rule have returned in force. Through a series of eyewitness reports, Mastering the Past offers an insider’s view of key political events, including the 2012 Russian elections, the Polish presidential plane crash in Smolensk, and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s vision for a new Hungary. Hinsey explores the darkening hour of European politics with an incisive mind and an eye for detail, recording the urgent danger that illiberalism represents for the new century.

Praise for Ellen Hinsey’s Mastering the Past

“Ellen Hinsey writes with power and passion: this is a formidable feast of research and interpretation. Her book is necessary and timely reading for anyone who wants to understand events in Central and Eastern Europe.”
—John S. Friedman, author and contributor to The Nation

“Ellen Hinsey’s book is a profound study that deals with a recent menacing—but not-yet-fully described or understood—phenomenon: the rebirth of backward nationalist attitudes in Eastern Europe. Based on first-hand experience, and making exemplary use of the author’s contacts with dissident intellectuals in many countries, it is an indispensable work for specialists and simply fascinating for the general reader.”
—Tomas Venclova, Lithuanian dissident and author

Filed Under: NER Community, News & Notes Tagged With: Ellen Hinsey

New England Review Award for Emerging Writers

Finalists announced for 2017

February 2, 2017

New England Review announces, with enormous pleasure, the finalists for the third annual New England Review Emerging Writers Award.

DSC_3006Please join us in congratulating our six finalists for 2017:

Alex McElroy (37.4)
Amy Meng
(37.4)
Kate Petersen
(37.2)
Genevieve Plunkett
(37.4)
Christine Robbins
(37.1)
Alan Rossi
(37.4)

The winner, to be announced later this month, will receive a scholarship to the 2017 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Congratulations to them all—we are proud to have published such strong work from emerging writers in all three genres.

Filed Under: NER Community, News & Notes Tagged With: Alan Rossi, Alex McElroy, Amy Meng, Bread Loaf Emerging Writer's Award, Christine Robbins, Genevieve Plunkett, Kate Petersen

Meet the Interns

Farid and Nick

January 26, 2017

Interns Farid Noori (left) and Nick Kaye (right) in front of the NER office in Middlebury, Vermont

Farid Noori and Nick Kaye are the Winter Term interns for NER. They come in Monday through Thursday each week to help with a variety of tasks, including writing web posts, analyzing subscriber data, organizing office inventory, and developing marketing ideas. They also meet with fiction editor Jennifer Bates once a week to review and discuss submissions.

Farid and Nick sit down together to learn about each other’s backgrounds, interests, and aspirations.

 

Farid Noori is from Ghazni, Afghanistan, but grew up in Quetta, Pakistan, and Kabul, Afghanistan. He came to the United States for high school in 2011, and has lived in Maine and New Mexico. He is a junior at Middlebury College, where he studies Economics.

Nick Kaye: What was your experience with literature growing up in Afghanistan?

Farid Noori: As a Farsi native, I grew up surrounded by Persian literature, so there was a lot of Rumi, Saadi, Hafiz, and many other poets and writers that aren’t popular in the West . . . not yet.

I also learned Pashto (Afghanistan’s other official language), English, and Turkish, but didn’t engage with them as much as I did with Persian. During middle school, I became serious about English. It stemmed from a desire to study in America one day. So I started looking for reading material other than a boring 90s textbook series, The New American Streamline, that they still taught at Kabul’s various English learning centers. There were no English bookstores in Kabul, particularly after the war, so finding books proved to be difficult. One day, a friend of mine returned from a science contest in Korea with a few John Grisham novels he had bought at the airport. So, for a while, he was my favorite author.

NK: As an economics major, why did you want to work with a literary journal?

FN: I have always had an interest in writing, mostly because I want to share stories from my experiences in Afghanistan with audiences on this side of the world. That’s the main motivation. But going forward, the only way I see myself putting my econ degree to good use is potentially by starting adventure sports back home. And hence, [adventure] writing! Last semester, I took a creative writing class with Professor Christopher Shaw, and he really encouraged me to write more, and to check out NER, which I really enjoyed reading during study breaks at the library.

NK: What do you enjoy most about interning at NER?

FN: My initial interest in the NER came from my desire to read submissions, and to get familiar with the kinds of work that appeals to people. So I really enjoy learning about the publication process. Thursday discussions with the fiction editor are definitely a favorite. The NER workspace and culture is really enjoyable, too. I’m definitely happy to be part of a successful organization dedicated to spreading the literary arts, a good customer service, and engaging Middlebury College and its community with the literary world.

NK: What are some of your favorite books?

FN: John Grisham . . . just kidding! It’s hard these days to pick a favorite author or a book. I think I am still in search of that, especially in my limited experience with Western literature. But so far . . . Metamorphosis and One Hundred Years of Solitude. I wouldn’t necessarily say these are my ultimate favorites though. I am still looking.

NK: How do you spend your free time? 

FN: I am an avid, competitive mountain biker, which consumes a good chunk of my time. These days, I am trying to learn cross-country skiing. Sometimes, I do Persian calligraphy and drawing (to take a break from data analysis). Lately, my evenings have also been taken over by brewing homemade Chai and sitting around the fireplace with a group of friends for good conversation. And if none of this proves worthy of my free time, I jump on a bus and explore a city, and take photographs of random city life.    

NK: What do you hope to do when you graduate college, and how do you think working with NER will help or influence you?

FN: After graduation, I hope to fully focus on mountain bike racing. I am passionate about starting the sport of mountain biking back home in Afghanistan, building trails, and growing the outdoors community. I will chase these personal dreams for a few years and see where it leads. I would like to write a lot about these adventures, and I believe my experience with NER will be very helpful.

 

Nick Kaye grew up in Bangor, Maine. He recently completed his thesis in English and American Literatures and will graduate from Middlebury College this May. He is anxiously trying to figure out what’s next after college.

Farid Noori: Why did you choose to come to your neighboring state for college?

Nick Kaye: I really loved growing up in Maine—the sense of community, the woods, the water, and everything else. Looking at colleges, I knew I wanted to go somewhere that was familiar but also new. That’s what brought me to Vermont. It’s a lot like Maine, but there’s something about the culture and the landscape that feels fresh and distinctive.

FN: Why are you interested in literature?

NK: It’s hard for me to remember exactly when I took a liking to literature. I remember thinking as a kid that books had a certain mystique about them, and I wanted in on it. I spent a lot of time pretending to understand books that I couldn’t yet understand, and then, after long enough, I realized that I’d actually begun to appreciate what I was reading. I think I was part of the way through Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea when I had one of those epiphanies.

In college, I’ve had some really wonderful professors who encouraged my interest in literature. Timothy Billings, my academic advisor, taught me how to talk about literature in a way that is clear and meaningful; Maria Hatjigeorgiou set a fire in my mind with her class Literature and the Mystical Experience; and Christopher Shaw, my thesis advisor, showed me how to write sentences that people actually want to read, instead of getting caught up with academic jargon.

FN: What brings you to NER?

NK: I’ve been interested in literary magazines for a while now. I worked with my high school literary magazine, Mosaic, back in Maine, and here at Middlebury I’m co-editor-in-chief of Blackbird, which publishes students’ prose, poetry, and visual art. I think one of the most exciting things about working with a literary magazine is being the first one to read someone’s work. In college, you’re often taught to rely on existing criticism to interpret and evaluate a text, but when you’re working for publication like this, you’re forced to come up with wholly original ideas about the text. I think that’s an incredibly important and underdeveloped skill for many. 

FN: What are some of your favorite books?

NK: This is tough. I really enjoy writing that’s concerned with mysticism and religious experience—Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and For The Time Being, for example, or Flannery O’Connor’s short stories. I also love writers who are deranged, off-the-rails alcoholics. Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is one of my favorites, and so is Charles Bukowski’s poetry collection Love Is a Dog from Hell.

FN: Where do you want to go next after graduation?

NK: Great question. This is pretty much what I’ve been thinking about every day for the last couple months. I’m applying for a wide variety of jobs in writing and editing, publishing, and marketing. I’m open to all different locations, but I’ve mainly been eyeing Seattle and New York City. I’d be happy with any job where I get to apply my writing skills to something that isn’t mind-numbingly boring. If I get to work with literature, that would be ideal. (Readers, please hire me!)[We highly recommend him! —The Editors]

FN: What’s something you have always wanted to do, but haven’t done yet?

NK: Submit my own work to a literary journal. I write short stories and narrative essays here and there, but I haven’t made an effort to develop any particular piece for publication. I would love to set aside more time for my creative writing. Working somewhere like NER is incredibly inspiring as a writer because you really begin to understand what makes a piece of writing work or not work—what makes something actually enjoyable to read. I can’t wait to use what I’ve learned here toward my own writing.

FN: Dogs or cats?

NK: Oh, man. I have both dogs and cats at home, so it would probably be totally uncool to choose favorites. Wouldn’t want to hurt any feelings. That said, I’m super excited to be taking care of our new office manager Elizabeth Sutton’s cat, Richard Parker, next week. Not being able to hang with your pets is undoubtedly one of the worst parts of college.  

Filed Under: Interns, NER Community, News & Notes Tagged With: Farid Noori, Meet the Interns, Nick Kaye

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Cover art by Ralph Lazar

Volume 41, Number 4

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Writer’s Notebook—Field Dress Portal

Sarah Audsley

Writer’s Notebook—Field Dress Portal

Writing this poem was not a commentary on a rivalry between the sister arts—poetry and painting—but more an experiment in the ekphrastic poetic mode.

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