I would like to thank Mr. John Wasileski for his generous support in funding the award that allowed me to complete my internship at The Adirondack Review. I learned many new skills during my internship and gained invaluable experience in the field of publishing. I am very grateful for this award and to have had this amazing opportunity.
I chose to pursue an internship at The Adirondack Review because I have always been very interested in literary magazines and I wanted to gain experience in the industry. This specific publication appealed to me because it published a wide variety of fiction and poetry and as an English major, I enjoy interacting with and analyzing both forms of writing. The publication also had an engaging website and a very active internship program.
The Adirondack Review was founded by Colleen Ryor and is one of North America's oldest online publications. They have four issues each year and aim to publish work from a variety of writers. Though some writers have already been published in multiple magazines, such as The New Yorker, there are others for which TAR is the first magazine in which they have been published. The magazine publishes poetry, fiction, translations, book and film reviews, and art.
During my internship, I commented on the poetry and fiction submissions in a shared document with the other interns and editors. We each read four pieces a week and discussed their suitability for publication in the magazine. I was also one of two social media interns running the Instagram page and as such, I designed posts showcasing the Summer 2021 issue and came up with story ideas such as an "Intern Spotlight'' and "Vocab Friday." In addition to this, I completed a personal project which involved writing a book review on John B. Thomspon's Book Wars: The Digital Revolution in Publishing. Since I am receiving credit for the internship, I am completing ENGL 498 in the fall under the supervision of a professor. I will be writing a report on my experience, focusing on the characteristics that define online literary magazines and the ever-changing world of publishing in the digital age.
The learning objectives for the internship included copy-editing and editorial experience and collaboration with a small team. Since I am studying Honours English Literature, my academic background helped a great deal with these objectives. In many of my classes, I analyze poetry and fiction and I was able to use this skill for the commentary I wrote on pieces. I enjoyed the collaborative element of reading and responding to the comments of other interns, similar to how we discuss literature in my conferences. In addition, I took ENGL 322 last semester, in which we discussed many aspects of the publishing industry and read Thomspon's previous book Merchants of Culture. This meant I had a great deal of background knowledge when taking on the task of writing the review on Book Wars for my personal project.
My experience as an editorial intern will help me not only with future positions that I hope to undertake in the publishing industry, but also my own projects, such as the magazine I co-founded called The Imagist, as well as The McGill Tribune, for which I am a student life editor. Moreover, since I hope to continue studying English at the graduate level, my experience with a literary publication will help me a great deal with my future academic pursuits.
The funding I received from my award allowed me to stay in my apartment and work remotely during my internship as I was able to pay for rent, food, utilities and other necessities while working at The Adirondack Review.
Thank you to the McGill International Experience Awards founders and Mr. John Wasileski for making this experience possible!
