How To Find (And Snag!) an Editing Internship: An Interview with Alum Klein Voorhees '22

WHY DID YOU WANT TO INTERN AT A LITERARY MAGAZINE?

During undergrad I was a staff reader and eventually the Head of Literature for The Coraddi, our student arts and literature publication, and it was the first job I loved. I had been missing that kind of work for years, so the opportunity to come back to it on an even larger scale was beyond exciting. Reading what gets published in a journal is a totally different experience than reading everything that was submitted; you hear it all the time in rejection letters but there really is a lot of incredible work that doesn't make the cut, and working for a journal allows you to engage with it. The body of literature being written is naturally vaster and more varied than what is being published-an internship or staff reader position gives you the opportunity to engage with perspectives you may not otherwise hear.

HOW DID YOU GO ABOUT FINDING ONE?

I did it the dumb way, which is combing through the endless sea that is Submittable. Plenty of people do this (and clearly it worked out for me) but it's tedious and a bit despair-inducing. There are smarter ways to search! The first resource I recommend is Publishers Marketplace- you don't need a membership to look through their job board and the postings cover a wide range of fields and levels within the world of publishing. The second (and much more obvious) resource is Instagram/Twitter/LinkedIn. Your favorite publishers and mags are on at least one of these platforms and they advertise opportunities on their accounts.

WHAT WAS IT ABOUT A PUBLIC SPACE IN PARTICULAR THAT APPEALED TO YOU?

I knew that APS was an organization that I would want to work with after perusing their journal archive. They had published some of my favorite writers-Kaveh Akbar, Ari Banias, Etel Adnan, and Mónica de la Torre to name a few-as well as plenty of powerhouse creators like Yiyun Li, Jamel Brinkley, David Lynch, and Victoria Chang. They also featured plenty of works in translation and had a clear taste for thoughtful, surreal, or inventive work. In other words, they liked what I liked. If an organization is publishing the work you love to read, that you want to see more of in the world, then it's the right place for you to apply.

WHAT DID YOUR WORK ENTAIL?

My main responsibility was reviewing submissions to the journal (roughly 450 pages per week) but l honestly did a bit of everything: crafting copy and graphics for social media, compiling submissions data, researching book deals and trends, even reviewing manuscripts for the APS press. I got a very well-rounded publishing experience, and that seems to be the standard for most internships or editorial fellowships that l've seen online.

ADVICE FOR OTHERS LOOKING TO LAND AN INTERNSHIP?

Research who you're hoping to work for, and bring something unique to your application! Along with a cover letter and such I was asked to mock up three tweets for the APS account. The first one I made advertised one of their upcoming craft talks, the second advertised an upcoming event in their APS Together reading series, and the third was a call for donations. I wanted them to know that I was familiar with the organization, its needs, initiatives, and ethos. But what really set my application apart was the graphics I designed to accompany each tweet; it was something they hadn't asked for, it showcased an applicable skill, and it set me apart from other applicants. If you have the opportunity to go the extra mile or step outside the box, take it.