A CW&P Survival Guide, (2/4)
Dear Third Years,
There was a feeling that started setting in sometime around my second-last year of high school, when all my senior friends were deciding what they did and didn’t want to do after graduation. Some were applying to save lives as nurses, others were signing lease agreements for tiny leaky apartments in downtown St. John’s. Either way, everyone seemed to be moving on, and they were doing it rather quickly. I imagine it’s how Jessie the cowgirl felt being left in the donation box in Toy Story 2 (curse you Sarah McLachlan!)
This feeling was replicated in my second-last year of Creative Writing & Publishing, as I watched my fourth-year classmates hurtle toward internships and grad school applications. It looked like a bloodbath and sounded like hell... and I wanted in. It was as if everyone else was pressing their thumbs into the eggshells of the world and prying open something important. And what is the yolk blinking up from that cracked shell, you may ask? What is your entry point into the dazzling brilliance of the publishing industry? That, my junior friends, is your co-op semester.
Unfortunately, I am embellishing a little—the co-op semester isn’t that glamorous, but it is fun! From January to August of 2024, I worked as the Events & Communications Intern for The Ampersand Review and did everything from social media marketing to web content design. I was able to sit in on meetings and learn first-hand how a professional literary magazine was run, plan for launches and readings, and interact with writers and publishers that were doing the jobs that I wanted to do.
Here’s a life hack: start looking now. It’s never too early to get a sense of who might be willing to take you on. Lots of places have annual internships but there are just as many folks who are looking for spontaneous extra hands. It’s also possible that you could find a part-time internship that you could complete while in school (just make sure to familiarize yourself with the PLAR process!)
That being said, it’s good to keep an open mind. Lots of publishers often operate on a limited budget and with a small team. This means that they may not have the bandwidth or sufficient work to take on any interns. But if you did have your heart set on working with a certain publisher, isn’t it better to know that kind of thing in advance instead of a few weeks shy of your internship semester? Avoid the heartbreak. Do your research.
Let google sheets be your God: list any possible place you would want to work, track down contacts, fun facts about the company, etc. Log even the most farfetched possibilities—you never know what could happen!
Here’s one last hack (because I’m feeling generous): get excited. Look for people and places that are doing the work you want to be doing. Think about what you value and seek out the publishers or companies that embody those ideals. Find the publishers that publish the books you love and seek out artists and writers that inspire you.
At this point, your internship is no longer a mystical concept gleaming in the distance of your academic career. In fact, if you were to flip to the end of your current calendars, you’d reach the grid of paper that will eventually be filled with your co-op’s workdays, meetings, and deadlines. And while it’s important to invest some time in future planning, don’t forget to love the now. You only have so many more mornings huddled in the Tim Horton’s lineup or being bombarded with 80s tunes in C-wing. You don’t have to know what you want to do after graduation. You don’t have to have it all figured out. Just do as many cool things as you can with the time that you have, and you’ll find that more cool things will come along the way.
Jenna James
Editorial Assistant
B222
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