I am the associate editor of Two Lines Press and a lecturer in English at the Fall Program for Freshmen (FPF), offered to spring admit students at UC Berkeley. This is my first year at Two Lines and my second at FPF. I was an English major and a coxswain at Wellesley and after I graduated in 2004, I went to Ireland for my M.A. (Irish literature) and then UC Santa Barbara for my Ph.D. in English. I grew up in the Bay Area, so as I was finishing up my dissertation on avant garde Irish poets, I moved back to the Bay, which will always be my home. I discovered the thriving literary and poetry scene here, especially in the East Bay, which keeps me engaged with and excited about writing. I kept turning back to the business of books during graduate school, and I found I also enjoyed reaching a broader audience outside of academia. After I finished my degree, I found editorial work and also began writing essays and reviews for literary journals and culture websites like The Golden Handcuff Review, The Hairpin, The Millions, and The Rumpus. I think of editing and teaching as both being helping professions — you’re the first and hopefully best reader of the work, and you help a writer or student discover their own voice.
How has your career changed since you originally envisioned it at Wellesley?
At Wellesley, I first envisioned becoming an editor of commercial and literary fiction, but I don’t think I knew much about what that meant. I just knew I liked reading stories. I interned at a publishing house after sophomore year but at the time was disappointed by the marketing and wheeling and dealing that went into books being made. I decided then that I wanted something with less show and more substance, so I pivoted toward academia. I imagined that it would be an extension of undergraduate, but without breadth requirements, and that I would emerge from graduate school to find a soft landing on a cozy campus near a coast. However, I discovered that marketing is an essential part of academia as well — professors and grad students mold their work around what can get them jobs and grants and publishing contracts — and also that I was more and more interested in understanding the process by which writing becomes a book, and a book becomes a bestseller or critical darling. I also learned how tough it is to find a tenure track job in academia, which seemed particularly true in the years following the recession. Working with one foot in academia and one in the literary world is not where I imagined I’d be ten years out of college, since it is essentially working two part-time jobs. However, I love both worlds, and I like the flexibility of teaching one semester a year and filling my time in the spring with freelance work, which lets me keep my writing muscles flexed.
What other careers did you consider as a student?
In high school, I thought I’d be a criminal defense lawyer, like my father, who had also been an English major. But four years of Mock Trial before college drummed that idea out of me. I have the skills for argument, but not the bounce-back attitude that it takes to be a lawyer. In college, it was editor or professor only. I briefly considered being a full-time poet, but since that would essentially require being a waitress (or so it seemed to me at nineteen), I decided to try to find something more stable. I’m not entirely sure I’ve succeeded at that, but at least I’m not working for tips.
How has Wellesley contributed to your career?
I first studied Irish literature with Margery Sabin, and her class ended up setting me down the path of my academic career. Working on my thesis under James Noggle’s direction also contributed to my determination that I wanted to talk and write about poetry and culture for the rest of my life. In my teaching, I always try to recreate the lively discussions I loved in classes at Wellesley, and to pass along the mentorship that I received. Additionally, my participation in Dead Serious, performing in a theatre department production, and my years as a cox for Varsity Crew all contributed to my development of a confident persona for public speaking and teaching. And my ability to project. Wellesley continues to permeate my career, whether it’s talking to friends I made in the tiny Romantic Poetry class I took with Alison Hickey in fall of 2001 (four of the eight of us went on to study poetry in graduate school) or finding freelance work thanks to the generosity of our wonderful alumnae network.
What is a typical work day or work week like for you?
This is the best part of doing so many different kinds of work and projects — there’s rarely a typical day! In the fall, I work for Two Lines Press in the morning, and teach four afternoons a week, and then grade on the weekends. In the spring and summer, I’ll work three days a week at Two Lines Press and then spend the rest of the time pitching articles and finding freelance editorial work. At Two Lines Press, which publishes a literary journal and books, all dedicated to the art of translation, my day involves a little editing, and a lot of administrative work. I communicate with authors and other publishers, research contacts for marketing pushes, give feedback on book design, make arrangements for events, and read through the slush pile. When I teach, it is incredibly consuming. I read the work I have assigned, read about the work, choose methods of student engagement and assessment, design writing assignments, and respond to student writing. It’s hours of work above and beyond each one and a half hour class. But I love guiding the writing and learning experiences of freshmen at FPF, who are experiencing their first semester of college ever, and they are incredibly focused and smart, which allows me to stretch, too.
What piece of advice would you offer students looking to get into your area of interest and expertise?
Embrace the business side of book-making and -selling — understanding contracts, communicating your book’s unique qualities, correcting kerning in InDesign, tracking sales, and talking an author through copyedits are all really fun. It’s also important to think about a book project as something that will only pay off on a timescale of years, which is why a three month internship can be frustrating, since you never get to see the results of your work while you are there.
Interested in academia? The best advice was the English department’s official position in 2004: don’t go. This was true even for their brightest, most hard-working students, because the dream and reality are so far apart these days. Know that 80% of beginning humanities grad students will not get tenure track jobs, even if they would be inspiring, field-changing professors (and take a hard look at where the grad degrees of professors who have landed tenure come from). Figure out ways to talk to people with Ph.D.s who aren’t your professors, since 99% of those who get English Ph.D.s don’t teach at Wellesley. Attend research conferences to find out if that’s how you like to read, write, and think. Then, if you go to grad school, publish early and often. And probably try to write a dissertation on Shakespeare — colleges always need someone to teach Shakespeare. And please take a break from school for a while to find out if you can thrive outside of the lovely shelter of the ivory tower.
More generally, my advice to writers and word people is not to dissuade yourself from reaching way beyond your seeming capabilities or experiences. I will always regret that I never even applied for an internship at the New Yorker because I was intimidated by the idea of reaching so high. You must value your work and abilities highly in order to find your way through the naysayers. And don’t forget to ask for help. People love being able to help out someone who will put the work in and make it worth their while!
What do you wish you had known as a student?
How important networking is! Your professors should be people you cultivate and get to know outside of class, and internships aren’t just resume fillers — your employers are potential recommenders and sources of advice later on. Also, how to create expectations for yourself, which are so key in business, in freelancing, and in academia. After college, you are responsible for setting your own goals and achievements — you have to be very self-directed, which I feel is a skill that has to be developed outside of the clear structure of classes. In grad school or in freelancing, noone is going to reach out and tell you to write an article by X date. You have to write it, research it, and propose it, and handle the rejection.
If you could come back and take one class at Wellesley what would it be?
The toughest question yet! I never studied art history, and I would love to have a stronger sense of the visual arts, so a class like Art History 334 — PARIS, CAPITAL OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY would be ideal. But I am really most tempted by the Calderwood Seminars in Public Writing, which were not yet offered when I was in college — what a wonderful opportunity they provide students to begin to apply their academic skills to writing for a general audience!