Conclusions

Reflecting back on my internship at AJB, I think I learned a lot. Obviously being an intern entails doing a lot of the less glamorous work, like mailing things out, packaging things up, answering the phone, etc. But I also got to do some things that I really enjoyed, like researching poets and leafing through manuscripts. I even enjoyed designing fliers and press releases-- I've never really been too much of an artistic type, but learning how to use Adobe InDesign and Photoshop are things that will come in handy in the future, I hope.

I also liked getting an inside view of how a small press works, because I was pretty unaware of everything that had to be done. Rather than just getting some manuscripts, reading through them, and then magically publishing them, there's tons of stuff that goes on behind the scenes. Just organizing the manuscripts themselves is a lot of work, and they all have to be entered into a data program along with the manuscript fee. Then the manuscripts have to be alphabetized, and consolidated, and then packed all up into a car so that the AJB director (a poet herself!) and the managing editor can drive them down to New Jersey, where the AJB board meets to read and discuss them. Another interesting thing that I wasn't aware of before I interned there-- AJB is a nonprofit poetry cooperative, meaning that when you publish a book with them, you normally have to serve on the AJB board for three years. Then the board decides and votes on which books get published-- the books aren't the decision of just one editor, which is what I thought AJB would be like.

Plus there's also all the inside views I got into the everyday running of a nonprofit press-- sending out appeals, sending out newsletters, mailing out reviewer copies of books, etc. The AJB interns are integral to keeping the press running by helping out with most of these everyday tasks. I really liked meeting the other interns, who all went to UMF. Getting out of the Colby bubble is always helpful and eye-opening.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time at AJB, but it also helped me realize some of the realities in publishing right now, especially how difficult it is to get a job at a small press. The experience has left me with a lot of things to think about as I try to figure out what I want to do when I graduate. Publishing remains one of the things I'm considering trying to find a job in, thanks to my experience and knowledge gained at Alice James Books.

Translations

Today I was just thinking about some of the really interesting projects I've learned that AJB is doing. They're starting a translation series, the first of which is going to be a title called "Hagar Before the Occupation, Hagar After the Occupation." The book consists of translated poems by a female Iraqi poet, who's also a journalist and activist. The poems are all set in a before/after format-- for example, "My Daughter Before the Occupation" and "My Daughter After the Occupation." I had to read the manuscript to do some research on comparable titles, and I found it incredible-- I imagine it's difficult to translate all the intricacies of Arabic into English, but still the poems are very emotionally charged. Sometimes I feel like books of poems that focus only on one specific idea can be limiting for the poet-- but in this book, I felt like the commentary on Iraq was something that needed to be written and that's important to read, especially because it's by an Iraqi poet.

Ads!

Another interesting thing about working at a small press is that they have to do all their own publicity and such-- press kits, fliers, mailings, etc. There's no specific department for that when the office is as small as AJB is, so the publicity duties get shared around. I've had to relearn Adobe InDesign, a design program that I used to use to make the newspaper in high school. It often makes me want to tear my hair out (my computer design skills were never the best), but it's useful to relearn it and be able to use it should the need arise. I've been making a lot of fliers for the AWP conference that the editors will be going to next week-- my favorite today was a flier for the AJB off-site poetry reading. It's at the same time as the official AWP Dance, but obviously we don't want people to go to the dance when they could be going to our poetry reading! So we put a picture of people dancing really, really awkwardly, and told them they should probably come see poets read instead.

So designing that flier was entertaining. Today I also sorted through some of the finalist & semi-finalist manuscripts for the Beatrice Hawley award...interesting to see who got it and who didn't! (I leafed through some of them...)

the usual.

Today:
-Worked on a list of people to send appeals to. Part of being a small nonprofit press (and a cooperative press too) is asking people for donations, a lot of the time. I had to go through some lists (not so fun) but cool to see some famous poets that I had heard of on said list (fun). Examples-- Donald Hall, Tony Hoagland, Gerald Stern, etc.

-Did some more comparative research for the AJB Fall 2011 titles. Especially researched Elizabeth Bishop, who conveniently I had to read for a contemporary poetry class last semester, so I knew a bit about her. She is a comparative title for "Pier" by Janine Oshiro, a poetry book that AJB is publishing in September.

-Also did some photocopying/organizing of manuscripts with the other interns (they go to UMF) which was usual administrative work, but fun to chat with them. UMF students seem interesting--generally they have many more unusual hair colors/tattoos than the average Colby student, but they are also incredibly nice and interesting (at least the ones I've met seem to be)!

snow/cold days

Maine is definitely making up for a snowless December this January. My internship has been going well, except for a few days when I've had to leave early or come in late due to blizzard conditions. Today was particularly fun as when I walked outside this morning, the thermometer read -8 degrees. Due to the arctic blast, my car wouldn't start, but helpful Colby security jumped it for me. So we'll hope it starts tomorrow.

Due to the auto issues I couldn't get to Farmington until about 11, which was unfortunate as today was the day I was running the AJB office all by myself. The director and managing editor had just gotten back from a weekend in New Jersey, where the AJB board had meet to read a ton of manuscripts and start deciding on a winner for the 2011 Beatrice Hawley prize. And it was the editorial assistant's day off, so it was decided that I'd open & close the office today. I did eventually, once I got there, and it was cool to be running it...to get to sit in the desk right by the front door (not that anyone really came in) and answer the phone (which I normally do anyway...). Today I mainly worked on compiling all the reviews we've gotten for books that came out in 2010, in order to submit them for consideration for an NEA grant.

"NEA" is the National Endowment for the Arts, which is run by the federal government and supports "artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation." So we're hoping that one of the poets published by AJB in 2010 has those qualities, according to the government. AJB poets have won NEA grants before, so we'll see.

In other news, I got to read some of the manuscripts that AJB will be publishing in Fall 2011, as I was doing some research on comparable titles for them. My favorite was a book called "Nina and Me," which was a series of back-and-forth poems between the speaker and Nina Simone. I'll leave you with a video of Ms. Simone for today.

Moving on into the second week of my internship, I have some new projects I'm working on at Alice James Books. Per usual, I drove to Farmington, Maine, this morning through small roads that wind through the hills west of Waterville, where I'm living. Got caught behind a logging truck-- there are tons of them that drive to and from Farmington-- that no one wanted to pass, but I made it to Farmington eventually.

Once I got there, I helped my main boss, the managing editor of AJB, get ready for her trip to the AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) Conference this weekend.

From the AWP's website: "Each year, AWP holds its Annual Conference & Bookfair in a different region of North America in order to celebrate the outstanding authors, teachers, writing programs, literary centers, and small press publishers of that region."

This year, several AJB poets will be reading from and signing their work, so I packed up a lot of books for the editors to take with them to sell. In particular, lots of copies of Brian Turner's "Here, Bullet" and "Phantom Noise." Turner was a soldier in the Iraq War who wrote poems about his experience-- he's one of AJB's more famous poets.

I got to see what a lot of work it is for a small press to attend and promote themselves at a conference. We packed up banners, book holders, and some things to sell like tote bags and magnets. Today I also helped take notes on a meeting we had about computer stuff (less exciting than getting to look at all the books). We'll see what tomorrow brings.

First Week Recap

Just finished up my first week of interning at Alice James Books, a cooperative poetry press in the little college town of Farmington, Maine. The first week mainly consisted of organizing all the manuscripts recently submitted for one of AJB's contests, the Beatrice Hawley Award. Instead of accepting unsolicited manuscripts, AJB has various contests where the winners get to have their book published. The authors get to be very involved in the process- they all pick their own cover art, and work closely with AJB on designing and editing their book. It's one of the perks of publishing with such a small press. My job mainly consisted of entering data into the GiftWorks program, which keeps a log of each manuscript submitted and the fee the authors paid in order to submit. Having to check the GiftWorks list with the actual manuscripts definitely took some time and brought to light some discrepancies which had to be worked out-- we even thought we had lost one manuscript, causing some panic, but in the end we found it in time to send off a final list to the AJB board by the end of the week. Keeping track of and organizing about 750 manuscripts was such a big task that I wondered how the big publishing houses are able to keep track of everything!