Meet Sundress's New Editorial Intern: Rhiannon Thorne

I have a rat who steals bookmarks. I named him Modesto after the protagonist of a Spanish film in which a teacher coerces a handful of dead teenage students to pass on to the other side. I like him because while he nibbles on the spines of my paperbacks, he does not talk back or disagree with my opinions on books. That would be my “three interesting things about me” ice-breaker, if this was an awkward face-to-face meet-and-greet and not just an awkward blog post. And yes, I probably spend too much time talking to my rat.

My name’s Rhiannon, but most of my friends and Spaniards call me Raquel. I hail from Northern California, and so you’ll catch me saying such gems as “hella” and “dude”, although they may be démodé colloquialisms. After getting a couple BA’s at Sonoma State University (English & Spanish—no, contrary to all previous indications, I do not speak Spanish, sober) I moved out to Wisconsin for a while, where I learned the difference between “grilling out” and “bbq”—an important distinction according to friends of the Bud Light camp. Then I’ve been in Arizona a few years, where I haven’t picked- up anything Arizonian because you never meet anybody in Phoenix that’s from Arizona.

I’m currently in transition between Phoenix and the Silicone Valley and will be moving shortly back to Nor Cal. I’ll miss the desert. Everywhere else is too cold. And I’ll miss the nostalgic value of the valley—Phoenix was good to me. While here Kate Hammerich and I started cahoodaloodaling, for which I am now the Managing Editor; I began submitting my own work, landing in Midwest Quarterly, Foundling Review, Sheepshead Review, Sierra Nevada Review, and Bop Dead City among others; I became a book reviewer for Up the Staircase Quarterly. All fun things after sitting stagnant on my degrees in a call center for years.

More recently, I became an editorial intern here at Sundress. I’m looking forward to learning what I can about publishing before I apply and (fingers crossed) matriculate into grad school where I plan to get my MFA in poetry and then perhaps later an MA/PhD in publishing.

Rhiannon Thorne’s work has appeared in Grasslimb, Midwest Quarterly, The Sierra Nevada Review, Bop Dead City, and Existere among others. She is the managing editor ofcahoodaloodaling and a book reviewer at Up the Staircase Quarterly. When not busy wrangling a pet, a good book, or a bottle of craft beer, she may be reached at rhiannonthorne.com.