Meet Our New Intern: Annabel Phoel

As I grew up around Washington DC, I was blessed with the best of international cuisine, art, and stories. I’d been spoiled literally by the gorgeous Library of Congress, a public library that brings famous current authors to discuss James Baldwin’s legacy among other essential topics, bookstores that host author interviews led by New Yorker staff writers (Susan Glasser, Jane Mayer), and an education that encourages critical thinking for oneself. Add that to having a published author mother, and it was only natural that I fell in love with reading from the beginning.

But, my absolute need for reading established itself when, at 15, I developed an intractable arm injury leaving me with permanent nerve damage and chronic pain through the right side of my body. Suddenly I found myself wildly limited and with nothing but time on my hands. I drank in all art forms, so much music that my mom asked a doctor about it, but in the end found reading to be the best distraction from my physical pain.

By engaging my brain in critical and deep reading, I was able to almost forget that I was in any physical pain. Upon this discovery, I read unfathomably voraciously. And I read intensely. “After great pain,” Where’d You Go Bernadette, East of Eden; all of these works became major parts of me, my growth, and my healing. But the book that aided my healing the most was Hilary Mantel’s Giving Up the Ghost. Mantel’s book is a memoir in which she decenters her pain and malady and goes on adventures that I could also experience while living magically. It was a revelatory and freeing moment for me when I realized I too could host dinner parties for cool people and travel the world with a dear friend. All of Mantel’s adventures were adventures I could also participate in––but that didn’t make them any less magical.

She allowed me to begin to live magically as well. I worked in politics out in Appalachia and in downtown Washington. I attended fashion shows in London and rowed across the UK. Inspired by the friends I made living in London, I began to work towards the kind of life I had always wanted to live––one in which I was surrounded by very cool artists.

Since that revelation, I also became increasingly interested in the sage wisdom strong works of literature could offer to me. I went into university studying Government, but almost immediately added an English major to my course load. I found I was bribing myself through my Government homework by following it up with English readings. The essays came naturally and easily to me, as did the seminars. I loved any form of reflection on what I was reading and I appreciated being introduced to work I would never have thought to check out on my own.

Since then, I’ve studied the great literary world of Paterson, New Jersey; the reaction and social disruption that came from discovering the Earth was not the center of the universe, and the cosmic universal vibration experienced by the Beats in Wichita. Always a fan of Arab art, I began studying Arabic at St Andrews. I continue to be on the search for wonderful works of literature and looking for the lessons I can learn from each piece. I’m excited to continue to learn and grow, but I’m most excited to help share those important pieces of wisdom with others.

Annabel Phoel is a junior studying English and Government/International Relations between William & Mary and the University of St Andrews, where she currently resides. She is a staff writer on St Andrews’ Not Applicable Magazine and helps on their editorial board. When not writing or studying, Annabel is rowing on various lochs in Scotland.