Meet Our New Intern: Rachel Bulman

In violation of the modern educational system, I learned to read before I could talk, apparently finding the written word far more interesting than trivial things like sleeping or learning to walk. I haven’t really stopped since. From Austen to Orwell, I know first-hand the power a good book has on a willing reader. Most importantly, I know the responsibility of publishers to curate and share good books. It’s a power that should be used to build communities and break down barriers. Publishers like Sundress Publications have all of the responsibility and none of the corporate funding – which is why what they do is so essential.

Another introduction for me might begin: ‘Hello, my name is Rachel and I am a writer’, which, though sensible (and a touch dry), seems like a strange thing to say without a novel to my name or a serious book deal, but is true, nonetheless. When I was seven and wrote a story about a tiger making friends with a princess, I was just as much a writer as I am now. It’s something that has taken me a long time to come to terms with, but if you write, that makes you a writer. Simple as that.

Since the story I wrote at seven years old, which I must confess was heavily inspired by Aladdin (1992), I’ve written a lot more. Lots during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and even more when I studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Exeter in the south of England. Writing is something that brings clarity and relief for me, and as far as I have experienced it, brings people together. Although we were no Inklings, I took a great amount of pleasure meeting with friends to plot and panic and write together – a practice we keep up to this day, only now it spans three continents and happens every third month.

Over the last few years, I have discovered I do my best writing when I am also doing lots of reading. Surprising no one, the two complement each other enormously well. As a result, I’ve been published in a number of magazines and anthologies, most significantly in the ENIGMA Literary Journal, where I also served as an editor for a few years while I was at university. It was here I realised how wonderful the impact of an editor can be – seeing a piece growing alongside its writer is enormously rewarding. Similarly, I co-edited and wrote a non-fiction text called UNESCO Cities of Literature during my MA, highlighting just a fraction of all the work UNESCO designated cities have done in recent years to promote literature. Just six months after the publication of the edition, it was wonderful to welcome ten new cities to the global network! Better still to recognise that the new designations reflect a less Eurocentric approach to literature, ushering in a more diverse and brilliant cohort of literary cities.

At the beginning of this year, I started a review page on Instagram as I try to explore other avenues of sharing literature with others. I take a certain enjoyment in reading books I have never heard of before, so please, if you have an obscure book from childhood or that you found in a local library, I would love to hear about it.

For me, interning for Sundress is another step in a lifetime of joyful reading, and I couldn’t be happier to carry this responsibility and share the words of such a talented and diverse cohort of authors. Here’s to a wonderful next six months!

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Rachel Bulman (she/her) holds a BA in English and Creative Writing as well as an MA in Publishing from the University of Exeter, specialising in interactive and children’s fiction. Her written work, from non-fiction to poetry, script and prose, has appeared in Wolf Grove Media’s The Book of Choices, Velvet Fields, and Exeposé, among others. Find her eclectic portfolio on Instagram @worm.can.read, through her online portfolio, or ask the bridge troll who taught him his riddles three.