Tag: introduction

Meet Our New Intern: Caylin Moore

When I was entering middle school, my parents filed for bankruptcy. My father worked a manual labor job from which he had to take a great deal of time off due to back surgery. Since his was the primary income of the household, our family struggled substantially. I mean this in the financial and emotional sense. Financial strain has a way of causing relationship problems, and for my parents it was no different. They began to drink and fight. I, as a young girl already struggling through puberty and the increasingly complicated social scene of adolescence, developed a plethora of mental health issues. I became bulimic, depressed, and anxious. I began to self harm. However, I am the stereotypical oldest daughter, and I behaved accordingly in the midst of my struggles. I maintained a GPA above a 4.0 with a schedule full of honors and AP level classes, and I was involved in many extracurricular activities. Staying busy was one method of coping with what I was going through. Reading was another. I had loved books since I was a small child, but this period of my life made me view them as an escape. Books represented the fantasy of what I believed my life could eventually become even when my current reality was far from desirable.

Let’s fast forward to my high school graduation. I had started to experience some of the more extreme symptoms of having an eating disorder, and I had come to the realization that the way I was living was not sustainable. I started recovery during the summer after graduation, and I geared up for my first semester of college as a psychology major. I wanted to use my career to help people through the same mental health issues I had experienced. Little did I know that I would switch majors and career paths multiple times throughout the years.

After completing two years of coursework for a psychology degree, I transferred schools to pursue a ministry degree. While working toward this degree, I interned at a local church. This was the same church that I accepted a job at post grad. It quickly became clear to me that ministry was not a career I could do for the rest of my life. Growing up in a southern religious family meant that I had been raised by people with very conservative views, and I simply did not agree with these views anymore. The same views I was raised with were the views being promoted by the church I worked at, and the cognitive dissonance of being liberal in a conservative environment led me to feel that I was not helping people at all. In fact, it felt like I was actively contributing to the harm of marginalized communities.

I enrolled in a graduate program to study social work. It seemed like it would be a simple course correction. I would enter a field similar to that which I had originally intended to when I started college, and I would help people in a more hands-on way. A few quarters into the program, it was time for an internship in the field. This internship made me aware of how often I would be required to work with people who grappled with substance use, and I knew I couldn’t do it. Even if I could, it would take an extreme toll on my mental health due to the history of alcoholism in my family. I was at a loss for what to do next.

Every decision I had made had been driven by my desire to use my life to help people, but none of my choices felt right. I left the graduate program and my job at the church. I then did something I had not done in a very long time. I took time to sit still. I thought about what I loved and what had helped me through hard times. Then I remembered the young girl who always had her nose in a book. I remembered the girl who disappeared into stories that made her believe in a better tomorrow.

I now know that I want to be a part of bringing those stories into the world. I want to help publish literature that gives others hope. Because the first step to making the world a better place is hoping that it can be.

Caylin Moore (she/her) is currently pursuing a graduate level certificate in book publishing from Pace University, and SAFTA is her first internship in the publishing industry. Her previous work includes copyediting, social media marketing, and project management. She hopes to use these skills and those gained during this internship for a job in either editorial or marketing one day. As someone who has often felt seen by the stories she reads, she is passionate about bringing stories into the world that help others feel that same comfort. She is planning her wedding to Nathan, the love of her life, for next August. In addition to her fiancé, she also loves romance novels, murder mysteries, musical theatre, and her pets Stitch and Oreo. Stitch is a hound dog named after objectively the best Disney character of all time, and she will hear no debate on that matter.

Meet Our New Intern: Noor Chang

On my sixth, Barney the Dinosaur-themed birthday party in our small, but festive, house in Damascus, a close friend of mine named Sarah gifted me my first ever English book— every six-year-old’s dream. A fairytale book for every day of the year that her mom had probably picked out, it had a light pink hardcover filled with knights, princesses, dragons, and castles. As a little girl who just wanted some Barbie’s and Build-A-Bears, I was a little disappointed by such an underwhelming, educational present. But now, almost 16 years later, that gift is the only one I remember and the one I am most grateful for.

An Asian woman with shoulder-length, black hair playing the piano. She is smiling and is wearing a paisley-patterned button-down shirt.

My traditional Korean father was always busy when we lived in Syria: he constantly had to travel to Asia for his fabric business, so he would usually be gone for three to four weeks at a time. Yet he never missed any of my birthdays, and my sixth was no exception. We spent, without a doubt and without any excuses, every day from my sixth to seventh birthday reading a fairytale out of Sarah’s book. Even though each story was relatively short and simple (almost half a page), it took me hours to read because my English vocabulary had not yet been developed. With the help of my father, I learnt a lot of big words in 2008 like “immediately”, “specifically,” and “nonetheless,” just to name a few. From that year onward, I picked up English much more easily than my Syrian peers.

Because of Bashar Al-Assad’s dictatorship and the war in 2011, my family and I were forced to relocate to Cairo for two years before moving again to Jeddah in 2014. In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as a confused and angsty teenager, my love for books really grew and I was able to find what I gravitated toward as a reader and writer. I loved read anything and everything. Even more than that, I loved talking and arguing about anything and everything. I would spend lunch time in my social studies teacher’s room (thanks Mr. Daniel) with my three best friends talking to him about the world, books, the school system, and anything that came to mind. My inquisitive and curious quality that was fostered in that classroom has been a core part of me as an adult. I was devastated to have to say goodbye to him in 2017.

In high school, my father advised me to begin reading Camus, Sartre, Dostoevsky, and Kierkegaard, sparking my love for literature and philosophy. These authors inspired me to write more, and I began exploring my creative and artistic side, joining art classes, choir, and even picking up where I left off with playing piano. I was able to truly discover my two passions, literature and music, and chose to pursue them at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. I am grateful for the opportunity to do what I love at Sundress Publications, and I am excited about what life has to offer me.

Noor Chang is a writer and aspiring editor with a rich, multicultural background. Half-Syrian and half-Korean, she spent most of her life in the Middle East, specifically Syria, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates before moving to Knoxville, Tennessee, to pursue higher education. She is a student at the University of Tennessee, double majoring in English Literature and Jazz Studies. Noor’s diverse upbringing has shaped her perspective and fueled her passion for storytelling, leading her to explore a variety of creative avenues, including writing, music, and cultural exploration. An avid pianist, Noor enjoys playing music with friends and immersing herself in different genres. Her love for travel allows her to experience new cultures and she hopes to continue traveling for the rest of her life. In her free time, Noor is often found with a good book, making music, or working out to stay active and grounded.

Meet Our New Intern: Katy DeCoste

A black and white headshot photo of Katy, a white person. They have short, straight hair and are wearing black, square glasses, a floral shirt with a collar, and a white knit cardigan. They are smiling with their mouth closed.

As a graduate student in English, most of my day-to-day work involves reading books, thinking about them, and every so often going to a meeting to talk about them. For a kid who grew up reading while walking and spending recess indoors shelving library books instead of playing outside, this is a pretty huge privilege. My favorite way to spend my time is pouring over digitized copies of nineteenth-century periodicals and sending the funniest articles in them to our program’s class group chat. I even spent most of my undergraduate years working in the university library, spending time among thousands of books and plucking the ones that interested me off the shelf for the end of my shift.

In 2020, I received my BA Honors in English and History from the University of Alberta, mid-pandemic. One lackluster 45-minute Zoom graduation and one expensive slip of paper later, I had realized that reading, writing, and talking about reading and writing are most of what I want to do with my life, and since it’s difficult to find a stable job in academia, I thought I’d spend as much time doing these things as possible while I could.

As for creative writing, I’ve been doing it most of my life. I spent my childhood penning novels that ranged from epic fantasy to tween romance tales, sending them to friends pasted in the bodies of emails (I hadn’t figured out file attachments yet). In high school, I discovered poetry, hungrily consuming collections by Robert Frost, Carol Ann Duffy, and Emily Dickinson. I stumbled upon playwriting a few years later, in university, watching friends of mine perform in new, local productions. Now, I’ve (mostly) abandoned my roots in fiction, but I’m currently fantasizing about a project that uses oral history and archival research to create a play about queer culture in 1980s Regina, my hometown.

My love for literature is why I’m so excited to work with Sundress Publications: I want to help give writers the support needed to get their stories into the world, and create the kind of books I want to read. 

Katherine (Katy) DeCoste is a queer, white settler currently living on the unceded territory of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples and the WSÁNEĆ peoples, where they are pursuing their MA in English at the University of Victoria. In 2020, they received their BA Honours in English and History from the University of Alberta, as the Rutherford Memorial Medalist in English and Dr. John Macdonald Medalist in Arts. You can find their poetry in Barren Magazine, Grain Magazine, The Antigonish Review, and other outlets. In 2020, their play “many hollow mercies” won the Alberta Playwriting Competition Novitiate Prize. When not writing, reading, or answering emails, Katherine can be found playing Dungeons and Dragons, volunteering with food support initiatives, and forcing their friends to eat their baking.

Meet Our New Intern: Ada Wofford

I’m currently a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying Library and Information Science and I will be graduating this spring (maybe in the summer, it depends on my financial situation). I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Fairleigh Dickinson University, where I majored in English literature and minored in psychology. I work part-time as a content writer and I’m looking to make it more of a full-time gig.

I’m a Contributing Editor for The Blue Nib, a literary magazine based out of the UK. I write essays and reviews for them but they have also published my fiction and poetry. My fiction tends to be about working-class women and deals with a lot of ethical and existential concepts but I also write a lot of humor so, go figure. Recently, I’ve been dabbling with screenplay writing—I want to write a queer Seinfeld. For the past several months, all of my analytical writing has been focused on 21st-century poetry. I’ve published an essay on Kaur’s work and an essay on alt-lit, critically examining their literary qualities and attempting to explain both their appeal and their function within literature as a whole. I feel such analysis is important as there is hardly any in existence, despite Kaur being the best selling poet of all time. That being said, I feel I should point out that I do not enjoy or admire Kaur’s work nor any of the alt-lit work I’ve read (and I’ve read a lot) but I believe the works to be culturally significant and therefore deserving of scholarly analysis.

Apart from all that, I’m also a huge music nerd. I play in two bands (Friendo and HoloFerns) and manage a music review site called My Little Underground.

As for the future, I’m still figuring that out. I applied to some PhD programs in the fall and so until I hear back from them, I can’t start planning anything. My main goal though is to write more and publish more—I hope the experience I gain at Sundress will aid me in this pursuit.

Ada Wofford is currently avoiding her 9-5 enslavement by studying library science at UW-Madison. She’s a Contributing Editor for The Blue Nib, has been published in various places such as McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and is currently residing in New Jersey.

Meet Our New Editorial Intern: Jessica Hudgins

hudgins

I started this internship at kind of a strange time. I’m living now in my grandparents’ house, where my aunt also lived until she passed away in January. I’m getting things settled and trying to figure out what I want my life to look like.  I’ve never been out of school. The house is beautiful, on 25 acres in a town called Mansfield. My grandparents built it in the seventies, and a pond. I drive a few days a week to my new part-time job in a library, reshelving books and checking out patrons. I have two dogs: a rat terrier named Mitzi, who was my grandpa’s, and Roxanne, my aunt’s Yorkie.

When I graduated with my MFA, I applied to several fellowships but didn’t get any. I went to a couple residencies, the Albee Foundation and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and worked odd teaching jobs. I’m glad for the opportunity to do editorial work, especially with Sundress Publications, which I’ve known about and admired for a year or so.

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Jessica Hudgins is a writer currently living in Mansfield, Georgia. 

Meet Clarisse Nakahama, Our Newest SAFTAcast Intern

Clarisse Nakahama

 

Hey there! I’m Clarisse and I am the new intern for the SAFTAcast. I recently received my Bachelors of Arts in English: Creative Writing and Sociology and Anthropology from University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. I flip-flop between writing poetry, short fiction, long fiction, and staring at my computer/notebook with sheer terror.

In the interest of complete honesty, this feels a little like an icebreaker in high school or a 101 class. Y’know, the kind where your teacher has everyone go around the room and say their name and one interesting thing about themselves. Of course, you never remember anyone’s name because you are far too busy thinking of an interesting fact but have forgotten everything about yourself. So by the time it gets to you, not only do you not know anyone’s name but your interesting fact is “I like Legolas” and instantly you feel like an idiot because of course you like Legolas. Who doesn’t like Legolas? And to make it worse, the girl who went before you built homes for people in Argentina before being the first college student on Mars and the guy after you has seventeen black belts and right between these stellar examples of humanity is you, Legolas Girl.

So in the spirit of awkward icebreakers, here is a quick list of ten interesting/fun facts about me:

  1. I am Legolas Girl.
  2. As an April Fool’s prank the club that I was co-president of once spammed one of our academic buildings with tiny pictures of Benedict Cumberbatch after he photobombed U2 at the Academy Awards. We taped them so he looked like he was jumping out from behind posters.
  3. I can flip a butterfly knife (also known as a balisong or fan knife).
  4. As a graduation gift, my friends and I photoshopped our favorite professor’s face onto William Shakespeare and presented it to him in a pink frame. He loved it and has it on his desk.
  5. I had a brief stint of notoriety in college when my friends and I purchased a David Tennant cardboard cutout and put him in our hall window. He scared many a passerby at night and during the day. Today, he remains at the school, surveying the University of Puget Sound campus.
  6. I can solve a Rubik’s Cube.
  7. My thesis in Sociology was about the lines drawn by gatekeepers, specifically the gender lines drawn by male gatekeepers, in the Marvel and 70s punk subcultures.
  8. Over the past four years I have crocheted eighteen scarves, thirteen hats, three stuffed animals, two pairs of gloves, two tops, and two blankets.
  9. One week before my high school graduation, I sprained my ankle at Disneyland.
  10. My best friend and I have an ongoing debate about Boromir from Lord of the Rings. In fact, he is not allowed to be mentioned in our presence. Ever.

But truly, I am excited to be a part of the SAFTAcast and learn more about podcast creation and promotion. I think podcasts are such an interesting medium for storytellers and writers. To have the opportunity to work on this one is amazing.

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Clarisse Nakahama is a recent graduate from University of Puget Sound where she double majored in English: Creative Writing and Sociology and Anthropology. Some of her short fiction and poetry have been published in her college’s literary arts magazine, CrossCurrents. When she wasn’t busy researching Marvel comics and punk music for her senior thesis, Clarisse was acting as co-president to Nerdfighters Club and president to Writers’ Guild. Her yarn collection is slowly but surely morphing into a scarf collection, even though she has very little use for crocheted scarves now that she has returned to her native Southern California.