Tag: kalamazoo

Introducing Lauren Perlaki, Sundress’s Newest Editorial Intern


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As a west side transplant from Downriver, MI, I have discovered how deep my love goes for Coney Islands. And three lane highways. They just don’t have them on the west side. I’ve concluded these must be east side things.

Following my senior year of high school, I crossed the state to attend Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, MI. Now a senior at K, I am studying art history, media studies, and creative writing. In a year’s time, I hope to be pursuing my MFA in poetry.

I don’t remember when I started to write, I just know that I always have. Stories, poems, journal entries—honestly, I probably have enough journals kicking around to fill a small bookcase. In 9th grade, I had an English teacher who was the first to give me a proper introduction to poetry, and that was it—my first love (poetry, not my teacher). 

In writing, I have found success, failure, opportunity, and community. Writing, specifically poetry, has allowed me to spend a brief stint in NYC, interning with the PEN American Center and Poets House. Writing has given me the opportunity to intern with the Kalamazoo Book Art Center’s poetry reading series, and to claim the title of co-editor-in-chief of K’s literary and visual arts magazine, The Cauldron. Through the written word, I have had the privilege of getting to know so many neat people and places. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. 

Aside from reading and writing, I enjoy going for walks, writing music, and sitting down to watch a good documentary with some quality company. And coffee. I really love coffee.

As a megafan of the written word, and an advocate of literary reform, I am absolutely delighted to be working with Sundress Publications as an editorial intern. I am grateful for this opportunity, and can’t wait to see where this work will take me.

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 Lauren Perlaki is a senior at Kalamazoo College double majoring in Art History and English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. She is also pursuing a concentration in Media Studies. When she isn’t furiously working to meet a deadline, or cramming 500+ years worth of art into her noggin, she can be found singing with her a cappella group, searching for a decent cup of coffee, or going on about how great the music scene is in Kalamazoo. She is a co-editor-in-chief of Kalamazoo College’s annually published literary and visual arts magazine, The Cauldron, and a lover of modernist literature.

Meet Our New Editorial Intern: Hunter Parsons

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I come from a small city swallowed by larger suburbs. Clawson, Michigan is two square miles that is often mistaken for some other town located in the hub of the Metro Detroit area. Growing up, I spent my summers buying stale licorice ropes and Green Apple Jones Soda from the gas station around the corner, roller skating at the rink down the street, and sitting on my porch writing stories and poems in my journals.

When my location changed to Kalamazoo, Michigan to attend college, not much about my small town personality was altered. I still asked random people on the street if I could pet their dogs, I found quiet places in Kalamazoo to write, and became obsessed with fairy lights, baking, and caring for air plants.

I have been a writing consultant in my college’s writing center for three years, a teacher’s assistant for creative writing classes, co-taught a course on pedagogy, assisted in selecting works of fiction for my college’s literary magazine, The Cauldron, and have been published in zines such as This Heart is Homebound.10846333_10152906125364421_913962029239935187_n

This summer, I’ll be graduating from Kalamazoo College with a BA in English with a writing emphasis and will trek back to Metro Detroit with poetry books, a tiny plant army, and a collection of too many coffee cups. I hope that being home and without roller skates, I’ll be prompted to apply to graduate schools to pursue an MFA in poetry.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to work for Sundress Publications as Editorial Intern!

Hunter Parsons is a senior at Kalamazoo College pursuing a degree in English with a writing emphasis. She has been published in The Cauldron, Kalamazoo College’s literary magazine, and is being mentored by poet Diane Seuss. When she’s not writing, being a plant mom, or advocating for young women’s self esteem, Hunter is baking and organizing her ever-growing make-up collection. 

Project Bookshelf: Kate Belew

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When I moved into the house right off of campus in Kalamazoo I could never have imagined that I would spend my final two years of college in a room with a reading cave.

Just over a year ago on a hot day in August, I literally rolled up my sleeves in my attic room, and got to work. The best, and last project of my room was the reading cave. I bought floor pillows, and a furry rug, and collected old stuffed animals that would be happy to inhabit such a space, rescued from the confines of a storage unit in my hometown. Then I lined the back wall with a bookshelf.

I can’t decide which part is my favorite. Maybe it’s the fairy lights that remind me of my fairytale books of my childhood, maybe it’s my “cat eyes removed here” metal sign that rode front seat in a car my grandpa sent for from England, or maybe it’s my Emily Dickinson book passed down to me from poet Conrad Hilberry via Diane Seuss.

Right now off my shelf I’m reading Laura Kasischke’s new book of poems The Infinitesimals while I sit and attempt to create work for my poetry thesis (I’m taking a break from that to write this).

I think my favorite part may be that I have this space to exist in that honors all the little pieces of text that have made me who I am as a person and a writer.

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Kate Belew is an editorial intern at Sundress Publications and a student of Poetry at Kalamazoo College where she studies with poet Diane Seuss. She interns with the reading series at The Kalamazoo Book Center, and received the Nature in Words Fellowship at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute where wrote in the woods all summer. She has been published in journals such as The Minetta Review, Collision Literary Magazine, and Cliterature. When she’s not writing she’s dancing, hula hooping, or reading tarot cards. She is a firm believer in duende.

Meet Our New Editorial Intern: Kate Belew!

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When I’m not writing I love to dance, travel, go to concerts, hula hoop, and read tarot cards. My dog Rosie is possibly my best friend, and pizza is a staple in my diet.

I was raised in the small town of Marshall, Michigan. Marshall is so small that I can’t go anywhere without knowing someone, but outside of Marshall I would have to show others where I’m from using the palm of my hand held up to represent the mitten. It’s a Michigan thing…

As soon as I had a car I began spending time in Kalamazoo where I now attend college and study poetry with Diane Seuss at Kalamazoo College. I plan to graduate next summer with a degree in English and a minor in Psychology. I live in a big blue house at the bottom of campus with six girls that also attend Kalamazoo College. In my spare time, I intern at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center for their reading series, and co-edit The Cauldron, which is the literary journal at my school.

I began to write in third grade and it has since taken me everywhere from interning in New York City at Poets House and the National Book Critics Circle to studying in abroad in Madrid, Spain with a woman named Dora who spoke zero English and didn’t believe in the internet. Two summers ago, I spent a few months in the woods as a writing fellow at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute near Kalamazoo. This summer I taught children poetry through the words of Pablo Neruda and Shel Silverstein in workshops held at the public library in my hometown of Marshall.

I believe that poetry is a vessel for communication and human expression. I am so grateful that poetry has now brought me to Sundress as an editorial intern.

In the nearby future (after I graduate), I hope to move somewhere new and hopefully continue my writing career teaching poetry workshops before someday pursuing my MFA in poetry.

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Kate Belew is a student of Poetry at Kalamazoo College where she studies with poet Diane Seuss. She interns with the reading series at The Kalamazoo Book Center, and received the Nature in Words Fellowship at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute where wrote in the woods all summer. She has been published in journals such as The Minetta Review, Collision Literary Magazine, and Cliterature. When she’s not writing she’s dancing, hula hooping, or reading tarot cards. She is a firm believer in duende.