Two weeks ago, I posted a link to the first of a series of interviews I’m doing for the NPR station WFIU with one of IR’s lovely interns, Kelsey Adams. This week, I’d like to feature the rest of our awesome team!
Avery Smith is our prize intern. Here’s what she says about her writing, her work at IR, and her studies at IU:
I write poetry in every facet of my life: in classes at IU, on my own time, and also in my work at Women Writing for (a) Change. I love writing poems to explore perception: how people perceive, how places, words, and events can be perceived on various levels, and what exists beyond the surface level of perception. I think my work has taken on a more philosophical bent due to the classes I’ve taken at IU, and in response to the work of many of my favorite poets: Kazim Ali, W.S. Merwin, Wallace Stevens, Naomi Shihab Nye. Working at IR gives me exposure to what is new in literature, and it gives me hope that people still read and care about the written word, that the written word has the power to engage and change whole lives.
Shilpa Reddy is our publicity intern. She primarily writes fiction. Of her own work, she says,
I like focusing on the small things and overlooked details in life. I love to spend time describing places I see daily, because it allows me to appreciate the space around me in new ways. I’m also interested in the way that science and literature intersect. As a student of both the sciences and humanities, I’m always looking for connections betweenthe two, and I’m fond of authors who do the same. Writing has allowed me to realize what I really care about, and to find resolutions to problems I wouldn’t be able to solve in real life. It helps me distance myself from myself, so that I can be more honest with my life.
When I was in middle school, I used to dream about being a writer. I was convinced I would have a published novel by the age of 18. Things changed, however, when I read To Kill a Mockingbird. From that point on, I began directing my attention toward the writing of others (friends, authors I enjoyed). I tweaked my dream, deciding I wanted to go into editing and publishing. Things just took off from there.
I was a fan of IR before I even knew that internships were offered here! When it comes to opportunities to gain experience in this world, IR has been the culmination of all of my work. Working at IR has convinced me that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, if I can.
We are so lucky to have such fabulous interns here at Indiana Review. Thanks, ladies, for all that you do.
Interns? Unpaid employees? Why isn’t this incredibly exploitive practice not illegal? Every human deserves full compensation for work. Slavery — and child labor — both were supposedly abolished long ago. Shame. Shame!
Charles, I appreciate your response because it has forced me to think about something that is terribly wrong in the general society’s value system; doing the things that one is intrinsically motivated to do, especially if it is without pay, is somehow a shame, or idiotic. Correct me if I’m wrong, but slavery is a forced practice. I don’t think IR’s staff walked around Bloomington and looked for “children” to drag back to their office and force to work as interns. These interns applied because it is something they wanted to do. In fact, they all seem pretty content with what they’re doing.
I know that in a culture dominated by consumerism it is easy to be completely blinded by money as an extrinsic motivation and to forget about doing things because you *love* them. This practice is not illegal because there is no reason for it to be. Some people simply do things because they enjoy doing them. Some people wake up and clock into a job they hate because it gives them money.
We all know how Gatsby’s story ends.