Intern Spotlights: Week 2, Wrap-Up

Where are they now?

We are so proud of our past and present staff here at Superstition Review, and we’ve decided to celebrate the accomplishments of our past interns throughout the month of April. Each day, we will feature an intern on social media and share what they’re up to now. Then, at the end of each week, we will share a wrap-up post of all our featured interns from that week. So, without further ado…

1. Elijah Tubbs: Poetry Editor, Issue 16 (Fall 2015) and Issue 17 (Spring 2016)

April 9: Twitter and Facebook announcements, find Elijah on LinkedIn

Elijah TubbsMore details: Eli shares, “After editing poetry for SR issues 16 & 17 and graduating from ASU I went on to my current job as an on-line content coordinator for BPG Technologies/Designs. Sister companies that specializes in Fiber Optics, telecommunication, GIS mapping, construction and design. Being able to write in some facet as a career path is wonderful and SR gave me some really essential skill sets for that. More importantly, Trish and SR showed me how to run a literary magazine well and now with my girlfriend, we too run a literary magazine: ELKE “a little journal”.”

2. Erin Regan: Student Editor-in-Chief, Issue 13 (Spring 2014)

April 10: Twitter and Facebook announcements, find Erin on LinkedIn

Erin ReganMore details: Erin is currently a Digital Production Specialist at Make-A-Wish America, a nonprofit that serves children with critical illnesses. She shares, “Since serving as the student editor-in-chief of Superstition Review in 2014 and graduating from ASU, I’ve been managing the email marketing program and supporting other digital campaigns at Make-A-Wish. Every day I’m doing something a little different – whether it’s planning content for an upcoming campaign, writing copy, or designing an email – which gives me so many opportunities to use the skills I gained in school and at Superstition Review. Plus, I’m learning a lot about the nonprofit world and direct response marketing! It’s exciting being able to apply my experience in school and from internships to serve a unique mission.”

3. Cara Pencak: Advertising Coordinator, Issue 15 (Spring 2015)

April 11: Twitter and Facebook announcements, find Cara on LinkedIn

Cara PencakMore details: Cara is currently the editorial assistant at Phoenix New Times. She shares, “I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed writing until I started at ASU. My academic advisor had mentioned the internship with Superstition Review and I’m so glad I took the opportunity! The work I did with the magazine gave me a chance to explore what it takes to put together a publication—the ins and outs, so to speak. In my current role as the editorial assistant at Phoenix New Times, I find myself applying that knowledge daily and I’m really enjoying it! I’m also interested in medicine, which led me to pursue a career in speech-language pathology. I’m excited to start as a grad student this fall at U of A!”

4. Jessica Fletcher: Fiction Editor, Issue 16 (Fall 2015) and Student Editor-in-Chief, Issue 17 (Spring 2016)

April 12: Twitter and Facebook announcements, find Jessica on LinkedIn

Jessica FletcherMore details: Jessica is currently a Counseling Graduate Student and Director of Events in ASU’s Graduate Professional Student Association. She shares, “I am currently studying in the Master of Counseling program at ASU. In addition, I serve as Director of Events in the Graduate Professional Student Association. Using the nifty skills I learned in s[r] roles (SEC, fiction editor, and blogger), I plan social events for graduate students as well as lead advocacy projects for state prisons. Even though I am working in mental health, I continue to use literature and art to reach others. I am volunteering in Florence State Prison as a creative writing teacher and I am also a fiction editor for Iron City Magazine, which is a print and online journal devoted entirely to writing and art from the prison world. The best part — I get to use all my experience to make a difference in the community and touch the lives of others.”

5. Michael Wise: Content Coordinator, Issue 14 (Fall 2014) and Social Networker, Issue 15 (Spring 2015)

April 13: Twitter and Facebook announcements, find Michael on LinkedIn

Michael WiseMore details: Michael Wise is a testing technician in the enrollment services at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. He shares, “I used to be one of the content coordinators for Superstition Review, and it was such a fun and invaluable experience! The work I did there helped me get through my BA of English at ASU and to land a job at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. My job is pretty straight-forward, I am the person who students dread seeing because I’m the one who hands out their midterms and finals. I decided to try and soften my image a bit and not be solely associated with stressful exams by becoming more engaged on campus. I am a club advisor for the Male Empowerment Network (M.E.N.) where I work with male minority students to help them complete their degrees and/or transfer onto a university. As the adviser I have utilized my work experience and writing background to hold scholarship writing and resume building workshops. I am also a member of CGCC’s Creative Writing & Arts Council where we are working to build a larger and stronger community of artists and writers on campus. As for my writing, I have been working on a few short stories to get accepted into a creative writing MFA program and for eventual publication.”

6. Megan Kizer: Social Networker, Issue 14 (Fall 2014)

April 14: Twitter and Facebook announcements, find Megan on LinkedIn

Megan KizerMore details: Megan currently works at a global integrated marketing agency called PMX Agency as their very first in-house SEO Content Writer. She shares, “This essentially means that I have the fun opportunity to write page optimization copy, net-new copy, blog posts, and eBooks for leading clients across several industries. Along with actively contributing to my own company’s blog, I’m also beginning to take on more of an editorial role as our team expands. Overall, my job is to tell the client’s story in a way their customers will understand and appreciate, whether that means cranking out retail-specific verbiage, explaining the careful behind-the-scenes details of a national cleaning company, or even helping adults find a college program that they’re passionate about. I love that I get to wear a different hat every day and practice my writing skills in vastly diverse fields. My absolute favorite part of my job is to go onto a major client’s website or blog and think, ‘Hey! I wrote that!’ I also love that I’m able to communicate with coworkers across the nation to implement new ideas and processes that will help move our company forward. We’re all about improving ourselves, our teams, and our company, and it’s truly an incredible experience to feel that support in my career. I’m so grateful to sit across such intelligent people and learn about everything it takes to build a brand and keep it growing, from content to social media to email marketing, and everything in between!”

7. Amanda Strusienski: Social Networker, Issue 11 (Spring 2013)

April 15: Twitter and Facebook announcements, find Amanda on LinkedIn

Amanda StrusienskiMore details: Amanda is currently a Curriculum Coordinator for University of Phoenix. She shares, “Since graduating from ASU in 2013 with my BA in English I have found my passion in education. My first career job was a school librarian where I instructed grades K-6th. That was an amazing experience where I had the opportunity to impact student lives, and hopefully give them a deeper understanding of literature. Presently, I am entering my third year with the University of Phoenix as a Curriculum Coordinator for the College of Education. I like to say my job is 2% administration and 98% all other duties as assigned. I get the opportunity to research, support, design, and revise college courses and programs for adult learners. It is a challenging and rewarding position.  I love knowing that I’m part of a process that helps adult learners find new careers or seek advancement in their field. I am also two classes away from completing my masters in Adult Education and Training. My hope is to move into a career as an instructional designer for higher education programs or work as a facilitator for adult education (maybe even both).”

Thank you so much to these interns for their service with us; you are all doing such amazing things, and we’re so proud!

#ArtLitPhx: Night of the Open Door on Polytechnic Campus

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#ArtLitPhx: Night of the Open Door – Trajectories

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Trajectories: an open talk about the many paths to becoming a writer.

trajectoriesCome listen to a panel discussion about some of the career trajectories that are available for English graduates on Friday, February 19th at ASU’s Polytechnic Campus Night of the Open Door. Superstition Review will be hosting this event in partnership with Four Chambers, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Chandler-Gilbert Community College, Mesa Community College, and Combs High School.
The panel will be free and open to the public in the UNION, Cooley Ball Room at Polytechnic Campus from 6 pm to 7:30 pm. Q & A will be welcome.
Meet the panel:

IMG_3217 (2)Gary Joshua Garrison is a prose editor for Hayden’s Ferry Review. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and appeared in or is forthcoming from Southwest ReviewMoon City ReviewThe McNeese ReviewWord RiotGigantic Sequins, and others. He lives in Arizona with his wife and their two torpid cats.

Jess Burnquist received her MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry from Arizona State University. Her wunnamedork has appeared in Hayden’s Ferry ReviewPersonaThe Washington Post, Salon, Jezebel, GOOD Magazine, Education Weekly, Time and various online journals. She is a recipient of the Joan Frazier Memorial Award for the Arts at ASU. Jess currently teaches English and Creative Writing in San Tan Valley and has been honored with a Sylvan Silver Apple Award for teaching. She resides in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area with her husband, son, and daughter. Links to her most recent work are available at www.jessburnquist.com.

image (1)Patrick Michael Finn is the author of the novella A Martyr for Suzy Kosasovich and the short story collection From the Darkness Right Under Our Feet.  He teaches writing at Chandler-Gilbert Community College.

 Jake Friedman is the Founder and Editor iKaren Loschiavo 02n Chief of an independent community literary journal and small press based in Phoenix, AZ called Four Chambers. He is also; drinking coffee (as the picture would indicate); a waiter and sometimes bartender at an unnamed casual-upscale restaurant (the restaurant being unnamed to protect it’s identity, not actually unnamed); working on a long-form experimental prose manuscript titled The Waiter Explains (no coincidence with his current profession, he swears; long-form experimental prose being a pretentious way of saying novel, even though he has legitimate reasons for doing so involving narrative perspective and deep structure he still feels pretentious). http://fourchamberspress.com.

color headshotJessica Marie Fletcher serves as the current Superstition Review Student Editor-in-Chief and was fiction editor for issue 16. She studies creative writing, psychology, and family and human development in the Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University. She has worked as an Opinion Columnist for The State Press, and one of her short stories has been featured in LUX Undergraduate Creative Review.

CGCC Poetry Reading: Allyson Boggess, Matthew Jolly, Patricia Murphy

Join us to celebrate National Poetry Month.

Thursday, April 5, 2012
7 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.
Library First Floor
Chandler-Gilbert Community College
2626 E. Pecos Rd., Chandler, AZ 85225-2499

 

Allyson BoggessAllyson Boggess is a graduate of the MFA program at Arizona State University, where she was a poetry editor at Hayden’s Ferry Review. She teaches poetry at CGCC and writing at ASU and the Harvard Extension School. Her work was recently published in [PANK]. She lives in Phoenix.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matthew JollyMatthew Jolly is a member of the English faculty at GateWay Community College where he teaches classes in English composition and literature. He grew up outside Cleveland, Ohio, but now lives in Southeast Phoenix with his wife Lauren, his son Benjamin, three devious dogs, and a cat named Ebbilah. He received his MFA in poetry from Arizona State University where he was the recipient of a graduate fellowship and winner of the Glendon and Kathryn Swarthout Award in poetry. His work has appeared in Phoebe: A Journal of Literature and Art; The New Delta Review; and as part of NCTE’s online celebration of National Poetry Month. His “Elegy, Autopsy, and Archeological Excavation: An Interview with David Wojahn” (Hayden’s Ferry Review, 2003) was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

 

 

Patricia Murphy

Patricia Murphy is a Senior Lecturer at ASU where she teaches creative writing and is the founding editor of Superstition Review. In Spring 2009 she won the Provost’s Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Student Mentoring. Murphy earned her B.A. in English and French from Miami University and her M.F.A. in Poetry from ASU. Her poems have appeared in many literary magazines including The Massachusetts Review, Clackamas Literary Review, New Orleans Review, Seattle Review, Cimarron Review, Kalliope, Quarterly West, American Poetry Review, Green Mountains Review, Indiana Review, and The Iowa Review. Her poems have received awards from the Cream City Review, The GSU Review, Glimmer Train Press, the Ann Stanford Poetry Prize, and Gulf Coast among others. She is the recipient of an Artist’s Project Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts and she has been awarded residencies at Mesa Refuge, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Vermont Studio Center.

Reading: Patrick Michael Finn

On Friday, November 4, Phoenix College is presenting a free reading and book signing by award-winning author Patrick Michael Finn.

The reading and book signing will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Phoenix College, 1202 Thomas Rd, in room H102.

Patrick Michael Finn is the author of the novella A Martyr for Suzy Kashasovich, which won the 2006 Ruthanne Wiley Memorial Novella Competition. His collection of short stories, The Darkness Under Our Feet, is the 2009 Hudson Prize winner.

Patrick’s short stories have appeared in Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, Third Coast, Quarterly West, The Clackamas Literary Review, and Houghton Mifflin’s The Best American Mystery Stories 2004. Awards for his fiction include the Third Coast Fiction Prize 2004, AWP Intro Award, citations in the 2005 Pushcart Prize, and The Best American Short Stories 2008.

Patrick has taught at the University of Arizona, Western Nebraska Community College, and the University of North Carolina, Asheville, and founded the Chandler-Gilbert Community College writing program in 2007, which he currently directs. He lives in Arizona with his wife and son.

For more information about the reading, contact Lisa Miller at 602-285-7348 or lisa.miller.@pcmail.maricopa.edu.

 

Where Are They Now?: Michaela Stephens

Michaela Stephens was a Senior majoring in Literature, Writing, and Film with a Creative Writing concentration and an intern for Superstition Review.

Superstition Review: Which issue did you work on with Superstition Review and what was your position?

Michaela Stephens: I helped with issue 5. I was the Submissions Coordinator.

SR: What skills did you take away from the experience?

MS: I learned how to better structure my workflow and how to motivate myself with a long-term schedule by producing weekly reports.

SR: Creatively, what are you currently working on?

MS: In terms of large projects, I’m sort of in between. As for small projects, I’m still writing for my blog, Scriptorium Blogorium.

SR: What are some of your career highlights after leaving SR?

MS: Submitting my senior project to a publisher and starting a seminary pre-service class. Oh, and getting hired at Chandler Gilbert Community College as a substitute writing tutor.

Local Event: Chris Crutcher at Chandler Gilbert Community College

Chris Crutcher, notable young adult novelist and former family therapist, is going to be making a stop in the valley to give a lecture in a couple weeks as a way to kick off Banned Books Week (September 26-October 3).

Chandler Gilbert Community College, located at 2626 E Pecos Rd
Chandler, 85225
, will be hosting Chris for his lecture titled, “Banned: When Real Life Fiction Meets the Censor.” The lecture will be held at 9:40 a.m. 11:05 a.m. on Monday, September 28, in CGCC’s Performing Arts Center (PAC building) on the Pecos campus.

Having been challenged and banned numerous times for his own writing, Chris is a strong advocate for freedom of fiction and is constantly participating in freedom of fiction events. Particularly because he has experienced tough stories as a counselor, and he knows that life is not always easy especially for young adults, he challenges bannings of his books quite often–he not only argues for the books to be allowed to be printed, but he also argues that banning is belittling real-life situations and disallowing young readers to connect to the books they read.

We hope you can make it to this free event!

Chris Crutcher’s Office Homepage

Chandler-Gilbert Community College Campus Map

CGCC’s Event Page

Superstition Review — Second Reading.

Thank you all for attending the second reading in SR‘s reading series this Monday. We had some excellent writers in attendance, and in addition the audience turn out was also quite good. This included Lois Roma-Deeley (Paradise Valley CC, poetry), Patrick Michael Finn (Chandler-Gilbert CC, fiction) , Josh Rathkamp (Mesa CC, poetry), and Hershman John (Phoenix College, poetry). Our next reading will involve writers who are currently attending Arizona State University. Please note our final reading in the series is November 17th.

Please keep reading to see more photos of our participants.
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