Meet The Interns: Rebecca Glenn

Rebecca Glenn is looking forward to the challenge of contributing to the publishing process at Superstition Review. Her experiences in upper-division class work have inspired and encouraged her to consider a career in publishing. She is thrilled to have an opportunity to experience the field first-hand through Superstition Review.

Superstition Review: What is your position with Superstition Review and what are your responsibilities?

Rebecca Glenn: I am an Art Editor and I am responsible for soliciting art submissions from local and national artists. I also make decisions on art to include in the issue and then I correspond with artists to facilitate its publication.

SR: Why did you decide to get involved with Superstition Review?

RG: I took a class on publishing in literary magazines with Trish Murphy and my interests stemmed from that experience. I have always been drawn to the publishing process, but it wasn’t until I took the class that I was educated on what exactly literary magazines are.

SR: Besides interning for Superstition Review, how do you spend your time?

RG: I’m a homebody with a traveling streak. I love to cook and goof around with my two girls. We do a lot of drawing, art projects and impromptu dance parties.

SR: What other position(s) for Superstition Review would you like to try out?

RG: Nonfiction is my passion. It would be exciting to be the nonfiction editor. I also really like the idea of being a reader.

SR: Describe one of your favorite literary works.

RG: Madelene L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time is a personal favorite. There are certain creations, like A Wrinkle in Time, that are beyond category and that is part of the appeal to me. Most would say it is a children’s novel and yet I read it again a couple weeks ago and was entranced.

SR: What are you currently reading?

RG: I like to spend summers re-reading books from my childhood. I was addicted to reading in my youth and my summer days were almost always monopolized by a book and a cool spot in the shade. Since we are just coming out of the summer months now, I most recently finished the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

SR: Creatively, what are you currently working on?

RG: I paint sporadically and also dabble in charcoal. I am constantly drawing. I just finished a charcoal portrait of my mother for her 50th birthday. It is such a momentous celebration and I spent a lot of time trying to capture the years of her life in a single expression; it was tough. As far as writing goes, most of it is academic these days due to my school schedule.

SR: Where do you see yourself in 10years?

RG: That is the big question…I’m not so concerned with knowing. I can say with all confidence I have no idea; maybe a pig farmer in Peru.

Pizza & Pop: Intern Meeting

On Saturday August 28th the newest group of Superstition Review interns gathered for a working lunch at managing editor Trish Murphy’s home to discuss Issue 6. After some refreshments and introductions, Trish discussed tasks for each of the interns and described goals for Issue 6 of SR.

The Superstition Review staff prepares for Trish’s presentation.

To ensure that each section will run smoothly, interns split into pairs based on their roles on the magazine. Experienced and returning interns were able to give advice to new staff members as we discussed deadlines and our new submissions site, http://superstitionreview.submishmash.com/submit.

Supersition Review staff looks on as Trish discusses Issue 6.

It was a helpful and productive afternoon that allowed each member of the staff to become acquainted with other interns and their new positions at Superstition Review.


Meet the Interns: Britney Gulbrandsen, Nonfiction Editor

Britney Gulbrandsen, our final intern interviewee for the semester, is a Literature, Writing, and Film major.

Superstition Review: What is your position with Superstition Review and what are your responsibilities?

Britney Gulbrandsen: As one of the Nonfiction Editors for Superstition Review, my main responsibility is to read through all nonfiction submissions that are received and to help decide which of these we will publish. Alongside this, I am asked to create a list of 20 writers to solicit work from and a list of two people that I would be interested in interviewing. It is my job to create specific interview questions for each of these interviewees.

SR: How did you hear about Superstition Review and what made you decide to get involved?

BG: I heard about Superstition Review from Patricia Murphy, the managing editor of the online literary magazine. I took one of her poetry classes last semester and received some information about the internship. I wanted to get involved because I thought it would be a great experience to learn more about the publishing process and to expand my knowledge of writing.

SR: What are you hoping to take away from your Superstition Review experience?

BG: I hope that through this experience, I will be able to learn more about the publishing field. I want to gain general work experience–such as completing assigned tasks and working with a group. I have already learned so much and feel that I have grown as a writer. I hope to expand that knowledge even further. I am excited and honored to be working for SR this semester.

SR: Describe one of your favorite literary or artistic works.

BG: One of my favorite literary works is Why I Write by Joan Didion. I love the way that she explains why she became a writer and what that means to her. I feel that I can relate to her words in a lot of ways. I think Joan Didion writes beautifully.

SR: What are you currently reading?

BG: Right now, I am reading a slew of different things. First, I am reading a few different short story anthologies, such as The Oxford Book of English Short Stories and The Pushcart Book of Short Stories. I am also reading a lot of poetry from various authors. The main book that I am currently reading is Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott. And, of course, I am reading lots of textbooks.

SR: What other position(s) for Superstition Review would you like to try out?

BG: I think I would enjoy trying out both the Fiction and Poetry Editor positions of SR. I love both of these genres and it would be really entertaining to read lots of submissions in these areas. I would also really love to try out the blogger position. I love to blog and I think it would be fun to come up with interesting blog posts pertaining to SR.

SR: Do you write or create art? What are you currently working on?

BG: I do write. It’s what I love to do. This semester, I am trying to expand my knowledge of writing and to get in lots of practice. I currently have four short stories that are in the rewriting, revising, and editing process. I have about 10 poems that I am working with, and I am deciding whether or not to keep working with them or to put them aside. Also, I started a novel about nine months ago. I may pull that out in the next couple of months and work further on it. Most recently, I started a personal essay that I am having a lot of fun writing.

SR: Besides interning for Superstition Review, how do you spend your time?

BG: Besides writing, my other main hobbies include dancing, scrapbooking, reading, blogging, fashion, cooking, and spending lots of time with my husband.

SR: What is your favorite mode of relaxation?

BG: My favorite mode of relaxation would have to be curling up in a blanket with my husband, eating ice cream and watching a good movie.

SR: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

BG: In 10 years, I hope that I will still be writing and that I will be a published writer. I’m planning on having a few kids by then, so this may be a hard task to accomplish; but, I hope that I stick to it. My goal is to have a strict writing schedule and to be able to balance being a wife, a mother, and a writer. I hope to complete some sort of online creative writing master’s program and to learn all that I can about writing. In 10 years, I want to say that I have completed more than one novel, whether or not they are published.

Meet the Interns: Madeline Beach, Solicitations Coordinator

Madeline Beach earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from ASU in 2003. She has since returned to ASU, and is now a senior studying English Literature.

Superstition Review: What is your position with Superstition Review and what are your responsibilities?

Madeline Beach: I am currently serving as the Solicitations Coordinator. My major responsibilities include reaching out to writers and artists who have been selected to be solicited to submit previously unpublished work and then I make the received solicited submissions available to the respective editor for review. I also contact bookstores and writing organizations to request that they notify their customers and members of our open submission period.

SR: How did you hear about Superstition Review and what made you decide to get involved?

MB: I first learned about Superstition Review when I took a course led by the journal’s Managing Editor Trish Murphy. She informed the class that there would be an opportunity to participate in the creation of the spring issue and I felt it would be a great chance for me to gain invaluable experience in the publishing field.

SR: What are you hoping to take away from your Superstition Review experience?

MB: I am hoping to gain some of the skills necessary to working as a professional editor. I am in school because I have decided to change careers and I hope that this internship will provide some of the experience I need to be a successful editor.

SR: Describe one of your favorite literary or artistic works.

MB: An author who I recently discovered whose story I felt was very well written is Tammy Delatorre. Her story titled Gifts from my Mother is a cynical coming of age tale that describes the “gifts” a young girl receives from her mother. At night the narrator’s mother leaves her young daughter in the car while she frequents the local bar. The mother brings her daughter the parasols and olives from her drinks at the bar, which the daughter sarcastically remarks as being so thoughtful. I like the feel of the story because it is dark and poignant, telling the short story of a young girl’s experience of her mother.

SR: What are you currently reading?

MB: Unfortunately between working full-time and going to school full-time I don’t have time for any leisure reading.

SR: What other position(s) for Superstition Review would you like to try out?

MB: I would like to try to be a Fiction or Nonfiction Editor. My goal after graduation is to obtain a career as an editor of written work, so I feel that I would gain experience that closely matched my aspirations.

SR: Do you prefer reading literary magazines online or in print?

MB: I prefer reading literary magazines online because of the availability and accessibility. I have found it is easier to read the work of several different authors when I browse journals that publish online.

SR: Do you write or create art? What are you currently working on?

MB: I am currently writing a series of essays based on the lives of women who have overcome tumultuous family situations in childhood to lead successful lives. The stories are based in reality on people I have known who have life stories that are so extreme they almost seem fictional, which is why I feel they should be told.

SR: What is your favorite mode of relaxation?

MB: My favorite mode of relaxation is somewhat juvenile; I enjoy watching cartoons. In fact, I have never stopped watching cartoons on Saturday mornings because I like the break from conscious thought. I try to keep my love of cartoons a secret because when people find out I generally get teased.

SR: Where do you see yourself in ten years?

MB: I see myself on the East Coast working as an editor. I feel that it is a big dream, but it is what I have in my sights and would like to achieve. I believe if I put in the needed effort I will be able to obtain the career I want.

Meet the Interns: Heidi Nielson, Fiction Editor

heidinielson_0Heidi Nielson is pursuing concurrent degrees in English (Creative Writing) and Journalism (Digital Journalism), as well as a minor in Music.

Superstition Review: What do you do for SR?

Heidi Nielson: As a fiction editor, I send solicitations to authors for work, as well as for interviews, read, discuss, and decide on submissions along with Riki, and conduct at least one interview with an author.

SR: How did you hear about SR?

HN: I first heard about the internship while I was interning at the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, working with Hayden’s Ferry Review. Shortly thereafter, I volunteered at the Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers’ Conference at ASU and was able to attend a class on literary journals that Patricia Murphy was teaching, and met with her after the class ended. During the last issue, I helped with the blog, though I wasn’t officially an intern. I’m very excited to be an intern this semester.

SR: What is your favorite section of SR and why?

HN: As a fiction writer, I tend to gravitate toward the fiction section of any journal first. I am an avid reader, as well as a writer. I feel like I learn the most about writing fiction from reading the work of more experienced and talented writers, like those in Superstition Review.

SR: Who is your dream contributor to the journal?

HN: My dream contributor would probably be Jhumpa Lahiri. Her prose is beautiful, and I admire the way that she is able to immerse her readers in Bengali culture.

SR: What job would you like to try out?

HN: Probably blogger. I really enjoy social media and had a lot of fun when I helped with the blog during the last issue.

SR: What are you most excited for?

HN: I would say that I am most excited to just read submissions. We are writing to so many amazing writers this semester to request work.

SR: What is the first book you remember falling in love with?

HN: I think the first book I fell in love with was Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. What made that book so compelling to me as a child, I think, was that their family felt so similar to my own. I come from a family of six girls, and one boy, and the personalities of myself and the three sisters closest to me in age, always seemed so similar to the four sisters in Little Women.

SR: What are you currently reading?

HN: I’m currently reading a compilation of T.C. Boyle’s short stories, entitled simply, Stories.

SR: What are your favorite websites to distract you from homework?

HN: I noticed that most people were saying Facebook, and I can’t deny that I do check it more than once a day, but I think the website that usually distracts me from homework the most is etsy.com. It’s a website of handmade or vintage items, and I can just spend hours browsing through the thousands of items. I also get distracted by my Google Reader. I subscribe to about 50 blogs, and so I’m almost constantly reading posts.

SR: Do you write? Tell us about a project you are working on.

HN: I write fiction, mainly short stories. I have been working on revisions of two stories I wrote for my fiction class last year since the last ended, and I’m on my sixth drafts of both.

Meet the Interns: Jessica Swanson, Web Design Team Manager

jessicaswanson_0Jessica Swanson is a Senior at Arizona State University majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing.

Superstition Review: What do you do for SR?

Jessica Swanson: As the Web Design Team Manager I oversee projects for the Blogger, Web Developer, and Photoshop Editor. I initiate or remind the members of upcoming projects as well as assist them with certain projects or questions. During the past few weeks the team and I have begun a rebuild of the SR webpage which I am extremely excited about. This includes redesign the fonts, colors, and layout of the site as well as creating a new banner that will represent SR during the release of the fourth issue.

SR: How did you hear about or get involved with Superstition Review?

JS: I have had a few classes with Trish in the past and had heard about Superstition Review a few times. Since it is my last undergraduate semester at ASU I thought this would be a great opportunity to gain some hands-on experience with this online literary publication.

SR: What is your favorite section of SR? Why?

JS: I am a fiction girl so I would have to say that section and the art section are my two favorite areas of SR. I primarily write fiction so I am drawn to that section just from a personal bias, and I am always fascinated by artwork and, therefore, attracted to that section.

SR: Who is your dream contributor to the journal? Talk about him/her.

JS: Well he has already contributed to the journal, but I would really love to see a piece of fiction by Sherman Alexie. He is a very diverse author/poet and I find his work extremely influential in my personal life. I have a deep respect for him as a Native American author and would love to meet him one day.

SR: What job, other than your own, would you like to try out in the journal?

JS: I would really like to be a fiction editor (big surprise) or possible work for the marketing team.

SR: What are you most excited for in the upcoming issue?

JS: I am very excited about the re-design of the SR website. My team has been working very hard these past two weeks to get this up and running by the fourth launch and I am extremely excited to see the final result.

SR: What was the first book you remember falling in love with and what made it so special?

JS: Well this wasn’t really one of the first books that I ever fell in love with, but this was the first book that made me cry. I remember being in elementary school and reading Where the Red Fern Grows, probably for pleasure and not as an assigned reading. I was home alone and it was an overcast, early winter day. I sat in an oversized plush chair in the living room, curled up with my feet underneath me. As I read the novel I became overwhelmed by what I was reading, never having read something quite like that at my age. I cried and cried until my family came home and at the time I was sad, but I was also thrilled because that was the first time I had truly interacted with a book. After that I just became an even bigger bookworm and you could not pull me out of library for anything.

SR: What are you currently reading?

JS: Besides schoolwork I am attempting to read a mystery called Beautiful Lies. This has been a feat considering the workload of the first few weeks, but I hope to have it completed soon. I am very surprised with the novel so far–something I wasn’t expecting since it had been on the bargain table at Barnes and Noble. During the summer I read the entire Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris and I would like to start viewing the show True Blood which is based on the series. Also, I am greatly anticipating Dan Brown’s new novel The Lost Symbol which continues the Robert Langdon series.

SR: What artist have you really connected with, either in subject matter, work, or motto?

JS: I think I talk about Sherman Alexie a little bit too much, but he has got to be my favorite author just because of subject matter (although I hear he is a pretty nice guy as well). He has really helped me not only as a writer, but also as a Native American who always felt a little bit like an outcast within the community. I appreciate his work because he is so true and honest and humorous. I truly respect him as an author and I greatly value his work.

SR: What would be your dream class to take at ASU? What would the title be and what would it cover?

JS: Dream class? Naptime 101. But that will never happen. I really wish I could take a class where I am being graded to read whatever I want. If I knew that I could devote two hours a night to reading some random fiction novel off the shelf for a grade then I would be in heaven. I have found that during semesters I really cannot dedicate the time I would like to read novels for pleasure. If I could have a class where I was allowed to do that then I would be overjoyed.

Meet the Interns: Michelle Leabo, Content Team Manager

michelleleabo_0Michelle Leabo is a Senior in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences majoring in English with a concentration in Literature.

Superstition Review: What do you do for SR?

Michelle Leabo: As Content Team Manager, it is my job to keep SR’s content organized. I make sure that our spreadsheets are continually updated. One of my major responsibilities is to ensure that no work get lost. I remain in close contact with other teams and practice excellent communication between my teammates and other interns.

SR: How did you hear about or get involved with Superstition Review?

ML: I heard about Superstition Review last semester when I took a class with Patricia Murphy and answered her Call for Interns. This is the first issue of SR that I’ve been involved with.

SR: What is your favorite section of SR? Why?

ML: My favorite section is Interviews. They are so personal, honest, and candid; one really gains insight into the work of an author or artist by asking questions. I enjoy the intimacy that interviews allow for. I also enjoy forming interview questions and conducting them.

SR: Who is your dream contributor to the journal? Talk about him/her.

ML: Toni Morrison. She is such an established writer and I feel as if she could provide not only great material, but great strength to the magazine. I believe she still occasionally teaches courses; perhaps she would be willing to respond to a student-edited literally magazine.

SR: What job, other than your own, would you like to try out in the journal?

ML: I would like to tackle the role of the editor.

SR: What are you most excited about for in the upcoming issue?

ML: I am most excited to keep all of our content organized and to succeed in not losing any work.

SR: What was the first book you remember falling in love with and what made it so special?

ML: I remember reading Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt in 5th grade and absolutely falling in love with it. This book recounts a fictional family’s life throughout the Civil War. Through its characters, it taught me that people who lived even centuries ago experienced the same happiness and heartbreak as people today and that we can relate to them. Irene Hunt remains one of my favorite authors; other favorites of mine from her are The Lottery Rose and Up a Road Slowly.

SR: What are you currently reading?

ML: I am currently reading a collection of short stories. I love the art of the short story; I am a fan of Hawthorne, Faulkner, and Joyce.

SR: What artist have you really connected with, either in subject matter, work, or motto?

ML: Through subject matter, work, and motto, I have connected with Faith Hill. She sings about aspects of life and love that I can relate to. Her music expresses the importance of love, friendship, and family in life. She has a very classy composure, and least in my opinion, and I admire that; she’s hardly ever found on the cover of tabloids. She has a motto that family comes first and she always seems to honestly follow it.

SR: What are some of your favorite websites to waste time on or distract you from homework?

LM: I’m a fan of Lucille Ball and I enjoy searching for information and memorabilia relating to her and ‘I Love Lucy’. I’m also a fan of the Duggar family from TLC’s ‘18 and Counting’ so I enjoy following them through clips on YouTube and sites of that nature. They’ve recently announced they’re expecting their 19th child!

Meet the Interns: Mariah Beckman, Solicitations Coordinator

mariahbeckman_0Mariah Beckman is an English Literature Senior at Arizona State University and is pursuing a Technical Writing Certificate.

Superstition Review: What do you do for SR?

Mariah Beckman: I review current solicitation list and update contacts, and maintain this list so that the following issues have a solicitations list to build off of. I also work with Editors to add names to list and constantly update the Solicitation List with author responses. My job consists largely of helping to garner submissions and organize the responses to those submissions to provide clear and updated list of works to be featured in Superstition Review.

SR: How did you hear about or get involved with Superstition Review?

MB: I was fortunate enough to take a class taught by one of the managing editors/founders, and was thusly recruited.

SR: What is your favorite section of SR? Why?

MB: I think that poetry is going to be my favorite section of SR. When I was in high school I dated this boy, and his brother was featured in Hayden’s Ferry Review, another Arizona State University literary magazine, and I remember thinking how awesome it was that he was valued enough to be represented. His submission was poetry. I really love to read poetry–no matter how busy I am, I can pick up a copy of my Cummings or Hughes or Frost collection and browse through a finished project, and that is what I love about poetry. If literature is the Christmas Tree, poetry are the Ornaments that make it dazzle even without the lights. I’m so excited to read the submissions and have an opportunity to read some up-and-comers and professionals, side-by-side, and compare the changing face of poetry today.

SR: Who is your dream contributor to the journal? Talk about him/her.

MB: I think that I would love to feature Mark Danielewski (author of House of Leaves) or Chuck Palahniuk (author of the novels Fight Club, Snuff, Choke, etc). While each of these authors feature often mature content, their wit and eloquence are excellent artistic representations of Americans ever-changing and subversive culture. These authors publish challenging and exciting, often funny and always memorable works that have stuck with me and that I can relate to, and it would be amazing to feature one of their interviews or short stories to see what insights they could offer about writing in the 21st century.

SR: What job, other than your own, would you like to try out in the journal?

MB: I would like to work with contributors whose works are chosen to fine-tune and polish their work for submission. I would love to be the person who not only delivers the great news that an individual’s work is publication-worthy, but also work with them to craft their writing and to make them the best vehicles for their art form, because written word is truly a timeless and powerful art.

SR: What are you most excited for in the upcoming issue?

MB: The finished product and readings are the milestones that I most look forward to for this upcoming issue. To see all of our efforts come to fruition will be amazing, and I just can’t wait.

SR: What was the first book you remember falling in love with and what made it so special?

MB: As a reader, there are so many books that I really appreciated and grew up with. The first book, however, that I can remember finishing and then reading all over again was Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. The characters in this novel were so vibrant–who doesn’t know and love a Captain Yossarian, tragic and clever anti-hero of life’s red tape? Or a Milo Minderbinder, enterprising get-rich-quick businessman with great demeanor and no conscience? Major Major, the Chaplain, Hungry Joe–there was a piece of all of America in every character, even the most despicable.

SR: What artist have you really connected with, either in subject matter, work, or motto?

MB: “Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”–Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde in his The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of the most prosaic and devilish books I’ve ever read. I’ve always considered myself a fan of Sylvia Plath, but never of her methods–her poetry is divine, but her short works and her life fell short of what I thought her work expressed her capable of. Oscar Wilde, however, was as much a modern philosopher as he ever was a writer. Everything he said or wrote is quotable–I don’t think the man ever had a mundane thought.

“Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.”–Wilde

SR: What are some of your favorite websites to waste time on or distract you from homework?

MB: I am loathe to say Facebook, but there it is. I think that I blow more of my time on Facebook then I do checking my email. I Can Has Cheeseburger.com used to be high on the list, not because I’m a freak but because I have a lot of pets and every one of them seems to be represented in adorable photo form. don’t judge me. T-Shirt Hell.com–it’s awful and wrong, but I love it. I only wish I could buy up the site. If you’ve never been, you should check it out–it’s the most offensive and off-color t-shirts you would ever not want to see.

SR: What would be your dream class to take at ASU? What would the title be and what would it cover?

MB: YOU: A Montage

I would like to take a class that allows a person to gather together their most favorite and expressive mediums of expression–photos, written work, audio, video, links and things and ideas and beliefs–and turn it into something tangible…like a collage that one would be graded on. The final project would be in explanation and defense of not only the project, but the personality and individual it represents. My final would be a life-size mannequin, decked out to look like me but in clothing made of my favorite works, eyes that you could look into and press my nose to see a slideshow, a button on my mouth to hear me recite something of my choosing, and spaces cut out of my arms, legs, back, whatever, to put (assuming money isn’t the issue) clips of movies like “Vanilla Sky” or “Harold and Maude” and other favorites to show viewers, in a snapshot, me. This would be like the ultimate self-exploration, and it would involve a lot of actual project work, which isn’t something that I’ve really done since high school.

Superstition Review’s Fourth Issue Reading Series, Second Reading

The second reading of the semester took place as part of the Homecoming festivities on the lovely Polytechnic Campus. It was lovely, sunny, but a bit colder than the last few days, and quite blustery. The wind was blowing things around and making it more than a little difficult for all of the departments and organizations with tables set up about their programs.

We hosted our program (thankfully indoors) in the absolutely beautiful facility of the Black Box theater in the Applied Arts Pavilion. Due to a shifting situation on where we wanted/were permitted to hold the reading, the location had changed multiple times, resulting in a series of emails updating our readers. Probably confused me more than anyone else really. Even though I am the reading series coordinator, I had never spent much time on the Polytechnic campus, and did not really have much conception of where all the places were located, though I did eventually find my way to where we needed to be.

I started off by welcoming everyone to the reading and introduced Patricia Murphy, our managing editor and staff advisor. She then proceeded to explain the mission of SR and how we work, operate the magazine, and take submissions.

I then was able to introduce Laura Tohe, who was kind enough to drive out from the Tempe campus to share the written word with interested attendees out at our event at the Polytechnic campus. Laura read a variety of poems, including some beautiful poems from her most recent book, Tseyi, Deep in the Rock, which included poetry in both Navajo and English. She followed this with some assorted other poems, including assorted poems from a collection she is developing that she is calling her Bluebook collection, named because she started them in a blue notebook.

Laura finished the event by reading us a piece of a short story she wrote for Phoenix Noir, a recently published collection of noir mysteries all set in the Phoenix metro area. Mrs. Tohe laughed as she told us that she had never before written a mystery, but when she asked the editor how she should do it, drugs, sex, and murder were apparently the basic ingredients. I truly enjoyed the excerpts she read, and plan on buying the anthology to read the rest of the tale.

Meet the Interns: Lynda Farrell, Content Coordinator

lyndafarrell_0Content Coordinator, Lynda Farrell, is a senior at ASU West majoring in Political Science and English.

Superstition Review: What do you do for SR? Please list job activities/explanation.

Lynda Farrell: I’m the Content Coordinator, which basically means that I make sure that everything that is supposed to make it in the final product, makes it in the final product, and doesn’t get lost somewhere along the way. And I keep it all organized while I’m at it.

SR: How did you hear about or get involved with Superstition Review?

LF: This is my first time working with Superstition Review, and I heard about this internship from Professor Murphy, right after taking her Poetry 310 class.

SR: What is your favorite section of SR? Why?

LF: The art section, because I love seeing the different examples of people’s interpretations of life.

SR: Who is your dream contributor to the journal?

LF: Probably Taylor Mali (look up his work on YouTube), because I think he’s very, very clever. At the very least an interview would be interesting from him.

SR: What job, other than your own, would you like to try out in the journal?

LF: I think I would like to try out the Photoshop Editor’s position. While I’m not great at Photoshop, I like what I’ve done on the program before.

SR: What are you most excited for in the upcoming issue?

LF: Seeing how it all comes together. I know that’s kind of a weak answer, vague, but it’s really my favorite part of a project. I love the feeling of accomplishment at the end of something I and many others have worked hard on.

SR: What was the first book you remember falling in love with and what made it so special?

LF: Oh, wow. Probably my first book, Let’s Pretend. It was the first time I was able to read on my own, and it opened a whole new avenue, a whole new universe. My mom’s favorite story to tell about my childhood is the entire year where I walked around with that book, until it fell completely apart. I was devastated.

SR: What are some of your favorite websites to waste time on or distract you from homework?

LF: huffingtonpost.com. It’s a news site that, well, leans left. The best part is the way it’s organized; I can see each story and choose which ones I want to pick, or I can choose to read only the US Politics site, or only the World Politics site, or Health, or Entertainment. Not every story on each makes it to the main page, but I have to say I’m on that site more than once a day, usually. Great for learning about the world and time killing.

SR: What would be your dream class to take at ASU? What would the title be and what would it cover?

LF: Okay, there’s two that I’ve always wanted to see listed, but never have. The first is Underwater Basket Weaving, because although I’ve always heard it as a saying about how easy some classes are, I think it would be really difficult, and really interesting. I mean, I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve never done any kind of craft project underwater. It would at least be an experience. Other than that, I would want to take a history class about Women in the Renaissance, or maybe something about how there have been values placed on women in most cultures and times.

SR: What are your feelings on digital medium?

LF: I have massively mixed feelings about digital media. On one hand, it’s a great tool for connecting quickly and efficiently. On the other hand, it has cut out a lot of personal interaction, leaving people sadly lacking in people skills. I love my Kindle because it is easier to take while traveling, it takes less raw material from the earth, and the books end up being less expensive (and my bookshelves stop looking like a disaster area); but there is absolutely no replacement for being able to hold a new book, smell it, and just feel the tactile sensation that reminds me of all that I loved in childhood. I will say that I had absolutely no problem replacing CDs and tapes with my iPod. Not a single qualm.