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Reflection #3

From the beginning I’ve hoped that this internship would give me a better insight into the world of publishing. I began this internship with practically no knowledge of the field. And in that regard, my work here has been very fruitful. I have learned very broad strokes of what goes behind publishing, from looking into various distributors and printers to editing and developing the journal. I’ve even gotten more than I expected. Because of SPD suddenly going under, a lot got upset in the small press industry. I got to sit in on a meeting between Nicholas and Emily Cook where I got to see them trying to figure out how to get profits back to what they used to be before SPD failed. One of the most interesting tips I heard was to identify what your audience is and to try to keep that audience. Usually it helps for that audience to be regional, or, as in the case of Bordighera Press, the audience is Italian-American. Apparently, many small presses have tried to expand to a wider audience and have found that it actually hurts their profits. I also learned that various distributors are helpful for different size presses and that upgrading to a larger distributor, if you have larger output, can help to increase profits.

My aspirations have evolved with my time at Bordighera Press. I have begun paying more attention to minute details that at the beginning of my internship I couldn’t hold onto because I had to get the hang of being in the new environment. A dream of mine would be to start my own small press, but a shorter-term goal is to work as an editor at any press, whether it be large like Penguin or small. I want to do this to continue to grow in my knowledge of the publishing industry, since a few months is obviously not enough to learn all I need to know.

Reflection #4

A regular day at work is pretty straight forward. I begin the day starting up the incredibly slow computer while Nicholas gets together what I need to do for the day. As the journal’s compilation has progressed, my work has changed. At first I was filtering submissions and writing reader’s reports, then I began drafting rejection letters (I didn’t get the pleasure of drafting acceptance letters sadly), then came editing the accepted pieces, and copyediting the journal a few times while it was nearing completion. The journal is complete now and I’ve been compiling an Author’s Handbook to provide resources like small-press support; scholarships, competitions, and award opportunities; higher-education opportunities in the Italian-American sphere; as well as Italian-American/diaspora organizations. Around one or two in the afternoon I take a lunch break which nicely divides my day into 3-4 hour chunks and allows me to get a breather. As filler for when I get tired of my main assignment, I update the book links on Bordighera Press’ website so that individuals can order books directly from the distributor.

My idea of what working in publishing would be like was airy, ungrounded, and not very specific before this internship. I’m grateful because now I have a realistic understanding of what publishing is. I both had the idea that I would enjoy the work (in a far too easy sense) and others told me that it was an incredibly difficult job. Now that I’ve done it, I see both sides realized themselves. I have a love for the work that makes the job “easy:” I want to do it. It is also incredibly difficult. Sometimes it gets overwhelming, in situations I’ve mentioned in the past like when I have a lot of big edits to make or when I am beginning a project (like the author’s booklet) that I have absolutely no experience with. However I have learned a lot of techniques for managing the stress and my expectations which have made it easier. On top of that, I find the end result of what I do to be very rewarding. I hope in the future to find a job in editing for this reason, I find it good that it challenges me while also rewarding me at the same time.

Prompt #3: Aspiration

My hopes for this internship at Belladonna is to make connections and to learn what it takes to run a small press. I’ve always valued small collaboratives that center their ethics. Belladonna has shown me the pros and cons of a company that tries to steer clear of capitalistic exploitative behaviors. I hope the company can show me that you don’t need to exploit labor in order to run a company. Belladonna really tries to take care of everybody—the writers, the workers, and me. It often comes at a monetary cost. Everyday I also learn how vulnerable small presses and collectives can be. But I would love to continue to learn how to plan events and write grants. A lot of the money we acquire comes from grants and I think that’s an invaluable skill to learn. I would also love to learn more about the physical process of printing the book. We’ve halted printing books for right now as the company is going through a transitional stage. But to see the physical process would be dope. 

I also hope Belladonna can show me how to produce a reading. I would like to know what goes into hosting a poetry reading. The process of security readers, promotion, and then publishing the poems in a chaplet. I think this would be great for connecting with other poets and learning how to plan an event in general could look great on a resume. I am already helping to plan their 25th anniversary Gala. I’ve gotten in contact with speakers and I’ve looked at the menu from the caterers. Belladonna has been super transparent when it comes to the event planning so I am already learning so much. Overall, I feel like I am already learning a lot on the job and I am excited for learning more in the upcoming weeks.

Prompt #4: The Everyday

Every week at Belladonna is different. But a typical work day at Belladonna would first consist of me doing shipments for the company. I usually look at the orders placed for the books we published, then I search through the office to see if we have copies and then I package and run them through the mail room. I think that is the most expected job of an intern but I’ve also been attached to some big projects. I’ve been helping the company plan their 25th anniversary celebration. This past week I searched for DJs for the event and I’ve been the speaker liaison. The speaker liaison was especially fun because I got to be in direct communication with the poets who are reading at the event. I even got to pick one of the poets who I’ve been such a huge fan of, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs. As the company goes through some structural changes, my role becomes more and more flexible. Recently we’ve been having a lot of meetings regarding what my role in the spring will be. I proposed a podcast in which I would interview the poets we’ve published and they said they loved the idea.

Overall, every week is different at Belladonna. It’s a company in transition and although that may come with a lot of uncertainty, there is something really beautiful about helping to build this company back up. I don’t feel like an intern. I don’t feel overworked at all but I also feel like the work that I do matters. I really have grown to appreciate the space that Belladonna crafted for me and I am ready to continue the great work. These next couple of weeks will be dedicated to the Gala and I’m excited to see how it all comes together.

Reflection #4

A typical week at the internship I am in is never the same. Some weeks can be quite stressful and other weeks come with their fair share of pressure, but nothing that would have me pulling my hair out. Since the day I give the lesson falls on a Monday, my “work week” starts on Tuesdays. On Tuesdays, I typically just do a recap of the previous day’s lesson. As of recently I have been recording voice memos of myself speaking. If I am being honest, this is probably the hardest part since I do not like hearing myself speak. However, hearing the lesson from the previous day has helped me in looking at the areas that need improvement. I listen to the voice recording while looking at my notes to see what I did well in or what I could have dove deeper into. After I take my notes I then begin to prepare for the next lesson. In my internship, I was given a topic from which I must form my own lessons from which makes it easier for me. I start my lesson prep by studying the topic I was given, then breaking it down in the days to follow. I often find myself looking at YouTube videos or even TikTok’s for inspiration for icebreakers and/or games I can use to incorporate them into the lesson. I find that students are much more engaged when they are actively participating in the class. It takes me about 2-3 days to prepare for my lesson. Over the weekend, I do a run through of my lessons. Sometimes I have found myself physically speaking in my room, almost in a way acting out the lesson as if it was in real-time. This is the final phase of how I lesson prep and it helps me in preparing myself mentally since I am still working on my public speaking skills, as well as helping me take notes on certain points in my lesson that I might need to emphasize or spend more time on. Overall the experience has been great and I can definitely notice how these skills will help me for my future development. 

Internship reflection #3

One of my aspirations from this internship is to be able to learn and gain teaching experience. My career goal is to be an educator, specifically a high-school English teacher. Based on the work I have done in this internship for the past few weeks, I can see how many of the skills I am learning can translate over to my career. The internship I am in revolves heavily around studying, lesson planning and giving oral lectures/lessons. Now, since the group I am assigned to are teenagers between the ages of 13-17, I cannot simply just stand and talk since the attention spans are very limited. This experience has forced me to think outside the box and be able to think outside the box when it comes to ensuring that the students are actively engaged during the class. This has involved doing games, illustrations, icebreakers and presentations that must have a direct correlation to the subject matter at hand. This has forced me to tap into my “inner teen spirit” and think of ideas that the students would find engaging and entertaining. This experience has made me reflect on my time in high school and the teacher’s that I had who I can say truly impacted me. One of these teacher’s was my Algebra teacher Mr. Vogel. As a disclaimer, math has NEVER been my strong suit. For as far back as I can remember, I have never been good at it. However, Mr. Vogel was able to make this class very engaging. He would start every class with an icebreaker that would then lead into the lesson for the day. He was a very stern and strict teacher, however, he would always show that he truly cared for the students and that they are actually learning the subject matter. He has also been an inspiration for the way I try and teach my class and someone whose teaching style I aspire to imitate.

Internship reflection #2

One of the most interesting things that I have done in my internship was found in the lessons themselves. Part of my job as an intern is to give weekly lessons based on excerpts from the bible and how it can apply to the daily life of a teenager. This requires me to speak publicly to this group of teens, which has not been the easiest part of the internship. Even though I am speaking to teenagers, I still get really nervous when it comes to public speaking. In the past, whenever I had to speak publicly, I began to sweat, stutter and just get really nervous. I have only given three lessons so far and the first one was not the best. No one told me how well or poorly I did but looking back, I know it wasn’t done well. However, I know that it could’ve been done better. For my next lesson, I decided to record myself speaking and afterwards look back and see where I can improve. I noticed that I tend to get lost in my notes often so an improvement I made was to make my notes clearer. I looked back at some of the notes I wrote from my first semester when I took a public speaking class! I applied them to my next lesson and it turned out better than the first time around. Never would I have thought that they would come in handy but I’m glad they did! Overall, I have really been enjoying this experience and understanding how, aside from the setting I have been placed in, the skills I am learning can translate over to other areas of my life that contribute to my professional development for the future.

Aspirations

One of my key aspirations during this internship is to develop a better versatility in my writing. In the context of this internship, I have to adapt to a certain way of writing when it comes to writing and proofreading company documents, policies, etc that I, in other circumstances, wouldn’t write in that way. Each task I am given for this internship further sharpens that skill, and enables me to understand the versatility of writing essays vs. crafting formal documents. It gives me a better opportunity to write professionally in different areas, which I appreciate.

Writing for a company that strives for professionalism and effective communication pushes me to refine my editing skills and making sure my writing and proofreading is up to standard. While there is a certain pressure to that, I would say it actually helps me strive to think more carefully about word choices because they have a significant impact on how these documents and policies look as well as present itself.

There are times (many) where my drafts are looked over by my team and supervisor and needs to be heavily edited to fit certain requirements, making sure the documents are up to professional standard. This type of writing requires precision, as each word has the potential to be, perhaps, misinterpreted. Going over writings like these bring forth my attention to detail as well as realizing that even the smallest edits have a big impact. Whether it’s restructuring a sentence or even choosing a better word, every small edit contributes to the final draft of the document and is essential to communicate the message in a clear and concise way.

Alternatively, there are times where I am tasked to write or edit for a more creative or less precise form of writing, like flyers, ads, or certain things belonging to internal communications. This type of writing isn’t as structured, and enables me to use another form of writing, where I aim to balance between informative and approachable. Keeping the content engaging while still maintaining professionalism further develops this skill of understanding different styles of writing based on the intended audience.

It’s definitely a learning curve, but this experience has so far enabled me to maintain consistency, which is a great skill to have for a career in writing in the future.

Brooklyn Trial

A interesting thing I have done so far is I attended the Trial I mentioned in my last submission, that started at the end of September. It was taking place at the Bronx Supreme Court, the first few days were jury selection and that was just the attorney who attended the first 2 days. After that each day for a week and half we had to be in the court house from 8am till most days 5pm. The whole process felt like a watered down version of “Suites”. However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. Something many TV-shows and movies forget to display is the talking and the amount of time that goes on. Most of the time in the court room consists of the lawyers talking and presenting the information to the jury. There are some witness that speak but, that was the doctor who did the neck surgery. They are bought to the stand by the Plaintiff counsel. Going into detail on reason why the plaintiff needed the surgery and what the surgery consisted of. I did learn from the attorney before the trial was how much a doctor gets paid to testify in court. I won’t disclose the amount, but it was pretty surprising. Yet when you put it into context it makes sense since the doctor is in court all day they are losing out on patients, to be in court. Another aspect I enjoyed was actually taking notes on the defendants argument, doctors testimony, and plaintiff testimony. The attorney I was working with asked me to take notes on that and to give my opinion on how I felt about what they said. Basically he wanted to know from the perspective of someone that could be chosen as a juror. Since I don’t have too much knowledge of the proceeding in a court room, I believe the input I was giving was helpful to kind of have another set of eyes from a different view. I did find some aspects a bit difficult just on understand the “why”. I would ask myself why was this said or why something was done a certain way. I couldn’t ask the attorney at the moment but when we would have a recess I was able to ask him the different questions I had and was able to understand the reasoning and logic behind it. Towards the end of the trial and the jurors were deciding the attorney were able to come to discuss a possible agreement which is called “high, lows”. Its basically before the jury announces the verdict the attorney can discuss what is the lowest the plaintiff is willing to take and the highest the defendant is will to give. Fortunately they came to an agreement before the jury announced their verdict. Yet they jury actually decided on about 350,000 more than what they attorneys agreed on. It’s a bit unfortunate that the plaintiff missed out on an extra 350,000 but when it comes to the jury it is sometimes a risky situation and I can understand why they decided to settle, since they can decide “all or nothing”. Possibly out of fear or not wanting to be to cocky. Either way the plaintiff did get a large sum of money in the end and was left happy with what they were able to take home. The whole process from start to finish was really interesting to me especially seeing it first hand and learning the reasoning behind it and experiencing it first hand.

Zine Fair

During my second week at Belladonna, we reorganized the office. Filing over a hundred of different chaplets and logging them into a spreadsheet. I took some time to read through some of the amazing poetry that had been published through the company. However, The most exciting thing was running the Belladonna table at the NYC Queer Zine fair at The Gay Center. I was terrified. I would have to run the table by myself and I wouldn’t necessarily categorize our chaplets as zines (they have no pictures!) 

Arriving there was pretty hectic. I had to carry a huge event box filled with 100+ copies of chaplets I’m supposed to sell, 10 tote bags, our table cloth, book stands, and t-shirts. Luckily, they paid for the uber there. When I arrived, it was hectic. All of the zine owners were running around decorating their tables, trying to organize their space in a way that shows off their zines the best. The zines were incredible and very diverse. Some were pure photography, others were directed to younger readers, while some were intended for ***adult readers. 

The Belladonna table was squeezed in between two really good and fast selling zines. The first hour there I sold nothing. I was ready to pack it up and head home. I did not want to embarrass myself for another 5 hours, sitting at a table filled with poetry chaplets. But I couldn’t back out for two reasons: first, I made a commitment, and second,I believe in the work that Belladonna publishes. I knew we could be a competitive seller if people took the time to read some of the poetry. So instead of presenting the chaplets closed on the table, I opened them. I allowed potential buyers to read them. I allowed them to take their time. And we started to sell! 

By the end of the fair we sold a good amount of chaplets and some totes. Even when the cards were stacked against us, the quality of the material pushed through. I learned a great lesson that day: sometimes you have to find unique ways to reach out and bring the reader in, give them time to taste the work, and trust that the material will sell itself.