Belladonna is amazing! The space is filled to the brim with poetry books and chaplets. The people are extremely dope and kind. I even got to sit in on a team meeting to discuss their new logo. Over the course of the year, I will be helping with event coordination, archival projects, shipping orders, book fairs and launches, as well as reading submissions for their next round of publications. My goal this year is to learn as much on the job as I possibly can. I would love to learn some grant writing, as well as meet writers and establish connections with those working in publishing and poetry. I also would love to publish a chaplet of my own poetry under the Belladonna label as well as read a bunch of poetry. I’m most excited about the event planning. This year Belladonna is having their 25th anniversary gala and I am so happy to be a part of planning it. I love galas and we’re expected to have poetry readings at the gala so it should be really fun. I’m also excited about seeing the printing of books. I’m very interested in the design of books although I am not a designer myself. I often buy a book according to the design of its cover (guilty as charged!). It would be nice to see what kind of conversations Belladonna has with their authors about the designs of their books. My first day we had a meeting about changing the logo and it was fascinating to see different iterations of the logo; and how each iteration made a different statement about the company itself. Lastly, I’m excited to spend time in the space itself. There’s so much beautiful sunlight in the space and we share it with other literary collectives! I don’t have any concerns at this moment but if they do come up I will bring them up. But so far, so good!

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