Jess Wright spills all on her internship at Spelt Magazine
Who am I?
Hi, I’m Jess. I am a current Creative Writing and Publishing MA student. I’m here to tell you a little bit about my internship at Spelt Literary Magazine. As a joint honours student I take three modules of creative writing and three of publishing so I can also shed a little light on the publishing course at YSJ!
The Internship
Most recently, as part of my third publishing module, I have undertaken an internship with Spelt literary magazine. With four seasonal prints a year, Spelt magazine is committed to publishing poetry and creative non-fiction which has something to say about the rural experience. Having lived rurally my entire life, I was very enthusiastic to be given the chance to work with Wendy and Steve at Spelt.
I had to curate the under-twenty-five section of the summer issue. This section had been created following an noticeable absence of submissions from younger writers in the Spring issue. Out of the thirty-seven submissions, I was to select just five. A seemingly impossible task! Every submission had elements of beautiful and elegant writing. I can honestly say I enjoyed reading every single one. However, the five that I did pick stood out to me the most as I felt they were most relevant to what Spelt stands for. They did not romanticise the rural experience. I felt they were written by authors who had truly experienced elements of rural living. Whether that be in the city or in the country, they gave an honest and personal portrayal of topics and events that had impacted their life in some way.
This internship was a fantastic opportunity to gain experience on editing and curating, as well as learning more about promotion. I am very grateful to Wendy and Steve for allowing me to be a part of the Summer 2021 issue of Spelt magazine. I would say that this internship has been my favourite aspect of the entire course. It was great to get some real-life practical experience of editing and curating.
I also gained a greater understanding of how different ethnic and social groups are represented within the publishing industry. This was a topic that interested me greatly and it has since become the central focus of my written dissertation.
Creative Writing & Publishing at YSJ
For anybody considering the MA in publishing, I would suggest that you go for it! Personally, I found that a joint MA of Creative Writing and Publishing worked best for me. I had an equal balance between creative work and more academic assignments. Furthermore, as a creative writer, the MA in publishing gave me a key insight into the publishing industry and has allowed me to explore job roles that I had never considered before, working as a curator at Spelt being just one example.
By completing any internship, you are opening yourself up to a range of potential connections and collaborations. This is vital in any field of work. A further advantage of combining the two courses is the range of opportunities to submit creative work. For example, researching writing groups I found a whole host of literary magazines, writing groups and similarly minded creatives that I would never have found otherwise. There’s also the yearly Beyond the Walls anthology, which is put together by second year York St John students, as well as an opportunity to submit to the York Literary Review, the annual anthology curated by MA publishing students. Sadly, I did not have the chance to work on this myself, as I accepted the Spelt internship in its place.
I found the most rewarding part of the course to be the support and enthusiasm you get from everyone. This is not just your own course mates and tutors, but people in the wider publishing world. Having an active online presence is a great asset during this course, especially on Twitter. I think that sometimes the publishing world can seem very daunting to anybody new wanting to enter. Having active presence on social media can easily put you in touch with high flying members of the literary world. It can make the whole thing seem much more accessible.
If I was to offer advice to anybody considering this MA, I would say go for every opportunity that comes your way! Even if it seems trivial at the time, minor experiences can help build your CV – until you are offered more senior roles.
Advice & Good Luck!
In the future, I hope to (eventually) work as a freelance editor. This is a job that I had never even considered before I began my MA. In the meantime, I am looking for teaching roles to utilise my TESOL teaching certificate.
Also… read! The more you know about the industry the better. This includes new releases, old classics, poetry, prose – whatever your interest just read more of it!
Good luck to anybody considering the MA in either Creative Writing, Publishing, or both. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!