Posts tagged: publishing

Highlights from the Lit Studies Alumni Panel

On February 18th, 2022, Professor Jennifer Firestone welcomed back five Lit Studies alums—Jaye Elizabeth Elijah, Hilina Da Costa Gomez, Shulokhana Khan, Colin Marston, and...   Read More

Call for Submissions — The Paper Shell Review

The Paper Shell Review, the University of Maryland’s only undergraduate journal of essays on literary topics, is now accepting submissions. The introductions to our...   Read More

Watch the 2021 Literary Studies Book Party!

Missed the Literary Studies Book Party? It’s not too late to see what it was all about! Watch the reading below! On October 21st,...   Read More

Check out photos from the Eleven and a Half launch party!

Last Thursday, the student-led publication Eleven and a Half held its annual launch party, celebrating the latest edition of art, writing, poetry, and design...   Read More

Join us for the Fall 2021 Eleven and a Half Publication Party

Please join us for the publication party of the student-led magazine, Eleven and a Half, on October 14th, 5-7 PM. Stop by the Vera...   Read More

Call for Submissions – Collision Literary Magazine

Collision is currently open for submissions of undergraduate fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art! By submitting to the annual magazine, students will be considered for...   Read More

Jennifer Firestone Publishes New Book of Poetry Titled “Story”

Eugene Lang’s very own Jennifer Firestone, Associate Professor and author, has released a book of poetry titled Story. “Story is a brilliant antidote to closure...   Read More

Reading for Writers Featured on Medium

Stephanie Leone, Literary Studies Alum, wrote an exciting feature about our course Reading for Writers: the Contemporary Short Story that we wanted to share with...   Read More

Stephanie Leone, Literary Studies Alum, wrote an exciting feature about our course Reading for Writers: the Contemporary Short Story that we wanted to share with you. 

 

Check out an excerpt below…

“There is no human experience that cannot be described in literature.”

Inside a Eugene Lang College classroom, students prepare to brave the world outside, armed with stories.

 

In Reading for Writers: The Contemporary Short Story, “students will read and engage with the work of some of the best living practitioners of the short story and bring five of them into the classroom for in depth conversations on their writing, their methods, their influences, their intentions, and their lives as writers.” So begins the syllabus for a dream course taught by Eric Simonoff, acclaimed literary agent and new professor in the Literary Studies department at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts. Simonoff represents writers of incredible caliber, including Jhumpa Lahiri, Jonathan Lethem, Philipp Meyer, Stacy Schiff, Edward P. Jones, Nam Le, and Chris Adrian, among others. Although he is characteristic of faculty at The New School, shaping his classroom and his field of work simultaneously, he is not a typical undergraduate writing instructor. In granting his students access to brilliant, contemporary writers — Phil Klay, Daniel Alarcón, Maryse Meijer, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, and ZZ Packer in the Fall 2018 semester — he is demystifying perhaps the most frightening aspect of writing: how to get someone (like Simonoff) to read your work.”

Read the full article on Medium.

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On February 18th, 2022, Professor Jennifer Firestone welcomed back five Lit Studies alums—Jaye Elizabeth Elijah, Hilina Da Costa Gomez, Shulokhana Khan, Colin Marston, and Jasveen Kaur S.—to share their thoughts on life after college and the creative ways that their Literary Studies degrees propelled them onto their current personal and professional paths. 

You can watch the entire video here or read the transcript here

Their paths have all differed greatly, ranging from publishing to journalism school, from an MFA in Poetry and to work in Film Production. They all agree that the breadth and interdisciplinary focus of classes offered by Lang’s Literary Studies department were incredibly formative. 

  • “There were all these opportunities I had to enhance my facilitation skills, my teaching skills, and think about how I would want to be more equitable when it comes to teaching.” —Jasveen Kaur S.

  • “No experience is ever wasted. Within all the classes that you take there is really always something to be mined… Anything that you’re doing is going to help you move on to the next thing.”—Shulokhana Khan

The panelists gave concrete, practical advice on what to look for when applying to jobs and internships, without sugar-coating the reality of the creative job market.

  • When applying to internships, “be clear-sighted about your objectives and also hold them accountable. They should pay interns. The system is exploitative and if it’s not for academic credit, get paid.”—Colin Marston

  • “Don’t be afraid to leave, as well, if you feel like you’re being mistreated… The right people will understand why you left.”—Hilina Da Costa Gomez

Overall, the panelists helped set clear, honest expectations of life after college: it’s hard and competitive. But the tools they acquired from their many experiences in Lit Studies and The New School at large have helped them remain flexible and creative in their pursuits.

  • “There’s a lot of possibility and I think there’s a real emphasis on having a book, or having the most beautiful idyllic publishing job, or going straight into a program right after graduation, and none of that is required… don’t get caught up in the myth of ‘prodigy’ and needing to have it all figured out. So I would say let yourself fail and fail hard and it’ll come together eventually.”  —Jaye Elizabeth Elijah

  • “The jobs that I got look pretty neat on paper, but there are a lot of rejections in between, a lot of ‘I don’t know what I’m doing!’ ‘I don’t know if I’m ever going to get anything!’”—Shulokhana Khan