The Woman in Me, Spare, and Celebrity Memoirs Humanizing Celebrities

In 2021, the world was captivated by Britney Spears’s story as she spoke out against her father and her management as the result of their abuse and for keeping her under involuntary conservatorship. The world applauded for her as the conservatorship was terminated. Now the world applauds her memoir, The Woman in Me, for reclaiming and humanizing her story. The book highlights the importance of Spears reclaiming her independence by sharing her story as a woman within the music industry fighting against the men in her life that sought to control her. 

Published on October 24, the memoir narrates a story that is described on the Gallery Books website—the publisher and a division of Simon & Schuster—as “a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.” Gallery Books reports that the memoir sold 1.1 million copies in its first week in the U.S, with the combined figure composed of sales of print books, e-books, pre-orders, and audiobooks. The publisher has also announced the memoir is going for a fourth printing, bringing the number of hardcover copies in print to about 1.4 million, making it the fastest selling book in Gallery’s history. The Woman in Me now joins other celebrity memoirs such as Spare by Prince Harry, The Promised Land by Barack Obama, Becoming by Michelle Obama, and Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump in selling over a million copies in their first week of publication.

What these numbers reflect is the support for the #FreeBritney movement that began in 2020 when rumors and personal accounts of the conservatorship and the effects it had on Spears’s mental health began to be uncovered. The internet has come out in droves to support Spears before the full extent of the situation and the implications of what that meant for the pop star’s life was even fully revealed. Of course, this also means that people have eagerly awaited for more news concerning Spears’s career under the authority of her conservatorship and what effects this had on her. And perhaps that reveals the harsh truth: the obsessive curiosity audiences possess when it comes to knowing and understanding the ugly and humane realities that lie beyond the persona celebrities present to the world. An almost desperate need to know that these larger-than-life figures possess larger-than-life issues that ground them back into reality and bring them to equal footing with us, humanizing them to us.

Another celebrity memoir that did exceptionally well was Prince Harry’s Spare, which was published earlier this year in January and sold 1.6 million copies in the U.S. during its first week. Spare followed the announcement that Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, would be leaving the royal family. Like Spears’s memoir, the success and reception of Spare could be attributed to the memoir’s debut following a huge news story.

The near-instant success of celebrity memoirs such as The Woman in Me following the dramatic revelation of such imperfections in these people’s lives seems to suggest readers crave these tragic stories that explore every human emotion that hides behind the smiles and carefully-crafted persona portrayed in public. Readers want to know the details hidden behind closed doors that humanize celebrities. In a sense, a memoir like The Woman in Me is the closest we can get to an honest portrayal of a human who has been placed on a pedestal.

John McPhee and “Greening” an Edited Draft

What kind of editing happens when a draft already seems finished?

In his book Draft No.4: On the Writing Process, American writer and pioneer of creative nonfiction John McPhee writes about the outlining, drafting, and revision phases included in the writing process. One chapter called “Omission,” also published in the New Yorker in 2015, discusses McPhee’s experience writing and editing his pieces for Time.

After rounds of back and forth with his editors on a piece and reaching a finalized draft, McPhee would come into work in the morning and find a final assignment with a note telling him to “Green 5” or “Green 9.” Essentially these notes would mean McPhee was supposed to condense his work by that particular number of lines so that it could fit into the print magazine format. He was supposed to mark his changes in green pencil so that his editors could add something back if they saw fit, which according to him, they rarely did. Editing values being concise.

This practice of “greening” his text was a task intended to reduce the piece in size, but change nothing about its voice, message, or tone. The piece needed to be left intact—just slightly shorter to fit publishing’s practical needs. Although used specifically for print needs in this anecdote, the importance of greening lines in a text expands to digital formatting as well (consider Tweets or the format of blog posts).

McPhee took this experience and ended up teaching it to his writing students at Princeton, asking them to green their pieces to think about every word placed in their work. This final phase of editing requires methodically rechecking word and line count while making careful changes—putting together a puzzle of a perfected draft.

When editors of the CambridgeEditors team work on copy edits, proofreading, or formatting, they employ these strategies to end up with final pieces worthy of McPhee’s praise. CambridgeEditors has experts in greening and polishing texts of all kinds. If you’re interested in making your pieces as polished and concise as they can be, reach out to CambridgeEditors or check out our website for more information on all the services we provide.

Tatiana Jackson-Saitz, Cambridge Editors Team

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Active or Passive Voice?

By Hannah Voteur, CambridgeEditors’ Team

How do you know what voice would best serve your writing?

One of the most frequently repeated lessons from high school English class is that the passive voice should be avoided at all costs. It takes away from the clarity of the sentence and is questionably grammatical.

However, this isn’t entirely true. The passive voice is one of two grammatical voices in English, the other being active. Voice in grammar indicates the relationship between the subject of the sentence and the action; more specifically, whether the subject is performing the action (active) or being performed on (passive). Either voice can be applied to any tense since they don’t carry specific temporal information.

Although using the passive is often frowned upon by teachers, both of these forms of verbs are grammatically correct. However, as stylistic choices, they lend different tones to your writing. Choosing one over the other can be a way to highlight certain information or draw your reader’s attention to a different focus. Creative writers can particularly play with voice, selecting either based on their desired effect on readers.

Passive voice emphasizes the action over the participants, which is why it can be useful in news or scientific contexts. News articles are more apt to contain “The store was robbed,” to bring readers closer to the point of the story, the robbery itself, and not the presently unknown perpetrators. Scientific papers might use the passive to highlight the different steps of an experiment, leaving out the actors, the scientists themselves, because that information is already clearly established and doesn’t need to clog the
sentence.

Active voice is more decisive and declarative, directly stating the information for readers. Opinion pieces and other more definitive styles of writing would benefit from this voice type. It lends clarity and focus to your sentences, helping with conciseness and precision. Academic writing on history or other informational subjects tends towards using a more active voice for this reason, keeping the writing in line with the factual and informative content.

Either type of voice can enrich your writing, as long as it is properly utilized with your subject matter and audience in mind. If you’re looking for assistance deciding on the best way to make use of voice in your writing, or if you need any other helpful guidance, contact CambridgeEditors or check out our website for information on our full range of editing services.

The Author and The Media Age

Social media has become a part of the language we speak. Facebook incites argument, Instagram provokes envy, and Twitter is used for foreign policy. Because of this, social media is one of the best marketing tools available for artists today. Likes, shares, and retweets bring artists in obscurity to prominence through a series of successful social media campaigns.

For a writer, the best social media platform is Twitter. Confined to 140 characters (though the site is thinking about introducing a new 280 limit), the social networking site is ideal for those who deal in words. However, some prominent published writers seem to scorn all forms of social media, either to prevent themselves from becoming distracted from their work or because they believe the medium to be a frivolous time waster.

I, however, believe that a well-managed Twitter account can increase an author’s readership, help market their new work, and connect them to a network outside of the literary world. Today, I am going to explore the Twitter accounts of three reputable (and remarkable) female writers: Nayyirah Waheed, J.K. Rowling, and Jennifer Egan. I will analyze what their accounts do well, their limitations, and how they allow these women to reach new audiences.

Nayyirah Waheed

I am in many ways limiting Waheed’s social media influence by analyzing her Twitter profile because it was her Instagram that expanded her audience and allowed her poetry to garner attention. She takes pictures of poems from her collections (my favorite is salt.) and posts them, captioning the collection and title of the poem.

Her tweets are similar. What I find most effective about Waheed’s Twitter is that everything she tweets is a poem. Her poetry consists of fragmented sentences that explore issues of race, love, and gender.

Because her poetry is so sparse, Waheed is able to fit an entire poem in 180 characters. She’s created a distinct form of tweeting that allows her readers to see new work daily. It also extends her readership more quickly since other users can browse her profile and get instant access to her poetry. If a tweet resonates with a follower, they can like or retweet it, and the poem will show up on their timeline. Then, one of their followers can see the poem, and if they like it, they may follow Waheed or even buy one of her collections.

Some limitations to Waheed’s Twitter include her use of pictures, retweets, and her promotion of other poets. While this is normally a great way to utilize social media, Waheed’s tweets are in such a specific format that her profile as a whole loses some potency when she breaks from tweeting poetry. Ideally, her account would consistently stick to her “poem as tweets” format.

However, this has not stopped her from garnering nearly 50,000 followers on Twitter and over 350,000 followers on Instagram. Waheed’s use of social media has had a tangible effect on her career. She self-published her first collection, salt. By posting her poems on social media, Waheed gained positive attention from various followers. Because of this rise in popularity, Waheed’s collection started to be taken seriously by critics who had at first blown off her poetry for its non-traditional form. Her work is now studied in high schools across the country.

J.K. Rowling

Rowling holds nothing back on her Twitter. She uses it for marketing new work (especially by retweeting promotions from Robert Galbraith, her pseudonym’s account), for connecting with her fans, and for confronting political issues, both in the US and the UK. Since joining the site in 2009, Rowling has tweeted almost 9,000 times, gained over 12 million followers, and averages around 1,000 retweets for her unlinked tweets.

Rowling’s tweeting is partly a product of her prominence in the world as a celebrity. She has used her platform to speak out against Brexit and Donald Trump, and she frequently calls out British journalists on Twitter. Also, because she is a celebrity and doesn’t have to worry about gaining or losing followers, she can tweet whatever she likes, for example:

And she will receive a receive a generally positive response from her followers (like me!):

One limitation of Rowling’s account is that, because she tweets such politically charged material, she’s bound to lose followers and receive flack from other users on Twitter. What makes Rowling a master of the medium, however, is her ability to respond to those comments with concise, biting turns of phrases:

Rowling has plunged head first into the social media world and has used Twitter to cultivate a specific voice outside of her creative work. People who may not be interested in reading her fiction still follow her because of her engagement on the social media site. Through her tweets, Rowling has made herself a prominent voice in today’s volatile political climate.

Jennifer Egan

Egan is an acclaimed writer and an elite presence in the literary world, and her twitter reflects that. Egan uses her twitter account exclusively for marketing purposes. She was active in 2014 when she was the editor for the anthology Best American Short Stories (and, during this time, retweeted Joyce Carol Oates’ thoughts on the collection). She then stopped tweeting. Her account ceased its three-year period of dormancy to market her new book Manhattan Beach, which comes out October 3^rd.

While this strategy will not garner you the most followers (Egan has just over 12,000 followers and averages at or under 100 likes per post), it is a great marketing strategy. If I was a curious reader wanting to see what projects Egan had coming out, it would be super easy for me to find that information on her sparse account. Additionally, because her account isn’t inundated with a constant stream of tweets (both personal and professional), she would be an account someone who likes an uncluttered feed would be more likely to follow.

Egan’s account is not geared toward gaining new readership. There’s nothing on her account that would make someone who has never read her work follow her. However, because she does have a Twitter, she can be tagged when she’s nominated for prestigious honors, like making the National Book Award Long List. This can direct readers who are not familiar with her work toward her profile.

There are a number of different ways for a writer to manage their social media accounts, and these are just three examples. Whether you choose to manage your account like Waheed, Rowling, or Egan, know that your Twitter can have a positive effect on your professional work when you utilize the medium creatively and effectively.

Madeline Sneed, Intern

Exploring; Where should our focus lie?

I have a general statement.

Now, we all know generalizations are dangerous, in that they can grossly overlook important small details, but I’m willing to take that risk, at least right now. Here goes: The constant debate that applies to exploring, be it going round the world or your hometown, is whether or not you focus on your destination, or enjoy the ride.

Would you not agree? In an age when we are so focused on productivity and efficiency, it seems as though people are struggling more and more to simply enjoy the little things, and the process of getting from one place to another, literally or metaphorically, is more and more becoming entirely focused on the outcome.

Why is this?

It could be that since we are capable of doing so much more than we could in the past, what with the aid of technology to take care of the little mundane things, we feel as though we must be even more productive than the machines we rely on?

Maybe. Probably? It seems likely, although there are of course other factors that add into that.

Regardless, this is a debate that has been much on my mind recently, especially considering that it is my last day here in the CambridgeEditors’ office!

Coming in to Cambridge just about every Wednesday and Friday of the past few months has been a treat, and working with Dr. Weiner and elizabeth has been both educational, but also truly inspiring! Collaborating with two very independent, multidimensional women is something I can only hope to continue throughout my life. Needless to say, the bar has been set high.

So, as my metaphorical journey through this semester comes to a close, I am thinking very much about this debate, journey or destination? Perhaps in my case I’m focusing on both, whether it be truly appreciating my experience here, as well as appreciating how it will help me move forward as I eventually (sooner than I’m fully comfortable acknowledging just yet) enter the mythical “workforce” that we are told that we will one day enter. Who knows? I like the idea of keeping my options open, but who doesn’t?

Ursula K. Le Guin said it best: “It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.” I am grateful for all that I learned while I was here, and I look forward to emulating the amazing two women who I work with now.

-Hadley Gibson

 

Bookstores of Boston, a Brief Overview of America’s Most Collegiate City

In the past few years that I’ve spent in Boston, I’ve made a point to try and visit some of the many book stores it houses. Boasting over 100 colleges in the greater Boston area, I don’t think it is outrageous to claim that Boston is America’s ‘Most Collegiate City’, and it shows. The sheer amount of college students, professors, libraries, and of course bookstores show how academic Boston is, and how more knowledge is constantly sought. A veritable Mecca for those seeking to learn for the sake of learning!

With that, I’m going to highlight a few of my favorite bookstores that I have visited in Boston during my college years, as well as mention those that I have heard of and intend to visit. If there is a bookstore on here that I fail to mention, which you, our readers, feel deserves a moment in the spotlight, please feel free to comment away!

The bookshelves at Porter Square Books runneth over with something new to learn!

Porter Square Books: Nestled into a corner near the Star Market in Porter Square, Porter Square Books is a hidden gem that every college student in the nearby area seems to discover by chance. I myself came across it my freshman year of college, when my friend and I braved the snows of Nemo to go to the grocery store. As we attempted to head back into that record breaking snowstorm, we realized that we wouldn’t get far, and took refuge in Porter Square Books. As a point I’ve practically beaten into the ground by now, I love books and bookstores, and my friend and I were so pleasantly surprised by Porter Square Books that we stayed many hours, even after the snow stopped.

The store itself isn’t enormous, but the selection of books it has is excellent, with a range of the classics, new arrivals, and just quality choices in the fiction, poetry, mystery, travel, and cooking sections, among others.

In addition to a great selection of books, Porter Square Books also has a small coffee bar in the corner, where patrons can order gourmet coffee based drinks (as well as a wide ranging selection of teas), and can enjoy their purchases in many comfortable seats near the windows, whether at separate tables or a long bar in the well of the window. The light and the atmosphere are incredibly conducive to getting some quality reading done.

The final touch on this already lovely bookstore is that fact that Porter Square Books has frequent events. Just about every night of the week, the little bookstore brings in authors, some well known, some just breaking into the publishing industry, to give readings from their works. The public is always welcome to attend, and many stay to get books autographed or to ask the authors questions after.  For such a small store, it feels very large. Whoever claimed that independently run bookstores are dying out clearly didn’t visit Porter Square Books, which is thriving nicely.

For such a small store, it feels very large. Whoever claimed that independently run bookstores are dying out clearly didn’t visit Porter Square Books, which is thriving nicely. To learn more, visit their website: http://www.portersquarebooks.com

The famous storefront of the original Harvard Book Store.

Harvard Bookstore: Harvard Square boasts many bookstores, which comes as no surprise considering that one of the world’s most famous colleges and universities is located there. It almost goes without saying that the bookstore associated with the college should be astounding, and any bibliophile’s dream.

Much like Porter Square Books, the Harvard Book Store is locally owned and independently run, as they proudly tout on their website, http://www.harvard.com. With an innumerable amount of books and sections, I think it can suffice to say that if there is a book you are seeking, in a particular genre, era, or color, it is likely bundled into the plentiful shelves of the Harvard bookstore.

Aside from the amazing selection and intensely intellectual atmosphere, which inspires its patrons to buy books in new disciplines for the sake of learning, one of the most exciting things about the Harvard Book Store is the frequent events when world renowned authors and readers come to speak! Upcoming speakers include Chelsea Clinton, Sarah Vowell, Simon Winchester, and Judah Friedlander. Throughout my time in Boston I’ve known college students and Boston residents alike to go to these events, creating a greater community of intellectuals.

One feels as though they have entered a place outside of time when they go to the Harvard COOP.

Harvard COOP: Down the street from the Harvard Book Store is the COOP, the bookstore for current Harvard and MIT students that is open to the public as well. I suppose the best descriptor of the store is that it resembles Hogwarts, with many floors and spiral staircases, and bookshelves lining the entire building. One walks in and feels as though they have gone through some sort of portal to a place outside of reality, which I feel is one of the main allure of books. If a building can replicate the feeling one gets from an excellent book, the building is doing something right!

Spanning over several buildings, the COOP is like a mixture of a Bed Bath and Beyond and the library of a castle; essentially everything a college student could need is there, whether it be their textbooks or replacement clothes hangars. I myself have wandered through there many times, marveling at the selection of books, audio books, and even different types of jig saw puzzles. It’s the jack of all trades of book stores! To learn more, or perhaps to purchase some Harvard paraphernalia, visit their website here: http://store.thecoop.com.

One of the staples of Newbury Street, Trident Booksellers and Cafe allows it patrons to enjoy their lunch and their reading material simultaneously.

Trident Booksellers and Cafe: Located in the center of Boston, Trident Booksellers and Cafe is one of the main attractions along the famous Newbury Street. When weary shoppers have had enough of the many designer clothing stores and delectable foods of Newbury, Trident offers a brief, calm respite with a nice cup of tea and a book. Like all the stores along Newbury, Trident is not very large, but its selection of books and magazines is top notch. With new arrivals, including the incredibly popular ‘adult coloring books’ (which I may or may not have purchased from Trident myself) from the past summer, as well as numerous classics, journals and most genres under the sun, Trident utilizes its space well, and leaves room for a full blown restaurant.

Downstairs is a coffee shop where readers can sit and enjoy any sort of beverage or pastry along with their book, and upstairs patrons can sit and enjoy simple, delicious meals! Check out their website here: http://tridentbookscafe.com.

Other bookstores that I haven’t gotten the chance to visit yet, but are on my list include:

Brattle Book Shop: located in the heart of Boston and best known for its book selections put outdoors in an adjacent alley for patrons to browse through. See their website for more information: http://www.brattlebookshop.com

Who wouldn’t want to wander through?

Commonwealth Books: Known for their rare selections, Commonwealth Books is a must see for any book lover. Learn more here: http://www.commonwealthbooks.com

New England Mobile Book Fair:  I’m not sure if it is actually a book fair or if it actually moves, but rumor has it that the store is a long as several football fields, and packed to the gills with books of all sorts! See for yourself: http://www.nebookfair.com

All of these bookstores are places that any visitor or resident of Boston should consider going to, if for no other reason than to support local business in some cases! As Lemony Snicket, (aka Daniel Handler, aka the author of the famous A Series of Unfortunate Events) wrote in reference to libraries (which in this case I am likening to book stores), “The world is quiet here.”

-Hadley Gibson

‘The Opposite of Loneliness’ – Young Writers etc.

Last week in a moment of procrastination I went to the library and took out The Opposite of Loneliness,  a collection of essays and stories written by the late Marina Keegan. This book has been on my radar for about a year now, when I read about it in the New York Times book review, which proclaimed Keegan to be an incredible talent for someone her age, or something along those lines.

I remember being particularly struck by the fact that so many book reviewers were astounded by Keegan’s age; “The loveliest piece of writing I’ve ever seen from someone so young…” “…contains the keen observations of a short lifetime – and the wisdom of a much longer one.” “In her brief life, Marina Keegan managed to achieve a precocious literary master.” “…after a young writer’s death, her words soar. …The prose, polished but thoroughly unselfconscious, is heartbreaking evidence of what could have been.” All of these various comments from reviewers, quoted on the inside sleeve of the book, are undoubtedly showering Keegan’s work with praise. However, what bothers me is that they all focus on the fact that she was young, as though they are surprised that someone under thirty could be a profound, thoughtful writer.

In many ways it feels as though younger generations are continually viewed as knowing less than older generations, simply because they haven’t been alive as long. I’m not arguing with this fact, because I don’t disagree with it. Instead, I’m arguing with the idea that age brings talent, or a more defined voice. To be completely frank, I don’t think this is the case. There is a difference between having more life experience, and simply having a knack for something. More life experience will definitely give someone a larger perspective, and allow them to aptly use different skills, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that someone with less life experience can’t be just as skilled at something.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I think Keegan’s work should be praised simply because it is good, not because she was young. However, I also recognize the fact that this book was published as a result of her untimely death to honor her memory, and if she were still alive today she may very well have published other works based solely on merit, not on hype. Do you know what I mean? Her personal story makes for a great way of introducing the book, and creates enough mystique about an immensely talented young writer who died years before her time, that many people want to read it! There’s just something about that type of tragedy that people are drawn to.

But enough of my ranting; I also wanted to write about this book because it is excellent. As a current senior in college, a lot of her essays ring true for me, with themes of focusing on the present, as well as being okay with not knowing exactly where you will be in a year. These themes can carry over to all ages, though, which is why I would recommend it to just about anyone.

Keegan’s life story also resounds with me on a personal level. In May of 2012, she graduated from Yale University. One month later, I graduated from high school. As I was preparing to enter my next stage of life in college, she was preparing to enter the mythical “real world”. You know, the “real world” that we are told about our whole childhoods, whether it is hidden behind the mask of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” or more blatantly when we are told that we can’t get away with certain things once we become fully fledged adults. While I was able to enter my freshman year of college in the fall of 2012, though, Keegan never got the chance to experience the “real world”. She was killed in a car accident five days after graduating college, and was never able to begin work at the New Yorker, where she had been hired.

As one of the reviewers up above said, “what could have been” with Keegan is haunting, and sad. However, based on her writing, it is clear that Marina was a hopeful person. The title of the book is the same as that of an essay she wrote as her final post while editor in chief of the Yale Daily News, addressed to her graduating class. “We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness,” Keegan writes,  “but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life.” Well, I doubt there is anyone who is unable to identify with that sentiment. As Keegan describes her experience at Yale, “this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together,” I can certainly relate. Likewise, I can confirm the feeling of fear associated with losing that feeling next year, but I hope to take her words to heart, “We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I’d say that’s how I feel at Yale. …In love, impressed, humbled, scared. And we don’t have to lose that.”

I can only hope that I’ll be able to carry that idea with me as I finish up my last year of college and beyond, but I also hope that by writing about it here, you who read this blog will decide to pick up the book! Who can’t benefit from hearing their inner thoughts so eloquently written out? And by someone so young as well! Like I said, age doesn’t necessarily always translate to wisdom, but I suppose we can all acknowledge that this essay is coming from the viewpoint of a young person, who most of the time tries to remain neutral. 😉

Keegan’s best selling book shows her on the cover, in a yellow coat that can be described as “happy” and “hopeful”, the epitome of youth.

-Hadley Gibson

Interview with the Interns

Hey, readers! We had a bit of downtime in the office today, and I decided to introduce you to the sillier side of the staff here. I asked our two interns, Hadley and Adrienne, to answer some questions about themselves. It started out as normal, but quickly turns absurd. Hope you enjoy!

Elizabeth: So tell me, what are your favorite books?

Adrienne: I think I’d say American Gods by Neil Gaimen. My most treasured possession is probably my signed copy of Ananzi Boys.

Hadley: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. My favorite type of literature is Middle-Eastern. I think it’s really interesting because it actually depicts the plight of women in extremely patriarchal societies. It was super interesting and I found a lot of parallels between it and American society.

E: Are you guys also interested in writing?

A: Yes and no. I’m interested in writing well, but not necessarily being a writer.

H: Yes, I am. I’ve taken numerous creative writing classes, which I enjoy a lot. I also do a lot of writing on my own. Hopefully some day I can write things to submit to different literary journals or something.

E: Awesome! If you were a fruit, what fruit would you be?

A: Oh gosh. I think I’d be a kiwi… because I like green, and I’m kind of tart.

H: If I was a fruit… wow. That’s a really hard question. I’d probably be like, a… What’s something that looks pretty normal on the outside but it pretty gross and weird on the inside? Because I look pretty average but I’m pretty weird.

A: I don’t know, but maybe blueberries, because they aren’t blue on the inside.

H: I could be a blueberry. I can see that. Sure, why not!

E: Last question, guys. If you were an object in the CambridgeEditors’ office, what would you be?

*crickets*

H: Haha, too many options. I’ll be this painting. It’s got lots of colors, and a guy falling off of a bull. I think he’s a bullfighter. I mostly just like the colors, but bull fighting also reminds me of Earnest Hemingway.

A: That reindeer (stuffed animal for dog). There’s no reason, I just like it.

Alright, that’s all for now! Tune in later for more silly anecdotes from the CE office 🙂

The Five Best Things about English Internships

In celebration of my recent full-time job acquisition, and in farewell to this internship, I share with you the best elements, in my experience, of holding an internship in a literary related field.

Over my college years (and just slightly beyond), I held 3 unpaid internships, a paid job-like internship, and a paid internship. Because all five provided me with valuable skills, challenging tasks, and amusing memories with which to guide my journey into legitimate employment, I count all five as internships.

The internships that shaped my views were:

• Fashion Magazine: Views of Central Park, expensive shoes, daily drama.
• Literary Agency: Teeny office space, towering shelves of books, hundreds of rejection emails.
• Writing Center Tutoring: exam week appointments booked back-to-back, a never ending supply of chocolate bribes on the tutor tables, red pens.
• Public Relations Firm: reporters’ answering machines, highlighters, excel spreadsheets.
• Editing Company: SEOs, dogs, rewriting new clients on the easel .

English internships each take their own path, some demanding, some requiring more writing, some focused  more on Starbuck’s runs as the primary task of the day, some not focused at all. But this post is entirely focused on what made them great, and why I was so thrilled to spend my time in small offices, or library-quiet environments, typing away to prove that I too could one day join the ever elusive world outside my classrooms, the Working World.

They’re bantering in their heads.

Number 1: Excellent Banter

Literary internships tend to draw the best kind of crowd—other writers and innovators who have half a mind for business and the other half for Harry Potter  or half a dozen  new projects. The best part of this best kind of crowd is the banter. My fellow interns were a joy to get to know, each on his or her own path to a career, and often times much different from my own. My bosses were funny, busy, intelligent people. All around, we created much banter on topics ranging from next month’s issue on new diet trends and the best strains of South American coffee beans, to reporters who would appear to vanish from the face of the earth as soon as you got vaguely close to them via an answering machine and Rebecca Black’s “Gotta get down on Friday,” the remix.

Harry Potter’s Hobbit Hole.

Number 2: Creative Spaces

I spent time huddled around a kitchen table, surrounded by a dead lawyer’s files, sitting in a white closet, hiding behind a plant,  and looking out over a rooftop onto which we would pour the last of yesterday’s coffee from the pot. Each of the spaces held their own charm, and each provided a chair to sit in, a surface to write on, and new ways to think about how to decorate with books, from towering shelves, to color coding, to bookends shaped like eagles and windmills.

I bet that’s not actually his signature.

Number 3: Things to Write

I wrote blog posts (like this one!). I wrote many to-do lists. I wrote emails signed by me and emails signed by other people. I wrote articles, and pamphlets, and schedules, and many, many notes about what a thesis is, and yes, you do need one in your English 100 essay, my friend. The scope for writing seemed endless, and each internship asked for a slightly different tone, or vocabulary, or style. It was always a pleasure to tackle a new writing project and figure out how to employ the skills I learned in school, achieve the task before me, and happily toss out the worry that what you write won’t make the grade, because no one was actually grading.

The best of both worlds.

Number 4: Dogs & Other Fun Things

More than one internship involved dogs—a service dog, two fluffy pets that would sit on my feet, and a tea-cup dog that came in for visits and ate many dog cookies. There was a guinea pig, one of my favorites. There were Valentine’s Day proposals, alarm clocks that could leap around the floor to make you get out of bed in the morning, free candy at all times because my boss thought students would be tempted to make an appointment, and in reality, the tutors ate 96% of it. There were snacks at them all, a lot of Facebook stalking for a variety of professional reasons (I promise!), and the beauty of a corporate credit card. Personally, I just liked the dogs best.

Hot venti blonde roast thanks.

Number 5: Coffees

Yes, it was sometimes a drag to run out to Starbuck’s in January or spill your fresh brew on a student’s paper brought in for editing, but for the most part, coffees were an ever present joy at every internship. I learned how to order a venti soy latte extra hot and then carry five of them in a tray built for four, and how to beg the baristas to let that quarter slide—I would pay them back next time I came in. Because we all knew I would be back, and soon. I learned about the delicate subtleties of manipulating a breaking Keurig, or how, in a pinch, a thick paper napkin would serve as a coffee filter just fine, even the brown paper ones commonly found in industrial bathroom dispensers. Ultimately, I leaned that if someone else offers to buy, you always say yes. For someday soon, I’ll send my intern out on a coffee run and put all the drinks on my tab.

Contemplating Jazz

Inspirational and heartbreaking; full of grunge, images you want to forget, pictures you wish you had thought to take, and the hunger of the mind. I spent a tumultuous semester in New York City, my time spent climbing up my fifth floor walk up, mooching free wine at the galleries, smelling expensive products at one of the world’s largest fashion magazines, and drinking cheap coffee at a tiny literary agency.

I also wandered the streets, in sunshine and at dusk, dangerously on my bicycle (don’t do that) and frustratingly with the subway system and also eye-opening. I didn’t follow a plan and went where I chose, but I often ended up at the public library, the pretty part despite tourists in the lobby, and I made sure to go to Edith Wharton’s house to try to sniff out the glamour that I was told still clings to the city streets.

This is a snapshot of some of my journey, a literary piece of the semester, the haunts and homes of writers from the past:

Besides a Starbucks, Wharton’s home also houses WeightWatchers.

Edith Wharton

You might start your day with the usual tourist fare, but after shopping on Fifth, round the corner and arrive at 14 W. 23^rd St.

Known for The House of Mirth and her family connections to the Joneses (as in “keeping up with the Joneses” Joneses), Wharton stands for Old New York and an era gone by. This is where she grew up, and it’s now a Starbucks.

One of several reading rooms.

The New York Public Library

Keep going up fifth until you find yourself Between the Lions.

Yes, it is just as magical as you might suspect. I discovered that the stacks extend far down below the streets of New York, far past even the level of the subway system.

Unfortunately, much scaffolding blocked the best view, but here’s a taste of the hotel, to the left.

Algonquin Hotel

Just a couple of blocks further up you will stumble upon 49 W. 44^th St.

A hangout of the Dorothy Parker, the Algonquin also housed the Algonquin Round Table, a circle of writers and publishers. Popular with the literary crowd, the hotel also hosted the beginnings of The New Yorker, founded at the end of World War I and passed out free to hotel guests.

Far from bustling downtown, Salinger’s previous home.

J.D. Salinger

Take a stroll through the (far) upper reaches of the park, or possible a long jaunt through the public transportation system, until wandering into 390 Riverside Dr.  at W. 111^th St.

New York was home to both Salinger and of course Holden Caulfield, in Salinger’s famous The Catcher in the Rye.

On the edge of the art district.

Hotel Chelsea

Continue navigating classic Manhattan by going through Chelsea, or if you’re in the area for Thursday night wine tastings at gallery openings, and stop in at 222 W. 23^rd St.

Built in 1884, the Hotel Chelsea has housed numerous artists, writers, and musicians over the years from Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin, to Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams.

On (the side of) the road.

Jack Kerouac

While continuing you journey on the road, stroll down to 454 W. 20^th St.

Though not physically on the road at the time, Kerouac completed his famed manuscript by the same name at this location.

Buy something here.

Three Lives Bookstore

Further down is Three Lives. It’s cramped, quaint, and utterly charming at 154 W. 10^th St.

Opened in 1968, Three Lives has delighted readers ever since and is proclaimed “One of the greatest bookstores on the face of the Earth.”

Looking down 10th from outside Lewis’ front door.

Sinclair Lewis

Stay on 10^th and keep moving towards 37 W. 10^th St.

While living in the concrete jungle, Lewis put up his feet at this pretty address, a far cry from jungles of any kind.

Twain’s front windows.

Mark Twain

Almost neighbors, Twain lived a few doors down at number 14 W. 10^th St.

At 18, Twin moved to the city and worked for a printer before launching his later writing career in Connecticut.

In the basement. You will want to buy something here too.

Strand Bookstore

Pop up a couple blocks and just across Fifth to 828 Broadway. You will spend a great portion of your time here.

The stacks are tall, long, and stuffed with every book you can ever imagine. Explore every corner, from the highest level and rare books down into the basement and bargains.

One of those fire escapes was his.

W.H. Auden

Without getting to distracted by the riches of the Strand, continue on to 77 St. Mark’s Place

Spending some of the later years of his at St. Mark’s Place, Auden sailed to New York for the first time in 1939.

Ginsberg’s stomping grounds.

Allen Ginsberg

Finally, start to weave into Alphabet city and conclude your stop at 170 E. 2^nd St.

One of the Beat poets, Ginsberg lived on E 2^nd St. from 1958-1961. To close this tour, the opening of Ginsberg’s “Howl,” full of imagery drawn from the mysteries of the city and his own experience of a changing generation:

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night, who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz.”