My Internship at Firewheel

My fall internship takes place at WestConn (the mid-town campus) one day a week under the supervision of our very own Brian Clements. All of the work that I am doing there is concerned with Brian’s non-profit publishing house, Firewheel Editions where Brian serves as editor (and founder.)
For those not yet familiar with Firewheel, it’s first works, Best Texas Writing, Volumes One and Two, were published beginning in 1996 in---where else?--- Texas, by Brian and then-co-editor, Joe Ahearn. These volumes are eclectic collections of poetry, fiction, and essays, proudly all written by Texans. In addition to these, Firewheel has also published Chapbooks, books of poetry by single authors (i.e., The Book of Willie and Mille et un Sentiments), and perhaps best known, the series, Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics.
The internship at Firewheel is a new arrangement as of this summer and will primarily entail me bumbling through that which I know very little about: basic computer skills, prose poems, and working within the publishing world. But, as an eager novice/intern/writer, learning these skills are essential to making things happen, so I am hoping to make some major headway with the help of Brian, Laurel and Tonia, (who also helps out with Firewheel.)
Before talking about what my internship tasks are, I first need to address the idea of Sentence, and the prose poem, as that was what I really needed to have explained to me before beginning work at the internship. For those of us who don’t already know, in the simplest of terms, a prose poem is a poem written in prose. But, according to Michel Delville, author of The American Prose Poem: “…[It] has developed almost as many trends as there are poets practicing it, so that any attempt at a single, monolithic definition of the genre would be doomed to failure.” That said, Sentence explores and displays any and all forms of this elusive kind of poetry through essays, criticism, interviews, translations---and, of course---a variety of the poems themselves.
Every day, submissions come in for the latest volume of Sentence. Either Tonia or I, or both of us, will read over these submissions and decide whether or not, first and foremost, they qualify as prose poems. If so, they are logged into the computer system along with the poets’ information, and passed on to Brian. If a poem is of particular interest, we may make note of this to Brian. There are also submissions which come in via email which need to be sifted through in a similar manner. In addition to submissions, my tasks may also include the following: looking at books whose reviews may potentially be published in Sentence, responding to questions regarding submissions, sending out letters (as an “editorial intern”) which ask for donations and/or subscribers’ signing up again for the next volume (in case they haven’t already), or for any number of things Brian may need for me to do, which may include packaging up the latest volumes of Sentence to be send out, etc. It varies from week-to-week according to what needs to be done and their order of importance.
As we know, this semester’s internship or teaching practicum is essential in laying the foundation for the more logical aspect of what an MFA in Writing could lead to, appealing to the need we all have to financially support ourselves doing something which we love, but whose reality is a difficult one. I am hoping that this semester will give me the confidence to see and believe that this is possible.
I have never formally studied poetry, which is not a surprise since we know who the few, brave poets in the class are. But, I am drawn to it, (attempting it privately on occasion,) and am in awe of the work produced in and among our class, by our mentors, and the rest of the world. So, what I hope to gain from this internship would be: a much better understanding of poetry and more specifically, the prose poem, a much more confident grasp of some essential computer skills, a comprehensive overview of what it is like to work within a small publishing house like Firewheel, and most importantly, an ability to assist in editing and proofing, leading to an ability to competently perform any tasks necessary to work within such a field.