In 2023, the Shapiro Center for Writing began an internship program for students at the University under Shapiro Center Director and Professor of Creative Writing Merve Emre. The program began with one internship for a student at The New York Review of Books and has quickly expanded to a broad range of media and publishing agencies, including Farrar, Straus and Giroux; The Borchardt Agency; Janklow & Nesbit Associates; and Archipelago Books.

Many of these institutions are owned or managed by alumni, something that Emre stated was an important part of establishing these internships. These internships have helped the Shapiro Center to develop fruitful collaborations with departments at the University and beyond as the center continues to grow.

“I am proud of how we’ve grown and how well we’ve managed to work with partner centers, like [the Gordon Career Center], and other organizations.” Emre wrote in an email to The Argus. “This has allowed us to create employment opportunities for students and direct resources to arts and media organizations that desperately need them. This summer, for instance, we will work with the Center for the Humanities and the Connecticut Humanities Council to establish eight fully funded summer internships at Connecticut-based newspapers to help support local journalism.”

In addition to the sponsored internships, Emre also connected interested students with other publications like The Dial and the Academy of American Poets and directed them to the Gordon Career Center to apply for funding separately. 

Three of this year’s recipients, Sophie Jager ’25, Mia Foster ’25, and Carolyn Neugarten ’26, reflected on their experiences working as publishing interns for the summer at the “Ask Us Anything” session on Oct. 16. The students served as panelists, answering questions about the application process, the internship experiences, and the publishing industry. Emre reflected on how the event highlighted how the internships honed the panelists’ developed skills. 

“I was impressed by how much they had learned.” Emre wrote. “They spoke with tremendous authority and ambition about the fields of contemporary fiction, criticism, and reporting, and they displayed an amazing independence of judgment.” 

This confidence, which the interns derived from in-field experience, is something they uniquely attributed to the Shapiro Center, focusing on the role of literary departments at liberal arts universities in the wider, transitionary literary world. 

“I think the real difference between the Shapiro Center, under Professor Emre and other departments on campus, is that the Shapiro Center is really focused on not just talking about great literature, but really giving students real things to do with their degrees in literature,” Jager said. 

Foster, who interned with Farrar, Straus and Giroux this summer, was already connected to the Shapiro Center through her involvement in the Lavender, her founding of the Wesleyan Review of Books, and her classes. These experiences helped expose her to the internships. 

“I was really lucky and I took a writing center cross-listed [College of Letters] class called ‘Love and Other Useless Pursuits’ (WRCT 304) with Professor Emre when she’d just arrived here,” Foster said. “She was really helpful and supportive creating these new opportunities at the Center, and I feel like because I knew her, I knew these things were happening…. I feel like I live there now.” 

Foster felt that the internship was made easier by her experiences working on campus publications as managing editor for the Lavender and as a member of the editorial board of Fray Magazine.

“I have loved working on publications on campus.” Foster said. “I think it’s how I have met so many creative people I would not have met otherwise, like Fray Magazine…. Working on a literary magazine is very cool, they have an open editorial board—which is impossible to have in the real world—so I really treasure that for the freedom we have. These experiences have really allowed me to move through these professional worlds that I wouldn’t have been able to, if I didn’t have the maybe less-professional experience of working on a campus publication.”

Neugarten was drawn to interning at the New York Review of Books by the publication’s James Joyce series. She emphasized the novelty and uniqueness of the experience as well, despite her prior experiences at corporate internships.  

“It was really something I’d never done before,” Neugarten said. “Getting to work on a magazine staff, where everyone is a) friendlier and b) more attuned to current events and conversations was very fun.”

The internships gave recipients an opportunity to explore different avenues of working in the literary world. Jager, who interned for Janklow & Nesbit Associates, talked about getting her foot in the door of the wider writing scene by learning more about agenting and marketing. 

“I think Janklow ended up being a really good fit for what I needed to learn this summer,” Jager said. “I think agenting is a very interesting part of the literary scene that people don’t think about. Understanding how much of it is a market in that sense was really eye-opening for me.” 

Jager has had experience in political writing and communications work in the past few years, including digital producing for political campaigns in Vermont, but the internship introduced her to a new way of assessing writing.

“This was a very different test of my ability to write.” Jager said. “It was less about how good I am as a writer, but really about understanding what makes writing good. Being able to look at something and not just saying, ‘This is good writing, or this is bad writing,’ but being able to look at it and say, ‘This is why it’s good, or this is why it needs this to make it good.’ The better of a writer I become, the harder I understand that writing is.”

Foster also detailed how evaluating manuscripts at the internship had more to do with understanding taste than anything else. 

“I ended up doing a lot of reading of manuscripts,” Foster said. “You read however much you’re compelled to read of the book, you write a summary of the book…giving a framing way to enter the work without having to read it. Your specific taste is the most important thing. The reason that they’re hiring you is because you have this particular perspective. Taste was a huge part for who I got paired with for my editors, and the way I was learning their taste and taking that on.” 

Jager echoed the need for assessing reading tastes, but emphasized the importance of being able to detach one’s own inclinations where necessary. 

“I think my taste was pretty much on the back burner,” Jager said. “A big part of my job was evaluating manuscripts clients sent it. I was lucky in that I liked a lot of the same stuff Melissa and Emma did. But it was really learning how to read a piece of writing and decide whether they would be interested in it.”  

Through her internship, Neugarten was able to participate in the daily operations of the magazine as well, including fielding book requests, copy editing, and image sourcing.  She talked about how it aligned with her interest in covering contemporary affairs and her future aspirations. 

“I really appreciate that the New York Review of Books does current events and news-style things as well,” Neugarten said. “They have the magazine end where they’re discussing books, film, art, but they also do the election. I remember copy-editing a piece about the U.K. elections. Careerwise, I’m definitely interested in business reporting, and the New York Review of Books assisted in that. I was able to read some of their more economic pieces.”

Interns were exposed to multiple aspects of publication through the internships. 

“The best, most fun part was that I received training from the fact-checker and copy-editor on staff.” Neugarten said. “I had actually never fact-checked before. Understanding the nuances of double checking sources, corresponding with the author that what’s being communicated is being effectively communicated through the writing—it was just really fun.” 

Foster recommends that students interested in reading, writing, and the humanities get involved with the Shapiro Center.

“I would definitely encourage people to take advantage of all the opportunities and events the Writing Center is putting on,” Foster said. “There’s lunches with alumni, a million talks, and all these different opportunities to learn what turning an inapplicable thing into an actual job looks like. I’ve been really lucky to have working opportunities to know what this world looks like.” 

Advising any future applicants, the three panelists all recommended knowing the publications they’d be applying to intimately.

“Knowing the publications you’re applying to is the most important part of your application,” Foster said. “It’s important for you to understand them, and for them to understand you.” 

Emre advised future applicants to think about the kind of literature and criticism that gives them pleasure and to connect it to what they may be interested in covering.

“Think about what issues you would like to report on, and why they matter to you.” Emre wrote. “Read!”

Carolyn Neugarten is an editor-in-chief for The Argus.

Sophie Jager is a features editor for The Argus.
Janhavi Munde can be reached at jmunde@wesleyan.edu.