Last summer, Alessandra Stamper (MAPH ’15) interned at MAKE Literary Magazine. Here’s her insight into working for a small, creative non-profit, and the perks that came with the job!
Alessandra writes:
Interning for MAKE Literary Magazine has given me an insight into the local, independent literary community in Chicago. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know too much about it before working for them, and am thus very grateful that I got the position. Not only did I learn about the literary community in Chicago, I also learned about what it’s like to work for a non-profit. I had worked for non-profits before, but on a larger scale. MAKE, although prominent, is comprised of a small staff, so for me it was interesting to see how such a small staff can put together such a splendid product. The two people I worked with were very intellectually curious, which made it a pleasant working relationship; not to mention fun, as my interview took place at a coffee shop in Logan Square, I got to hang out with them at Pitchfork Music Festival (for free!), and our subsequent meetings were at cool restaurants in Logan Square.
![IMG_4645](http://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/aftermaph/files/2016/01/IMG_4645-580x435.jpg)
My primary duty was to post stories from previous issues on the website. Ideally these posts tied in with the theme of the upcoming issue, which is Archive. I felt like my input was valued, as I was able to suggest which stories I thought we should post. Once a story was decided upon, I copy edited the electronic version with the paper issue and entered it into the WordPress website. I also uploaded pictures and reached out to the author and or artist for updated bios to include in the post. I was responsible for creating content for the social media posts to advertise the web posts, which included Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram. For the Instagram, I also took pictures around the city and paired them with a few lines from a poem or work of fiction or nonfiction from an issue, which was a really fun, creative project.
The content that I worked with was interesting, which was great for me because I felt like my intellectual curiosity from graduate school carried over in to the internship. This is a perfect internship for those interested in working in the magazine or literary world, but it’s also really fun and interesting even if that’s not necessarily a desired career path.
Current MAPHers can see the list of internships available this summer here.
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