Sarah Cohen is our graduate intern for 2011-12. Sarah is a graduate student in the English department at the University of Washington working on her dissertation about the experiences of American poets as students and teachers in creative writing workshops. She has an MFA in poetry from the University of California, Irvine, where she also edited the literary journal Faultline. Before beginning graduate school she worked as an editor at The Atlantic magazine. Her poems and articles have been published in The Paris Review, The Threepenny Review, The Atlantic online, and others.

The Soden-Trueblood Endowed Publishing Internship was instituted in the year 1999 to introduce graduate students in the humanities to the world of scholarly publishing. Since then, students have come to the press from the departments of history, anthropology, English, comparative literature, art history, archaeology, and women studies. The press's goal for the internship has been to provide a unique opportunity for students to learn about the full scope of operations at a university press. Each student is given an "immersive" experience; that is, they are invited to attend and participate in meetings of various departments throughout the press and encouraged to take advantage of an open door policy where they are free to approach all members of the press staff with their questions and interests:

"I was genuinely made to feel like a member of the complex collaborative enterprise that I now understand to be behind the word 'publishing.' In all of these respects the internship exceeded my highest expectations."

Students are given projects in development, acquisitions, editing, design, production, and marketing. Without exception, the interns have praised the experience as one that offered unprecedented insight into the world of book publishing:

"Being a part of conversations about marketing and printing, as well as questions of funding, provided me with a glimpse into an aspect of publishing that graduate students, as well as many publishing scholars, seldom have the opportunity to learn about. Working at the press allowed me to see the other side of knowledge production - the amount of team work, creativity, patience, and money that goes into every monograph or edited volume."

The internship experience is intended to benefit those who continue into a career in publishing as well as those who go on to teach or work in the academy. Interns take with them into their future careers a broad and deep understanding of the world of scholarly publishing that is otherwise difficult to obtain. Among the former interns can be counted a professional author, a university administrator, two editors, and two tenured or tenure-track faculty.

"The internship gave me a marvelously rounded introduction to academic publishing and will continue to influence my future academic career. It has enabled me to combine my interest in publishing with my academic pursuits, and has given me the tools to continue this connection as a scholar, be it as a title-page editor, a series editor, a member of a university press committee, or the editor of an academic journal."

Interns perform meaningful, serious work that furthers their academic and professional development. This experience will benefit even those who follow career paths that take them outside of publishing or higher education. In turn, the press benefits not only from the contributions made by interns to the day-to-day work of the press, but also from the fresh perspectives that interns bring with them from across the university. The competitive application process is open to graduate students from all departments in the humanities and social sciences. The position requires a commitment to work 20 hours per week, and provides support equivalent to a 50 percent GSA position for nine months.

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