Hi, blogosphere. I wanted to let you know about some of the projects going on around here this month (and ruminate on interconnectedness)!

Even though we're not always open for submissions, it seems like we're always getting ready for something around here. At the moment, I'm involved with a number of different tasks that will culminate in CALYX events. I'm following up on promotion for our poetry manuscript prize, which will lead to Oregon women writers sending us submissions. Eventually, someone who learns about this contest will be published by CALYX Press... and that's definitely important!
We've also been preparing for the CALYX Glitterati, the annual fundraising event we host every year. Seeing how many different people and businesses get involved in such an endeavor is really amazing. And the somewhat abstract work I'm doing on it now will eventually be put to use in an actual, physical event. (I'll be back in the Midwest when that happens, though, unfortunately. That is one of the strange things about being just a summer intern: I'm planning for all these things that I won't be around to see!)
It's really nice to work in an industry where even small things are big things. Suppose we send out an acceptance letter for a poet in the next journal. Sending this letter out takes a couple minutes, at the most. With technology, everything moves even more quickly. This isn't the nexus of a day at CALYX-- but getting an acceptance letter, maybe a first ever acceptance letter, from a respected and established literary institution could quite easily make someone's day.
See? Interconnectedness. I have no authorial ambitions, but it's so wonderful to be a part of a network of authors and writers. It's a good feeling to know that people can be everywhere, doing different, important things, and still be a part of the same collective experience.

By the way, I mentioned before that there would be a job opening at CALYX because of the stimulus money. The time for that statement to come to fruition is now! Go to http://corvallis.craigslist.org/npo/1320104337.html to see what you would need to do to work for CALYX.

Thanks for listening, e-world!
Kathleen

From the desk of Elise Filka, intern extraordinaire

Oh, the joys of being a CALYX intern! This is my last day (actually last HOUR) of working here and I have been forced by everyone to write up a little thing for our blog, so I hope this will suffice. I remember my first day, I was fresh off the plane from Michigan, had never been farther west than Minnesota, and I was a little shell-shocked. But Beverly and Margarita were very warm and welcoming, they dealt kindly and patiently with my ignorance of just about everything, and since then have taught me so much about feminism, literary journals, and book publishers. As for my daily tasks and projects, though, I remember thinking that working on things like packing letters and other little tasks was like doing a clerical job but actually enjoying it. There is always this underlying sense in you here that what you are doing actually matters somewhere out there in the world. It also helped when you were addressing letters to famous writers/publications. It will, indeed, be weird when I have to go back to another rewardless job and won’t have things to look forward to like emails from authors and bookstores. I think that if you are any decent mix of literary nerd/ feminist/women’s studies person you will absolutely love to work with the marvelous women here at CALYX.

Inaugural Post

Welcome to the brand new CALYX blog! (Margarita's apologies; she previously said that we weren't doing any blogging. We are doing some now.)
My name is Kathleen, and as part of my internship for CALYX, I’m starting a blog about what’s going on around CALYX this summer. I traveled from Minnesota to be a part of CALYX for twelve weeks. It’s hard to believe that four have already gone by. So much has already happened while I’ve been here.
Here’s one exciting announcement: CALYX got part of the NEA stimulus grant money for this year! That money goes exclusively toward salaries, which means CALYX will be hiring some new people. So if you’re dying for a job with them (and why wouldn’t you be?) make sure to pay attention to the job announcements.
This summer, there are three interns here at CALYX: Elise, Laura, and I (that’s us at the top of the page). Interns do a lot of things. We’re given long and short-term projects. CALYX depends a lot on volunteer support, and interns are essentially volunteers. Some of our duties are more ‘traditional’ intern duties: office work, mail, addressing, and computer work. The upside of working for a small press is that we get more significant projects as well. For instance, you may have noticed that I’m currently writing the only blog in the history of CALYX.
I’ve also been involved in editorial meetings, marketing and PR while I’ve been here. When one of the interns is put in charge of something, we are definitively put in charge of it. Beverly and Margarita don’t deal with the responses we get for our projects. It’s all up to us. I love that I’m trusted with that much responsibility here, and I love being able to speak on behalf of such an awesome forum for women’s literature.
One of the things I’ve been doing is keeping up with social networking and technology on behalf of CALYX. So we’ve been updating our Facebook and MySpace, and I also created a Twitter. Everyone has been especially wary of the Twitter. I’m the only current Twitter user in the office (besides CALYX!), and the charges leveled against Twitter have been numerous. I’ve heard everything from “It seems really pointless” to “I don’t understand what it’s for” to “I don’t see how anyone can update in only 140 characters”.
Well, one thing that social networking is really good for is disseminating information, quickly and to a large audience. This is especially important for organizations. Things are always happening here. And Twitter is nice because it doesn’t require a lot of time or effort. Like it or not, you only have 140 characters. Not only is it unnecessary to write more than two sentences, it’s impossible! I find it a useful exercise in brevity, and a good way to learn what’s going on in the world. So if you have a Twitter—or want one—make sure to follow @calyxpress.
Periodically, I’ll be updating and letting you all know what’s going on in my life as an intern as well as the important things happening at CALYX. Stay tuned!