A Day in the Life of a Quiddity Intern

15Oct10

By John J. McCarthy–Q Intern, Brain Ninja, and Attempted Potato Farmer

A “typical” day as a Quiddity intern is as ordinary as celebrating your grandmother’s birthday on the moon with a pool party…Yes, there are the routine tasks that must be carried out with Marine-Corp precision, but there are also the extraordinary moments filled with things like getting to hang out with a Pulitzer Prize-winning author like Douglas Blackmon or a performance poet like Tyehimba Jess, or getting to attend a class taught by an artist like Sacha Newley.  Attending and participating in the AWP Conference—the largest creative-writing conference in North America— is a huge bonus, too.

Working with Quiddity is the toughest yet most fulfilling of literary internships.  Being a Quiddity intern is also a great way to get those biceps you always wanted.  The submissions arrive in bundles daily and must be hauled from Dawson Hall to the historic Brinkerhoff Home on campus, a Victorian behemoth where the Quiddity offices are located (including the interns’ office—high in the tops of the campus trees). 

The Brinkerhoff Stairs to the Q Offices

Although the intern office is small and shared, its floor-to-11’-ceilinged windows proffer a terrific view worth every spiraling stair that must be climbed to reach it.  Hauling all these written thoughts to the intern office becomes a journey in itself—one that realizes the importance of healthy calf muscles as well as toned biceps.  Once the physical workout is complete, it’s time to enter the database wormhole.  String-theory mastery is not required of Quiddity intern applicants, but it is helpful toward understanding the parallel universe that exists within the Quiddity submissions database.  And that’s all I’m going to say about that, except to add: I dare you to enter it and come back the same. 

The God Particle

A highlight of the Quiddity internship is the tremendous freedom to flex your creative muscles as well.  You can quadruple your amygdalaic strengths if you so choose.  One former intern, the admirable and tiny but mighty Nikkie Prosperini, who mastered the database and is now smashing atoms somewhere near Geneva, decided she wanted to tackle a multimedia project during her internship.  The project involved combining a highly-produced story by Asha Vose with visual art.

Nikkie spent days and nights in the throes of synthesis.  Adobe Audition became her bosom friend and tormenting enemy.  When daylight winked and white noise laughed at her labors in the intern office, she transported her efforts to a basement office devoid of windows and fortressed with thick concrete walls.  When fluorescent lighting still somehow seeped into sight of her lens, and when the high-pitched shrill of digital nothingness continued to invade her audio, her diligence dug in.

At one point, she literally walled herself in and then padded the walls.  Corrugated and serrated cardboard emerged as a significant part of her overall design.  Duct tape also played a leading role.

Observers became exceedingly concerned.  But we interns knew better. 

Quiddity means the real nature or essence of a thing—that which makes it what it is.  And we knew that Nikkie’s perseverance was rooted in the quiddity of artistry—a combination of imagination, passion, and exquisite, dogged exigentialism that permeates the deepest imaginations of the soul.  Even when it appears on the surface like the recycling efforts of a masochist who runs with scissors.

Interns read and comment on (using Vince Gotera’s poetic model for response) a number of submissions—and even though we don’t get a “vote,” we are afforded a tantalizing glimpse into the world of peer-reviewed journals by attending monthly Editorial Board meetings that could also be referred to as professional and erudite throw-downs.  If cage-fighting had a respectful scholarly counterpart, Q Ed Board meetings would be it.

And although the folks at the top of the masthead are the ones who get to throw down, Quiddity would remain only a divine idea if it weren’t for us interns.  For it is we who are in charge of making sure the world’s ideas are brought forth to be intently considered by the throwers-down.  Let’s face it, many of the literary world’s magnum opi like Quiddity would grind to a halt were it not for the mighty intern.

St. Benedict and his CV

And in turn for our efforts mighty (chiasmus alert), we not only attain a priceless and immersive experience surrounding the process and framework of literary journals, but both physical and creative muscles get stretched and honed, and editing-software skills from the printed page to the sonic boon of the public-radio program are mastered.  This guarantees a halo around your résumé and an educational experience that is truly extraordinary.  ~John J. McCarthy, qintern@sci.edu

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