A letter of introduction from our new Guest Editor, Annabel Wearring-Smith
Annabel Wearring-Smith,
Somewhere in the depths of the Trent Building,
University of Nottingham,
NG7 2RD
The Letters Page,
School of English,
University of Nottingham,
NG7 2RD
Dear readers of The Letters Page,
This is a letter of introduction, although I must confess I did not handwrite it first. My name is Annabel Wearring-Smith, and I am the new Guest Editor for The Letters Page. It’s a pleasure to be working for you.
I’m a second year PhD student researching late-twentieth century feminist publishing and the Virago Press in the department of English at the University of Nottingham, and a former bookseller. I love working in archives and keeping up to date with contemporary literature. Like most English student booksellers, my life has been shaped by a love of literature. Through my PhD I have become invested not only in consuming the written word, but in producing it too. So, my aspirations have turned to work in editing and publishing. Then an advert for a role at The Letters Page popped into my inbox.
As a PhD student nowadays, you can find yourself in a bit of a dilemma when it comes to acquiring experience for life post PhD. Teaching opportunities can be slim. Deadlines and time can be tight. When I saw this Guest Editor role with The Letters Page, I knew it was an opportunity I couldn’t miss. It’s a position I can manage working alongside my PhD that will give me invaluable experience in working with the placement students who operate and produce the journal, heading up their editorial office in miniature, assisting with the issue selection decisions, production and editing processes and marketing the journal on social media. All this while gaining experience working for a vibrant and active literary journal with an editorial board of some of our great contemporary authors, whose work I have admired since I picked them up on my bookshop’s shelves a few years ago.
What I find so interesting about The Letters Page is the way that when we write a letter it transforms the way we write, produce and consume content. I’m excited to get to work assisting my team of placement students in bringing this vision into being for the new, post-pandemic, format (watch this space, more details on this to come!), and perhaps broaden my horizons for my own reading and writing.
I’ll be disappearing behind-scenes for a little while now, while the placement students take centre stage, but you’ll be hearing from me soon no doubt.
Yours,
Annabel
The Letters Page team are back in the office, and ready to read your real letters again. We publish stories, essays, poems, memoir, reportage, criticism, recipes, travelogue, and any hybrid forms, so long as they come to us in the form of a letter. We are looking for writers of all nationalities and ages, both established and emerging.
Your letter must be sent in the post, to :
The Letters Page, School of English, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.
See our submissions page for more information.
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