Editorial Research Intern (Feminist Press)

About the Feminist Press:

SPRING 2023

DEADLINE: 1 December 2022

The Feminist Press publishes books that ignite movements and social transformation. Celebrating our legacy, we lift up insurgent and marginalized voices from around the world to build a more just future.

Founded in 1970, we began as a crucial publishing component of second wave feminism, reprinting feminist classics by writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and providing much-needed texts for the developing field of women’s studies with books by Barbara Smith and Grace Paley. Since then, we have published feminist literature from around the world, by best-selling authors such as Shahrnush Parsipur, Ruth Kluger, and Ama Ata Aidoo, as well as North American writers of diverse race and class experiences, such as Paule Marshall and Rahna Reiko Rizzuto.

We have become the vanguard for books on contemporary feminist issues of equality and gender identity, with authors as various as Dr. Brittney Cooper, Sarah Schulman, Michelle Tea, Grace M. Cho, and Julián Delgado Lopera.

INTERNSHIP OVERVIEW

We are seeking an Editorial Research Intern for the Spring 2023 semester to help Feminist Press continue our founding mission of recovering important feminist writing that has been lost to history. This intern will help identify potential book projects that have fallen out of print and should be republished and added to the literary canon. They will research, read, and report on these titles for the FP editorial team.

The Editorial Research Intern will report to senior editor Lauren Rosemary Hook, and coordinate with the executive director, staff, and other key stakeholders internally and externally.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Editorial Research Intern will identify 3–6 out-of-print book projects for potential publication at the Feminist Press. The intern will prepare readers’ reports and will research the rights status for each title, as well as draft a potential publication plan, including target audience, suitability for course adoption, and ideas for new front/back matter, with guidance from FP editorial team. Feminist Press seeks books that have fallen out of print or been undervalued in the literary landscape due to the author’s marginalized identity/identities, with a specific interest in books by LGBTQ+ and POC authors. Potential areas of interest include (but are not limited to): pulp fiction, feminist sci fi, queer magazines, zine collections, works in the public domain, books from now-closed feminist or queer presses, and works by lesser known authors, as well as the Feminist Press’s own backlist. Examples of this work on our current list include our Femmes Fatales series of mid-20th pulp classics; the Zora Neale Hurston reader I Love Myself When I Am Laughing, edited by Alice Walker; Suzette Haden Elgin’s Native Tongue sci fi trilogy; and Dorothy West’s The Living Is Easy. The intern will also be asked to review manuscript submissions the Press receives to help inform their knowledge of our current list, and they’d be given the opportunity to attend biweekly acquisitions meetings to learn more about FP’s overall editorial strategy.

At the end of the semester, the Editorial Research Intern will present their findings to the FP editorial team.

Key tasks include:

Researching potential editorial recovery projects both online and in libraries, archives, and collections
Compiling notes on your research process
Reading potential projects to gauge suitability and fit for FP’s current list
Researching copyright and rights statuses of potential projects
Learning more about FP’s current editorial vision by reviewing submissions pitched to the executive director and senior editor to achieve a better understanding of our list
Preparing readers’ reports for submissions and potential out-of-print or backlist titles
Participating in weekly staff meetings and biweekly acquisitions meetings
Preparing a final report and presenting your findings to the Feminist Press editorial staff

Knowledge, Experience, and Skills Required:

Current doctoral students in the humanities and/or the social sciences
Proficiency in Microsoft Office, Google suite tools, and comfort using other technology, such as video conferencing
Excellent organizational, administrative, verbal, and written communications skills
Ability to be proactive, self-directed, and flexible in a rapidly changing environment, with a “can do” attitude
Proven ability to multitask, prioritize, and manage time effectively while demonstrating good follow up and follow through
Knowledge of or strong interest in areas of literature including intersectional feminism, social justice, literary fiction, and activist nonfiction
To apply, send a resume or CV, a one- to two-page writing sample, along with three references

The Feminist Press is an equal employment opportunity organization and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of sex, race, age, creed, ethnicity, disability, marital or parenting status, sexual orientation, or gender identity. We actively seek to maintain a diverse staff.

This internship pays $5000 for 150 hours of work over the course of the Spring semester. The deadline to apply via Handshake is 1 December 2022. More details can be found at the job posting, and anyone with questions about the position should contact Stacy Hartman at shartman2@gc.cuny.edu.

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