Meet the MAR Interns – and our food critics!

Who are we:

I’m Carlee (she/her), an English major who has been reading poetry for MAR for two semesters. My most recent read was Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith. It was evocative and powerful and I highly recommend it.  

Fun Facts: I am a self-proclaimed germaphobe but I will eat food off the floor because people have germs but floors do not. I can’t swim (yes I can but no one wants to see that). My favorite office snack is the fruit leather. 

I’m Eftihia (she/her), a Creative Writing major and this is my first semester reading for MAR on the fiction side! Unlike my fellow interns, I am a great swimmer as I went to swim classes at a very young age and go to the beach every summer for vacation to practice my skills in the ocean. Another fact about me is that I love dragons! I think they’re amazing and I know a bunch of different facts about them, like how there are 12 different types and one of them is called the cockatrice. If you have any recommendations for fantasy books with dragons or are writing one yourself, I’d love to read it.  

I’m Gretchen (she/her), a Creative Writing major with a film minor (and a scientific and technical communication minor but that doesn’t sound as cool). This is my second semester reading for MAR as a fiction editor. Like Carlee, I suck at swimming which is so embarrassing because three of my cousins swam in high school and one in college. Imagine going on family vacations and everyone is professionally lapping you. I went to swim lessons, I just refused to learn because it was boring. Another fun fact is my brother got really into writing Yelp reviews, and I was so jealous that I wrote over one hundred Yelp reviews, and now I am a part of the ‘Yelp Elite Squad.’  

I’m Jenna (she/her), a Creative Writing major and Word & Image minor. This is my first semester as a fiction reader for MAR. I’m an avid illustrator and enjoy reading old entomology books (I highly recommend Jean-Henri “Insect Homer” Fabre’s works). I’m a big fan of wasps, and like wasps, I, too, cannot swim–unless we’re talking about the Microgaster godzilla wasp, in which case: watch out! 

Past and present interns voted for their favorite office snack and these are the cumulative results from worst to best:  

  • Mac n Cheese- We came to a consensus on this one, it might be because of the high levels of dairy avoidance in the MAR population. 
  • Granola Bars 
  • Crackers 
  • Chips 
  • Capri Suns 
  • Seaweed- This snack’s rankings were all over the place, some people love it, some people hate it, but no matter where anyone stands, they all seem pretty passionate about it. 
  • Applesauce 
  • Candy 
  • Fruit Leather
  • Cookies – another one we all agreed on

Yelp Reviews of the MAR intern office: 

★★★★★ 

Jenna: I love the MAR office! I don’t know why, but a lot of people complain about the desk drawer. 

★★★★☆ 

Carlee: Very comfy chair, good snacks, good company. The desk drawer is a little too loud for my liking. Also a little chilly, but they have blankets 🙂  

★★★★☆ 

Gretchen: Every single time it gets quiet in this office and everyone’s all focused and scholarly, I BANG my knee against the desk, and everyone pretends not to hear it, but it’s humiliating. Very blessed, though, to be with such cool people and a wide variety of snacks. Would visit again. 

★★★★☆ 

Eftihia: The atmosphere is great, and there’s good company. I also really like the comfy chair. But, the desk drawer never goes all the way in and makes loud bangs whenever you try to close it.  

★★☆☆☆ 

Ant: They tried to feed me stale crumbs from Carlee’s backpack. Ew. I want the good stuff. Environment lowkey fire tho. 

Intern Corner: Interning for the Wonderful World of MAR

Intern candy
Internships and candy are a match made in MAR heaven. This is just a taste of the candy found in the MAR interns’ office.

Welcome to our new column, Intern Corner! MAR has a rich tradition of including several talented, hard-working undergraduate interns among its ranks each semester. These interns work tirelessly to help keep MAR running smoothly and maintain the editors’ sanity. In this new column, our interns will have a chance to share a bit about themselves and their work at MAR. First up is Olivia Buzzacco:

Interning for the Wonderful World of MAR
by Olivia Buzzacco

In the spring of 2014, I learned that Mid-American Review was looking for interns for the upcoming school year. Some of my friends in the creative writing program encouraged me to apply, saying that it would be good experience, especially entering into my final year as an undergraduate. I went back and forth about applying for the internship, and finally decided to give it a go.

In late May, I received an email saying I had been selected for the internship at Mid-American Review, and I was elated. I felt that this was going to open up a whole new world of experiences and opportunities for me. I could not wait to get started and see how a literary journal was run, as I had no past experiences with it. I found out I would be working with three other interns, who I had already known from having classes with. This added to my excitement, as I would have other undergraduates to work with and become closer to.

However, I was also extremely nervous about starting my internship. Because I didn’t know how literary journals worked, I didn’t know what to expect at all going in. This was a nationally recognized journal that I would be working for. I didn’t know any of the staff or graduate students coming in, and I was afraid that after a week, I wouldn’t enjoy the job anymore.

But this wasn’t the case. I started interning in August of 2014 and was supposed to be done in December, but I decided to continue to intern for the whole school year. That’s how much I loved it. Working for MAR isn’t the same work and experience every day. There were so many projects and jobs I got to be a part of that each day was something new to look forward to. I got to help read fiction submissions, copyedit the manuscript, attend the graduate class every Wednesday, help prepare for Winter Wheat, and other small odd jobs and projects. There were days where I got to work with the other interns, and days where I got to work independently. I was so glad that I decided to apply for the internship, as I met so many new people and learned a lot of techniques when it comes to running a literary journal.

Interning with Mid-American Review was one of my greatest experiences in my undergraduate career at Bowling Green State University. It taught me so much about the creative writing and literary journal world and gave me experiences I hope I can continue to explore post graduation. The whole MAR staff is incredible and so welcoming to all the interns that it made me comfortable doing what I was doing. If I had a chance, I would do it all over again.

Olivia Buzzacco1
Olivia Buzzacco a creative writing major and English minor at Bowling Green State University. She currently works as a writing tutor at The Learning Commons and as a blogger for CP Rundown, Cedar Point’s blog. Olivia is from Youngstown, Ohio and has been interested in creative writing since the 7th grade. She plans to pursue graduate school next fall with a focus in fiction. Olivia likes to spend her time listening to old music and watching old movies.