An Intern's Life

Hello world, meet Eilidh, Deep Vellum’s first-ever intern!

Eilidh will be a senior at the University of Arkansas this fall (shoutout toNightbird Books, the best/only indie bookstore in Fayetteville!). She’s helping us out this summer as we get ready to launch our second list of books (!), move offices (we’re gonna miss you, Common Desk), and figure out how to get Deep Vellum books in as many readers’ hands as humanly possible. But let’s let Eilidh (pronounced Ay-lith) introduce herself!

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Hey everyone, I’m Eilidh Strecker, the new intern at Deep Vellum Publishing! I am currently studying at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, but home for the summer before my senior year. I am a book enthusiast with aspirations of my own to work in the daunting field of publishing one day.

My majors at the UofA are English Literature and French, which contrary to popular belief, do not equal “unemployment” upon graduation. My interest in both literature and language are brought together by the vision of Deep Vellum, which focuses on bringing some amazing literature enjoyed by other countries to the English language. I have recently returned from a semester in Grenoble, France where I was more than forced to appreciate the value of translation and how directly it pertains to daily life. As I found, the ability to understand, empathize, and relate to other cultures on a real and personal level is a vital part of having a well-developed worldview. So much of this knowledge can be conveyed through the literature produced by other countries and it’s a real disadvantage to English speakers and readers everywhere, that not enough of this literature is being translated.

A little more about me: I am from the Dallas area – a nearby suburb – and until college, lived my entire life in the same home. There is certainly something to be said for this kind of continuity, something I will forever thank my fantastic parents for as I have maintained childhood friends from elementary school and before, but it made me all the more excited to expand my horizons after high school. I have always known that I wanted to go into literature in some way. For a while I wanted to be a high school teacher due to my incredible luck to have had some of the most wonderful English teachers, which played a large role in my choice to become an English major in college. However, I also wanted to contribute to the world of literature in some way, other than rereading and re-teaching texts that have already been produced. Between my teachers telling me to read read read (it doesn’t matter what, just read!) and the selection available for my age at the time, I took my first steps into the world of Young Adult literature. All through high school I read tons of YA literature, which combined with my growing love of my English classes, pushed me toward my current aspirations to get involved with YA publishing/editing. Eventually, I would love to get into the Young Adult literature arena, as I see it as a growing field in need of some new ideas. Though now, having begun my internship here at Deep Vellum, I have morphed my original plan slightly to include exploring the YA literature produced by other countries, something I hadn’t considered before.

I came to find Deep Vellum Publishing while researching summer publishing internships in Dallas. Amazingly (yet unsurprisingly), Dallas has a huge lack of publishing opportunities both for people seeking employment in the editing/publishing field as well as potential writers who would have the chance to publish their own work given more of a platform on which to publish locally. Due to this, Deep Vellum is an island of sorts in an ocean of the non-publishing world of Dallas, Texas. I feel incredibly lucky to get the opportunity to intern here for the summer and whether I got the job because of my persistent emails and badgering, or simply having great timing, I intend to make the most of this rare opportunity. I am more than eager and enthusiastic to see what the summer holds and I hope to contribute to a company, I think has nothing but awesome possibilities ahead.

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