SEU WRIT Students: In Conversation

In Conversation with WRIT Students at St. Edward's

I sit down with Phylicia Walker, Taheera Washington, and Jillian Norton. As senior Writing majors at SEU, they describe their aspirations, plans after graduation and their thoughts on the publishing industry.

What is your dream job? How do you plan to get there?

Phylicia: I want to be a literary agent…of course I want to write books, but I also need to eat. So ideally I would be a literary agent and edit while writing on the side. That’s what I really want to do because I actually enjoy the revision process and reading other people’s work.

Taheera: Ideally I’d like to do something in advertising, but realistically social media. I’m open to anything; I have a lot of interests. I’m interested in publishing, I’m interested in advertising, but realistically I could see myself working right out of college in social media because that’s what my internship is in right now.

Jillian: I have a big dream and a little dream. My big dream is to write YA novels in my own publishing house where accessibility is highlighted, disability is highlighted. I’m planning to go to publishing school in two years becasue I need money for that, so until I get to that point I’m planning to go into accessibility editing. Since I’ ve spent so much of my life knowing what’s inaccessible, I’m going to use that to my advantage. I’d also like to go into narrative creation for video games. I am a creative writer at heart.

Do you have any jobs lined up? What are your plans immediately after graduation?

P: I did get into the Columbia Publishing Course. Thank God. So after graduation I’ll be doing that from August to September. And afterwards I’ll probably focus in on job hunting so that I can afford to live.

T: So I live in Dallas, and I’m probably going to move back home to Dallas because it is expensive to live in Austin, I’ll tell you that. I do want to start job hunting in April maybe, so I can have a job in May or June.

J: The thing is accessibility editor as a title doesn’t really exist. There are people that want just editors in general and then when you get to the interview you can expand on how you have a speciality in accessibility editing. Everybody needs and editor, but what they mean by editor really varies. I’ ve been scrolling through Indeed when I get bored, and just being like “That sounds fun. ” Even things I’m not qualified for. You can sit there and make it sound like your qualified and then you just figure it out. That’s kind of the goal.

P: I have friends who want to be novelists and they ’re always saying how difficult it is to get into the industry because it's kind of like a big nepotism thing; like if you don't know someone, it's extremely difficult to be published. And plus there's not a lot of people of color within the publishing industry, so I feel as if hey, if I can get my way in there I could be the voice to boost these books. I know people who write really amazing stories but don't have the footing to get published because they often get overlooked by, quite frankly, mediocre stories by white authors. I feel like I could do some actual good with that.

J: I’ ve wanted to be an author since the fifth grade. And I think it’s because when I when I was ten I started realizing I was not in books. I’m autistic; I didn’t know at that point, but I knew I was different. And there was nobody like me in anything I was reading. And my mom used to say, “If what you want doesn’t exist then you get to make it. " Editing didn’t occur to me until the start of college. Having leadership positions on campus made me realize that I’m good at figuring out how sentences make sense for people, because I spent my entire life being baffled by how things are structured because they weren’t accessible inherently. So I was like, “It takes a really long time to write a book, and your bills don’t wait until the book is finished. So if this is something I’m knowledgeable of and can do, then I should go into it. But it was something, so I took it. I’m still hoping that eventually I can get a position in the field that I want to go into.

T: I was the Outreach Intern for the Texas Book Festival. I would talk to publicists, I would organize author schedules, and I also helped organize the TBF Gala. At St. Ed's I tested all of the clubs, whether o a r ll of not 01. the it w or as ganizations something , just that to see I liked. I’m in Hilltop Views, I’ ve submitted stuff to Sorin Oak and New Literati, and it’s just nice to have those options and see how you can take those skills and apply them.

05.

J: At the start of college I realized I could get my stuff published if I submitted to Sorin and New Lit, and then I realized I would get to hear feedback about my work and learn about the publication process. I thought it would be a good idea to get more insight on the larger scope of how things work. So I ended up applying for positions within Sorin. I went from a Review Board Member to Lead Editor to Editor-in-Chief. And this made me think about how I’m good at editing; I’m good at project management.

Have you completed any internships or been a part of any extracurriculars?

P: I have done internships, but I don’t feel as if they 're actually centered around what I want to do. I did try to find internships at publishing places, but they just never got back to me. So the internship I got was a marketing one that was literally the last thing that I wanted to do.

Do you have any concerns about going into publishing or your chosen field?

P: It ties back to [big publishers] being really accepting of mediocre white authors and I have to work three times as hard to even get my foot in the door. I' ve often talked to my friends (who are writers of color) about that and how they feel as if it's like pushing against a brick wall at times. Meanwhile for others it's so easy to get in. So that’s my main concern is actually just getting to a starting point. Once I do that it’ll be a lot easier, but just getting there is the hard part.

T: A big hesitation for me, especially for publishing, is that I don’t have any connections in that field. And from my knowledge, or at least the people who have talked about publishing, have all been white people. If I don't see someone like me in my field that kind of limits the idea of me being in that field by a long shot. You have to see people who at least think like you, or look like you, bottom line look like you. Give me that. But in that field there’s little to none. It’s such a big question mark, like where to start. Its so niche, nobody talks about it. Everybody says, “Oh I want to do publishing, ” but how are you going to do that, can you expand?

J: My biggest hurdle is that I want to go to the Denver Publishing Institute, but I have an autoimmune disease and dry air makes it worse. Denver is a dry place. Another hurdle is that you don’t know anybody. The faculty at St. Ed’s have have had training in accessibility, and all the kind of stuff that made me comfortable applying here. But going into anything outside of St. Ed’s - I have no clue what people’s expectations of me are going to be. Are they going to expect me to behave like I’m not neurodivergent? When you get into higher level English, a lot of times higher literature just means not written for neurodivergent people. When something is not written in the active voice, there is no concise language, and it’s written to be intentionally confusing, you run into problems. And I think that might get to be a superiority thing in more publishing focused industries because the expectation is that you use flowery language. Well you can be both flowery and accessible. But people don't realize that because they haven't been taught it, because accessibility is taught as an add on instead of a base level. On top of that I have accommodations for flexibility in the classroom because of other disabilities I have - I don’t know if I’d be able to do that at a place like DPI. And if I have to step out for my health, are people going to look at me and think,

“Hm do they really want to be here?” I’m worried about the people. I’m worried about the place. I’m worried about the hierarchy. There is always something that establishes hierarchy in any group setting and that is so stressful. Growing up knowing everyone is going to underestimate you is so exhausting.

01. 05.

Looking back, what is something you wish you would have known earlier? Is there an area would you would've really liked to have seen support?

T: The kind of keynote speakers highlighted or the guest lectures brought to class could be more people of color, and POC in publishing or writing. Maybe starting those talks earlier in our education, like freshman or sophomore year, because freshman year I was lost. I was like,

“I don’t know what I'm going to do with degree. I guess I’ll take a digital marketing minor because I just don’t know. No one is telling me otherwise. ” Our writing degree is so broad. They ’re just like “ you can do this, or you can do that, ” but it’s like, “how can I do that?” Can you show me where to start?

J: You do not have to have any experience in anything to send in your work to be published. Also for Sorin Oak specifically, you do not need to have any background to be a review board member. I think I would have felt a lot more comfortable in a lot of things earlier at St. Ed’s if I just sat down and got myself to just do things. There's always this nagging question at the back of your head saying, “Am I qualified to do this? And you're qualified until you're told you're not.

01.

Everyone's going to spend your whole life telling you what you can't do, and you can either choose to sit there and listen to those voices, or you can say “ whatever, ” turn around, look forward, and just say “I’m gonna try and do this. ” You'll get so many more valuable experiences if you just over shoot. You'll find so many things that people who have been there for longer already think you're qualified for that you didn’t think you could do. When you're a minority you always have something to bring to the table, because you always have your unique perspective.

05. Do you have any last pieces of advice for future SEU WRIT/ENGL students?

P: The biggest thing that I' ve learned is that if you feel like you don’t have the necessary experience you probably do. Because again my internship was in marketing which was not applicable at all, and yet I still managed to get into the [Columbia Publishing Course]. If you know how to spin your resume and your skills into something that sounds adjacent to it then you’ll probably be good. Internships are hard to get so don’t feel bad if you don’t get the one that you want.

T: One of the things that really helped me was to do something completely outside of my major. They say, “Oh you can do tech writing or professional writing, ” but until you see how it’s applied outside of the writing major you’re kind of limited on your view of that. But seeing it in my marketing minor, like it actually being applicable, made me see that it was actually useful. Also do a wide range of things on campus, even if you think you won't like it. And some just general advice is to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

J: Do things early. Do more than what you think you can do especially when you' ve been told your whole life that you can’t do XYZ.

Book Recommendations from our contributors

"Black authors talking about their experiences in the field... breaking down boundaries that are unknowingly set on us. There’s just so many limitations and when you really think about it… If you don't see yourself represented in a field you think that you can't do it.

16 Acquired by Shelly!

Debut middle grade. Highly illustrated. Latina Lizzie McGuire. Maggie is a Cuban American girl who feels like everyone is finding their passion and leaving her behind. So during the new school year she decides to try all the clubs she can. Woodworking, track, cinephile club. And it doesn’t go according to plan. “A really cute story, really wonderful.

Rec by Phylicia

Rec by Taheera Acquired by Shelly!

Rec by Sydnee

6 POV’s. 4 witches. And 2 human boys who go to a private school. The witches are trying to break a curse plaguing their town where every year wolves rise out of a swamp and eat people. There's a long history embedded into the town and its bloody legacy. They all have their own specialties, arcs and motivations. A really impressive debut book.

A first person account of the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921. “My people are from Tulsa, and we own the Black newspaper there. "Heavily rooted in Mexican culture. “It’s about a trans boy and his family of ‘ghost hunters’ who help put people to rest. He ends up meeting the ghost of a boy who is recently murdered and they're trying to figure out who killed him. Is he really dead? A really sweet YA book.

Rec by Phylicia "These two black students who are the only POC at their fancy prep school end up being targeted and have to find out who is trying to deliberately ruin their lives... It’s kind of like Pretty Little Liars but good.