Acclaimed poet Barry Silesky is looking for an intern. Barry has Multiple Sclerosis so needs assistance to facilitate his writing and publishing. Please see below for potential duties and a schedule. If interested, send an email to both Barry and his wife Sharon Solwitz at the following addresses: ssolwitz@hotmail.com; barrysilesky@yahoo.com.

Previous interns have appreciated their time and experience working with Barry; if you’d like to speak with any of these students, please let Prof. Chris Green know.

If you are selected, contact Prof. Chris Green (cgreen1@depaul.edu) to sign up for academic credit.

For more summer internship opportunities, click here.

Internship:

-Check and respond to messages:email, social media etc, poetry submissions

-Read aloud: newspaper articles, poems

-Type poems, nonfiction and fiction prose. We are currently working on two poetry collections: “Heaven” and “After the Word”, as well as a fiction piece “Valley View” that I’m hoping to turn into a novel.

-Edit poems together and send to a friend (mikepuican@gmail.com) for an extra editing eye.

-Research literary magazines open for submissions

-Submit poems/ nonfiction work to literary magazines

-Learn how to submit your literary works to publications by working on author’s cover letter, bio, and following specific directions of literary magazine submission requirements

-Track submissions via Excel document

Overall, interns will learn about the craft of writing and publication by helping an established author compose his pieces, as well as attempt to publish them. Each session is normally for two hours.

Typical Routine:

1) Check Barry’s email, it’s logged in on yahoo.com and his Facebook-logged in also

2) After, go through the news sites Barry wants: normally, NYT, Alternet, Guardian

3) Write a poem: The two collections we have been working on are “Heaven” and “After the Word” both collections can be found on the desktop folder “Poetry in Progress” when Barry writes a poem you can add it to either collection, depending on the tone. I will attach the two collections so you can get a feel for tone.

or Nonfiction piece: There is a folder “Nonfiction Collection” with some documents we have been working on. Same process as poems– looking for literary magazines that are the right fit (refer to #5)

4) After we write a poem we send it to Mike Puican who likes to edit Barry’s poems. Email the poem to him  mikepuican@gmail.com.  Put the title of the poem in the subject line and paste the poem in the body of the email

5) Then, you guys can look for FREE places to submit his work. First, I check Barry’s email for calls for submissions that he gets emailed to him. If there’s nothing there that fits his writing, I go to Calls For Submissions and he is signed up for an email list that sends a bunch of different competitions and publications looking for submissions.

6) After reading the rules for submissions and making sure the poem we are submitting fits the style rules, document guidelines, font size, document name (normally required to never include Barry’s name) etc, I attach a cover letter and bio that’s normally required. We already have one made, so all you have to do is find “Cover Letter and Bio” document on the DESKTOP and then copy and paste it, change the number of poems, the poem titles and collection to fit whatever you’re submitting. The bio should never need to be changed.

7) After submitting, document the submission in the folder “Submissions” where you will find “Submissions 2018” This is an Excel Document we use to track the poems and journals Barry has sent. Fill out the cells according to poems and collection submitted, journal, date and the response section is only for when we receive if his poem has been accepted or not.