Author Intern-Dr. Lynne Lawner
Catherine Ahearn, 2011
Being that Lynne’s studio has no staff and I was the only other person assisting her, my work over the month was directly collaborative with her at all times. Everyday I would arrive at 9:30 and check my file on her computer. There, Lynne would list comments on my work from the day before, tasks to be tackled that day, and miscellaneous other notes that were relevant to my work there. My days varied drastically because we worked on three different projects that all demanded different types and amounts of time, skills, and attention.
The major focus of my time there was on a collection of Lynne’s poetry and photographs called Engadine Impressions. During my first week I read and re read about 120 of Lynne’s original work and together we chose 60 of these pieces to be included in the manuscript. After we picked these out, which proved to be very time consuming, we had to divide the poems into four sections and order them within their respective sections. Lynne picked the four section titles and asked me to sort them as I saw fit. After this she had me order them as I saw fit and we went through the final order together moving around anything she felt was out of place. It turns out that even after this was done Lynne kept going back to it and we ultimately re- titled the four sections, moved poems, replaced a few of the poems with others. Even though we started this project on the first day, it was not until my last week that we sent off the manuscript to Lynne’s publishers in Italy. Before we sent it off I did get to look at the images that Lynne was sending off with it, but as I am not familiar with photography, the photographs were something she worked on over the weekends with another intern.
Of course, this was also partially due to the fact that we worked on others things throughout this time. In between work on the poetry manuscript, I also helped organize a book foundation that Lynne is setting up as a legacy and a university in Perugia, Italy. The library will be composed of hundreds of books that she has personally collected throughout her life as well as all of her notes and video interviews. The majority of the books are concerned with culture and art, however more recently Lynne has decided to include any and all books of great merit so that the library is a bit more well rounded. My work on this project revolved mainly around organizational tasks. For example, I often had to catalogue new books so that Lynne had a record of what she was sending overseas and then package them according to genre. This often proved to be tedious and frustrating although I am very appreciative to have been given the chance to lend myself to such a great, selfless, endeavor. Although this work was more organizational and less academic I learned a great deal about my love for books and literature. This project proved very frustrating to pull together and if it were not for my genuine desire for these books to become a part of, not only a library, but a legacy, I would not have been able to do the work as effectively and whole heartedly as I did.
The last project we worked on concerned publisher’s catalogues. Each publishing season about 30 different publishing houses send Lynne their catalogues so that Lynne may order books in hopes that she will review any of them. Going through these catalogues is something that Lynne takes very seriously and her routine is something I had to master very quickly. I most appreciated this activity because I found it interesting to see the different trends in literature as well as the types of books each house published. After going through a few seasons, I could clearly detect the character of each publishing house.
I thought that my performance during this internship was up to Lynne’s expectations. That is not to say that I did not make some crucial mistakes in how I completed some of the tasks Lynne gave me. This was mainly due to the fact that Lynne has a very rigid way of doing things and any variation is simply not right. Taking this into account, I learned quickly to follow her directions exactly and ultimately did so without a second thought. Although the book foundation was the dullest project, I found that it was what I was best at because it predominantly demanded great organizational skills, which many of us at Middlebury already have, and nothing too new or challenging. My work on the poetry was much more fluid and I feel that I got much better at this as time went on because I got a sense of Lynne’s writing style, tastes and expectations from both her poems and comments on them over the course of our four weeks together.
Overall, I feel that my experience with Lynne was very successful in exposing me to many different projects and outlets of creativity. My work on the poetry manuscript was my favorite project not only because I worked on it from beginning to end but also because it combined my love for reading and analyzing poetry with editing. Sitting side by side with the author of the actual pieces I was working with is something I realize I will not be able to do again for many years and I valued it everyday. Lynne was always very open to talking about her work and the work of others and due to this I was able to quickly gain a grasp of what her tastes and feelings toward an array of things are and would be. Her writing is unlike anything I have ever been inspired by and throughout the four weeks I tried using her techniques and style experimentally in my own work. The other projects that Lynne made me a part of were interesting, but more educational for me in the sense that I gained a better sense of where my interests lie and where they do not. I was very lucky to have worked with her and to soak up as much knowledge from her in four weeks as possible. Any Middlebury student should jump at the opportunity to work with Lynne if she offers it.
Please contact the Career Services Office for more information on this internship!