Middle Georgia State University student Michaela Shirley to intern with What Books Press in Spring of 2022.
Shirley, an avid reader and art lover, looks forward to interning for the Press. She will assist with creating press releases for upcoming books, social media posts, and editing the What Books Press website.
The internship is part of a course that provides students with new skills that will be useful in the future. At the end of the course, students have a portfolio of the work they’ve done for the internship.
What Books Press is a non-profit literary organization founded in 2009. Based in Los Angeles, California, the press is an imprint of the Glass Table Collective, a group of writers and artists. It has expanded over the years, publishing both poetry and fiction. The Press prides itself on its distinct art. An artist by the name of GRONK a painter, printmaker, and performance artist, contributes the cover art for all of the press’s books.
What Books Press publishes works each year that are intended to “thrill [it readers] with a bending of literary expectations, or striking use of language, or poignant portrayal of the current human condition… or, ideally, all three.”
Kevin Cantwell, who works in the Office of the President at Middle Georgia State University, is a founding member of the Press and thought that an internship would be a good opportunity for a student to get an inside look into how an independent press works. Cantwell said, “At the outset, we thought we would do maybe ten books, but it’s been fifty titles as of this year, including the anthology a few of our editors compiled of essays by writers over sixty, What Falls Away is Always.”
Shirley is majoring in Media and Communication at Middle Georgia State University. After graduation, she plans to attend graduate school for marketing.
