Four talented new interns have joined the Press for our first session of 2025—remotely, from around the country—and it’s our pleasure to introduce you to each of them here. We’ll share their 60-second Q&As every #MeettheInternMonday in the coming weeks, so check back!
P.S. Interested in participating in an internship with us from July to December 2025? Applications are now open through April 15th. Learn more here.
Meet Phoebe
CCP: What’s your favorite aspect of the intern experience at Copper Canyon Press so far?
P: The collaborative ethos of the team at Copper Canyon Press means everything to me. It’s a joy to share poetry recommendations, edit book descriptions, and navigate new (and sometimes confusing) technology with the guidance and support of such a caring and passionate group.
CCP: Please tell us about a forthcoming Copper Canyon Press title you’re excited about, and why.
P: Wildness Before Something Sublime by Leila Chatti is forthcoming in September 2025, and I’m beyond excited for its release. I love the liminal quality of Chatti’s writing, and I’m looking forward to seeing her dreamlike meditations on grief, divination, and a shadow self on the page.
CCP: Please give us a line from a poem that you can’t get out of your head.
P: As it gets closer to March, I’ve been thinking about the poem “Training” by Diannely Antigua from Good Monster, which tells the story of a puppy who eats rocks, who gets splinters on her tongue, and who gets “a pat on the head / for doing nothing but existing.” The poem captures a sting of longing for that type of unconditional love—the image of jagged stones stays with me.
Meet Huzaifa
CCP: What’s your favorite aspect of the intern experience at Copper Canyon Press so far?
H:I enjoy the opportunity to work with staff who are incredibly committed to the work of creating literature. Through various tasks supporting the operations of the Press, I am learning the work involved in the book production. From the careful and patient work of manuscript preparation, to the creativity of assembling newsletters, I appreciate the diverse experiences the internship provides.
Also: community. Copper Canyon Press often holds events with our published writers, and I enjoy hearing from the staff about what the poets and the poetry world are like.
CCP: Please tell us about a forthcoming Copper Canyon Press title you’re excited about, and why.
H: Oh, my “to read” list is already too long without forthcoming titles, but I’d have to say I Do Know Some Things—a new Richard Siken book is too exciting to miss. His language has this kind of desire that’s so full of grief it becomes all the more intimate. And the latest collection delivers a series of striking prose poems, which depart in form from his other work. One poem in particular, “Pornography,” previously published in DIAGRAM, is a memorable image of art and watching and image.
CCP: Please give us a line from a poem that you can’t get out of your head.
“Hush little baby, don’t you cry, mama’s gonna sing you a lullaby” – Originally a Southern Folk Song
I think what I want to do with the solitary art is write lullabies.
Meet Nida
CCP: What’s your favorite aspect of the intern experience at Copper Canyon Press so far?
N: Definitely the work environment and the people! Being in a space that is not just rooted in but also constantly growing in its love for poetry is refreshing, sweet, and utterly lovely. I’m ecstatic to collaborate with such passionate people who approach and appreciate poetry in such a multitude of ways.
CCP: Please tell us about a forthcoming Copper Canyon Press title you’re excited about, and why.
N: The New Economy by Gabrielle Calvocoressi is utterly brilliant to me—as someone who has already gotten the chance to glimpse at the manuscript, I can’t wait to get this book on my shelves. I love poetry that is colloquial in language while tackling broad concepts, such as identity, the body, mental illness, and so on. Calvocoressi’s previous work has always resonated with me, and I’m ecstatic to fully immerse myself into this new collection!
CCP: Please give us a line from a poem that you can’t get out of your head.
N: “my people my people / I thought / the fall would / kill me / but it only / made me real.” —Ocean Vuong, Time Is a Mother
Meet Marcus
CCP: What’s your favorite aspect of the intern experience at Copper Canyon Press so far?
M: The people! Everyone on the team has been so genuinely enthusiastic about not only the work, but also about mentorship, providing space for questions, outside responsibilities, and personal and collective goals for this internship, which continue to expand and zig-zag with each day. I have also been really compelled by the way in which encountering poetry in a more routine manner—from different angles and vantage points—has caused it to ooze into my life in almost imperceptible ways (not always on my own terms, which is a wonderful thing!).
CCP: Please tell us about a forthcoming Copper Canyon Press title you’re excited about, and why.
M: This is hard, because the upcoming seasons are pretty loaded with cool books. One that I am particularly excited about is Shangyang Fang’s Study of Sorrow: Translations (an anthology of Song Dynasty Ci poems forthcoming Fall 2025). The translations are frenetic, sad—sometimes very funny. You can hear the real sharpness and fluidity of Shangyang’s ear cut through. The lines cascade with a certain (half-modern, half-old) musicality that makes heat on the page.
CCP: Please give us a line from a poem that you can’t get out of your head.
M: From Jenny Xie’s “Lunar New Year, 1988:”
Wakefulness drawn from the red applause
of firecrackers.
In the alleyway of my childhood home,
you can see I’m covering my ears.
At my back:
the years ahead, strangely lit.