Three wonderful new interns have joined the Press this summer—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 an internship with us in Spring 2024? Applications are due November 1. Learn more.
Meet Sophia
CCP: What’s your favorite aspect of the intern experience at Copper Canyon Press so far?
S: Being part of a nonprofit press that must deal with the market demands of late stage capitalism yet never succumbs to its crushing pressures, and always keeps poetry at the forefront of what drives their work has been incredibly renewing and inspiring to soak up. Every single member of the CCP team is so passionate and dedicated to bringing great poetry to as many people as possible in an equitable and just way—I’ve realized not only how every book of poetry is a true labor of love, but also how it’s a subversive act.
CCP: Please tell us about a forthcoming Copper Canyon title you’re excited about, and why.
S: I’m very excited about Jane Miller‘s Paper Banners, forthcoming in Fall 2023. I love how many poems in the book are dedicated to other poets, both established and emerging, as it reaches from beyond its own bounds and generates this aura of poetic community that the poems bask in. I also love its unique catalog of references, from ancient Chinese imagery to Southwestern landscapes. It’s a stunning and heartbreaking book that teaches me to face the future with grace and with grit.
CCP: Please give us a line from a poem that you can’t get out of your head.
S: This line from Jorie Graham‘s poem “Dusk in Drought,” from her newest collection To 2040: “Yes / the drought is everywhere out there / but in the night / the stems of stars mist-up / just enough for u to recall / when there was humanity, humidity, & the stars / dangle, sting. Ah there is / no return / is there. I wish I could / address you. I loved / so many / things—”.
Meet Virginia
CCP: What’s your favorite aspect of the intern experience at Copper Canyon Press so far?
V: I am moved by the intentionality that grounds each step of how a Copper Canyon book is made and the thoughtfulness that defines the culture of the press at large. Each day, I witness the staff’s investment in establishing relationships with authors that strive to understand and represent them as people as much as poets. As I contribute across departments, I see how a knowledge of the artist and the communities they write for strengthens every element of production – especially at a small organization where collaboration abounds and self-reflection is essential to meeting the ever-shifting needs of the poetry world.
CCP: Please tell us about a forthcoming Copper Canyon title you’re excited about, and why.
V: I’m ecstatic about the release of Personal Best: Makers on Their Poems that Matter Most, an anthology edited by Erin Belieu and Carl Phillips, which is forthcoming in Fall 2023. Rarely does an anthology offer poets the opportunity to decide for themselves which poem of theirs is included, let alone make space for intimate commentary on the role that poem has played in their own journey. The entries that comprise this anthology serve as micro-biographies of the voices that wrote them, and the cumulative effect is a reminder that poetry’s capacity for emotional exploration does not exist solely for individual epiphany, but for accessing solidarity with others who are curious or confused about the human condition.
CCP: Please give us a line from a poem that you can’t get out of your head.
V: I think almost every day about the final couplet of “Traveling” from Intimacies, Received by Taneum Bambrick: “How long did I think—as if biting a leash—the most important place / was the place where somebody wanted me.” To me, it stands as the thesis statement of Bambrick’s collection in its simultaneous admittance to and resistance of the allure of codependency in times of displacement or vulnerability.
Meet Griffin
CCP: What’s your favorite aspect of the intern experience at Copper Canyon Press so far?
G: This internship has given me a kaleidoscopic look into the dazzling and multifaceted process of bringing a poetry collection to life. Working with the team at Copper Canyon has been nothing short of magic and I am so inspired by their ingenuity, resourcefulness, and unfaltering dedication to poetry. It has been especially meaningful to get to help out with the Desk & Exam Copy Program, which provides free or heavily discounted copies of Copper Canyon books to educators. As a poetry instructor, I am deeply moved by the press’s commitment to making poetry accessible and affordable to teachers.
CCP: Please tell us about a forthcoming Copper Canyon title you’re excited about, and why.
G: I am deeply excited about The Stuff of Hollywood by Niki Herd. I happened to be introduced to this collection the same week I was moving to Hollywood for the first time. Herd’s incisive critique of mass media culture has been very much on my mind as I navigate the bizarre experience of living in the belly of the entertainment industry. Lurid, expansive, and utterly chilling, Herd’s work impelled me to begin interrogating my new home from the moment I arrived, an uncanny experience to be sure, but undoubtedly a sign of a great work of art.
CCP: Please give us a line from a poem that you can’t get out of your head.
G: One of the first poems I ever read by a Copper Canyon poet was “I’ve been Yearning for a Riot” by Christopher Soto. The poem is set at the L.A. Zoo and the opening lines live rent free in my mind: “The cobras unlock their jaws into safety pins // Pick / Open the locks of their terrariums & escape.”