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Meet Our Interns: Fall 2025

Filed under: The Schooner Blog |

Each semester, we work with a group of talented UNL undergraduate students who assist with all aspects of the Schooner‘s production process. Get to know each of our four interns for the Fall 2025 semester below!

Addie Eskens

  • What is your major? English
  • What made you want to intern for Prairie Schooner? I was interested in being involved in the process of editing and publishing and all the other stuff that goes on behind the scenes for a literary journal. A big draw for me was being able to read submissions. It’s been very fun and insightful!
  • What has been your favorite piece from the Prairie Schooner archive and why? I’m a Mary Oliver fan so I have to say her poem “Music” in the Fall 1982 issue. Her poetry always has a way of making me feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach. But in a tender and comforting way, sort of. This is probably a cop-out answer. We have so many amazing pieces! It’s hard to choose.
  • What was the book/story/poem that got you into reading? I was obsessed with the Dork Diaries books when I was younger. I fully based my personality off the main character and bought a diary just so I could write in it exactly like her. I still have all of the volumes and I will probably never give them away.
  • What is one special talent that you have? I can make a clover from my tongue, which is where you can bend just the front of it together. This has absolutely no impact on anything in my life, but I can do it, and it is sort of special.
  • If you had to be a dessert, which dessert would you be, and why? Tiramisu. I feel like I give off an air of unapproachability (I’m not sure if this is true or I made it up) (to me this represents the bitterness of the coffee grounds) but I am actually quite amiable (I think) (I hope) (this is meant to represent the cream). Tiramisu also just matches my general vibe and aesthetic. And I like to eat it.
  • What is a passion project you’re working on/ have worked on? For maybe 3 months last year I wrote a 50k word vampire story because I was bored. It will never see the light of day. Much like vampires.

Elias Hunt

  • What is your major? English
  • What made you want to intern for Prairie Schooner? I’m an aspiring writer thinking of sending my work to literary journals; working with the Schooner lets me get a glimpse of how the submission process works on the other end.
  • What has been your favorite piece from the Prairie Schooner archive and why? “Little Sister and Emineh” by Ayşe Papatya Bucak (from Winter 2012). Buy a back issue and read it and you’ll know why. I’ve never read anything like it and never will again. Bucak needs all the prestige and literary clout in the world; she’s a genius.
  • What was the book/story/poem that got you into reading? Geronimo Stilton in the Kingdom of Fantasy (peak).
  • If you could have a sandwich named after you, what would be on it? Just so much shredded parmesan cheese. Just far more parmesan cheese than is necessary or possible. Enough that the sandwich collapses in on itself. And then maybe some pesto and butter I guess.
  • What is a passion project you’re working on/ have worked on? I’m working on self-publishing interactive fiction on itch.io

Tori St. Cyr

  • What is your major? English major with minors in Sociology and Women and Gender Studies
  • What made you want to intern for Prairie Schooner? I want to be an editor! This seemed like a great opportunity to gain some experience and connections, and I’m having so much fun!
  • What has been your favorite piece from the Prairie Schooner archive and why? “La Ruta” by Patricia Engel in the Spring 2018 issue. I find the writing so compelling and the characters draw me in despite (or maybe because of) their flaws. I also enjoy “Field Notes at Dusk” by iheoma uzomba. This poem immediately astonished me with its looping metaphors and lyrical style.
  • What was the book/story/poem that got you into reading? I’ve always been a big reader of fiction, but T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is what made me love poetry. Before reading it, I hated poetry, mainly because everyone else I knew did too. But with this poem, I learned the artistry behind poetry and I loved discovering all the different interpretations.
  • What is one special talent you have? I’m an amateur contortionist. All my joints in my limbs can crack and bend beyond natural reason. It’s a really great way to freak people out.

Ava Williams

  • What is your major? English with minors in Sociology and Women and Gender Studies
  • What made you want to intern for Prairie Schooner? I have always loved creative writing, and I love helping people share their products of hard work and passion with others. I think literary magazines like the Schooner are great ways to celebrate writers and consume some great pieces!
  • What has been your favorite piece from the Prairie Schooner archive and why? It is so, so, so difficult to choose, but I think one of my favorite poems that I have discovered is “The Three Sisters” by Sandra M. Gilbert in the Winter 1981 issue. I think it has great uses of language and a unique way to show the different paths and personalities that emerge within siblings. As someone with sisters, it also had a personal connection. My favorite work of fiction I found is “Anxious” by Susan M. Gilbert-Collins in the ​Spring 2010 issue. It explores how anxiety manifests and impacts both younger and older people and how they cope with it, which felt like very authentic and relatable experiences. Surprisingly, I don’t think the authors are related!
  • What was the book/story/poem that got you into reading? I have always loved reading from a young age. I read a ton of Junie B Jones and Magic Treehouse as a kid, but eventually classic series like Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and Percy Jackson cemented this love.
  • If you had to be a dessert, which dessert would you be, and why? I think I would be a chocolate chip cookie. Not only are they my favorite dessert, but they are also dependable and sweet!
  • If you could have a sandwich named after you, what would be on it? My order changes so often, but right now it would be some kind of aioli, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, avocado, salami, turkey, provolone. Honorable mention for a bagel breakfast sandwich!
  • What is a passion project you’re working on/ have worked on? In my free time, I love to write poetry and have also tried my hand at longer fiction, which I really enjoy! It has been harder to find the time to work on these lately, but I love when I can return to my passions and hobbies.