I’m Here to Cure Your Sickness: Intern Melissa Libbey

Hello, Sick Lit Magazine readers and writers!

 

I am so happy to join Editor-In-Chief, Kelly Fitzharris Coody, on this exciting journey. During the past few weeks, I scoured through the site and read numerous posts by talented writers featured on the site.

 

I love your pieces; I’m ecstatic to work with a site that motivates such talent as Sick Lit Magazine does.

 

My love of creative writing started in high school. When an English teacher read my writing, she said that being a professional writer was difficult; that I should become a journalist.

 

So I did.

 

Journalism was a great major in college, but it wasn’t my passion. I liked writing features; this was where I could finally use creativity and write with some color. I quickly realized I didn’t want to write hard news stories. Pieces that had no feelings or emotions. I felt stuck and scared; I had graduated college, and the career path ahead of me was one that I didn’t want to take.

 

Soon after, I got a job at Glamour magazine. It wasn’t a writing job; it was so much more technical than I would have liked. I worked with the editors who wrote the stories and I admired them. I wanted to interview interesting women for the magazine and hear their stories. I tried so hard to apply for assistant editor jobs! But this was the kind of business where you have to know someone to get in.

 

After two years of plugging away in the corporate world, I knew I had to get out.

 

I went back to school. I got my MA in English and Writing Studies. Within the program I was able to be creative and step outside the box.

 

I wrote a book for my thesis project that I am now more than halfway through! I am motivated to finish and get it published.

 

A little background for you: I live in New Jersey; and besides writing I am constantly reading. Jodi Picoult is my favorite author. If you haven’t read anything by her, I highly suggest picking up one of her 16 books.

 

I’m a wine lover and think a good glass of chardonnay can cure any problem! My boyfriend and I are brewing our own beer. It’s a bit of a process, but the outcome is awesome and we have a lot of fun with it.

 

Kelly and I connected with the help of a few middle men and through Twitter.

 

When my mentor and professor asked me if I would be interested in a summer internship, I jumped at the chance to work for a literary magazine.

 

Writing has become a huge part of my life in the past two years and I want to keep learning. I only graduated a few weeks ago but I already miss being in the classroom and challenging myself.

 

Now I am hoping that I can learn from all of you!

 

We created a new email for your submissions: SickLitSubmissions@gmail.com

 

This way we can post faster and feature more talented writers on the site!

 

I am so excited to read your submissions and also write a few posts for the site. I want to push myself to write pieces that I wouldn’t write for a school assignment. I want to get out of my comfort zone and write without care. That’s what all of you should be doing as well. Embrace the weird and write from the heart. Life always gets more interesting when you step out of your comfort zone, so come and join me!

 

Let’s get our creativity on!

Melissa Libbey