Dispatches | September 14, 2009

Hello, my name is Eddie, I’m an intern here at TMR.

As being such, one of my duties is to blog about things (I believe that means current literary things), and I am prepared to take full advantage of this opportunity. This week I found an interesting entry linked to Maud Newton’s post titled “writing through failure”

A few weeks before school started, I found myself nearly completely alone- the summer semester had ended and there was a long two weeks before the fall would begin. My lease started the first day of August and I, thinking it would be a great idea to ‘look for a job’ instead of working a few more shifts at a pizza place back in Iowa, came back to Columbia as everyone else was leaving (I wanted to get out of my parents house).

There was only so much time I could spend filling out applications (though in retrospect I should have spent a little more) and without anyone around I grew bored.

So one night, I grabbed five dollars, my spare free time, and saw a movie at the independent theater. The only show playing was “Every Little Step”. If you haven’t seen this, or heard about it. I would recommend this to anyone. It is a movie about the Broadway show called A Chorus Line, which is a Broadway show about Broadway performers, the main theme being that there is a story to the characters in the story, each one if different, and peculiar in their own way.

It is the beginning of the fourth week of this internship. I have read around 65 or so submissions for publication. This is hard to think about, but this means 65 (or so) people have revealed to me what they wouldn’t to some of their closest friends and family, namely they have shown me their character. Not all stories are perfect, most don’t fit the needs of this publication, but I believe that each in each submission there is something, an expression of character, a somebody who is saying this is me and this is what I have to say. It has been an extraordinary experience to be a part of TMR and I am grateful to be where I am.

There is an incredible hammering sound that seems to be thundering from the floor below the lounge of TMR, which makes focusing a difficult task so I will leave this post short. But before I end, have you heard yet about our contest?

-Edwin Kirsch