What advice would you give to current English majors and students considering an English major?īecome something of a jack-of-all-trades. I’m just so glad I had that time in the Hope English Department where professors met my bad short stories and wild enthusiasm with thoughtfulness and then guided me toward better writing, better opinions, and a better understanding of literature and the world at large. Pannapacker asking for tips a night before driving to Walden Pond over a weekend on a whim! I remember running into Professor Rappleye in the Kletz and showing him (or accosting him with) a poem I had written in my frat house on a typewriter! I emailed Dr. Montaño, who would let me incessantly bug them about the writers I was interested in and would patiently sit through my grueling trying-too-hard-to-be-witty poetry. It knocked me off of my cocky, spurious late-teens/early-20s pedestal and then built me back up into someone who is hopefully more knowledgeable and compassionate. How did your Hope English education shape you?
On a personal note, my wife Ann (Hope ’10) and I had a child last year and live in Tacoma, Washington. It’s now a twice-a-year prestige magazine covering the cutting edge of comics, as well as unearthing artists or works we feel have been forgotten or overshadowed. In January 2019, I helped to bring it back for a triumphant return with issue #303.
Nearly seven years ago, The Comics Journal ceased publication after forty years of being the only real literary magazine looking at the comics medium with a critical eye. I’m also the new co-managing editor of The Comics Journal magazine, a resurrection project I’m very excited to be a part of. My writing and interviews can now mainly be found at tcj.com. I’ve written art criticism, book reviews, and articles about basketball for various sites over the last few years. I edit books, manage the company’s foreign rights sales and permissions requests, and coordinate with our digital distributors, amongst other things that hopefully result in us getting our books in your hands. In publishing, especially working for a small publishing house, it’s all hands on deck, so my job changes from day to day. My business card says “Rights & Operations,” whatever that means. I work for Fantagraphics Books in Seattle, Washington. This week we’re delighted to bring you an interview with RJ Casey, a Hope ’09 grad whose pursuit of English has taken him from Moby Dick and Walden Pond to the cutting edge of comics publishing! Happy New Year, and to all at Hope, welcome back for a new semester.
0 kommentar(er)
