by Jordi Alonso
When I first opened the door to Lighthouse, I wasn’t too sure of what exactly I’d be doing as the Lit Fest intern for two weeks. I had never interned anywhere else before, so I thought I would be doing mindless tasks the people who worked there had specifically selected for their repetitiveness, vapidity, and difficulty—a sort of trial by fire to see if I’d be worthy of one more line on my résumé and a letter of recommendation. Maybe for every dozen handouts I stapled, I’d be moments closer to doing something else.
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Jordi Alonso (left), Admin. Asst. Kate, and Lighthouse Tweeter (R) Maggie @ Lit Fest 2013 kickoff.[/caption]
My preconceptions couldn’t have been more wrong; sure, I’ve done quite a lot of stapling, but on my first day and every day since, I’ve done things as diverse as cutting and arranging flowers, printing handouts, setting tables , tapping kegs, and helping run events smoothly. So far, none of the events I have helped out with have crashed and burned (though it’s unlikely that anything dreamt up by the brilliant minds that run Lighthouse ever has). In the process of being a Jack-of-all-trades, I’ve met amazing people and had great conversations, and in the process of doing so I’ve learned new things about myself: prose isn’t as scary as I thought it would be, in fact, It’s fun to write—about writing: thanks to Steve Almond I now know how to use seductive narrators to draw readers into my (hypothetical) novels –and, with a shout-out to Steve Almond again, about the total creative control that comes with self-publishing.
The other staff and the contributors themselves have extended hands of camaraderie so far-reaching, that I finally realized why we’re all happy to spend entire days inside a beautiful 19th century house practicing our craft. Here at Lighthouse, affiliations don’t matter. Whether your passion is L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry or sestinas, Young Adult fantasy or spiritual memoir, whether you have ten books under your belt, or you have a short story in a local magazine, or even if you’re just beginning to write, still finding your voice, Lighthouse is a place to celebrate the act of writing and to come together as writers with one common pursuit—to make our writing better. Check out Lit Fest 2013 here!
