Light Of Day
In honor of our late Founding Director Bob Day, who dedicated his days to lighting literary pathways for students, we're pleased to announce The Light of Day Internships, a program pairing WC students with high-profile literary organizations and publishers. These world-class opportunities will give our students hands-on experience to truly distinguish them in the job market. Help us to give them the Light of Day!
GREAT NEWS! We're halfway to our goal of raising at least $100,000 to endow the Light of Day Internship Fellows in perpetuity!
EVEN BETTER NEWS!
Thanks to generous donors, we can match, dollar-for-dollar, any amount up to $25,000--if we meet our goal!
Please chip in, as any amount truly makes a double-impact!
For more details about the internships or about their namesake, please keep reading....
The Rose O’Neill Literary House is excited to announce the launch of a new paid internship program inspired by Lit House founding director Robert Day. Bob had a passion and a knack for placing students on precisely the right literary path. The Light of Day program, named in his honor, will pair our incredible Washington College students with literary magazines and journals, publishing houses, agencies, and a wide range of arts organizations.
The program builds on a history of internships that have led directly to employment opportunities for our graduates at C-SPAN, BookTV, Copper Canyon Press, Provincetown Fine Arts Center, National Geographic, and countless other places. Last year our pilot Light of Day intern, Sophie Kerr Prize winner Eylie Sasajima ‘23, signed on with Alan Squire Publishing in Washington DC, and was soon offered a full-time position there. This spring, she will begin training Vee Sharp, who is following in her footsteps as a Light of Day intern at ASP.
The intensive experiential learning provided through this program will give our students a substantial edge over the competition when they graduate. We have a wealth of interest from prestigious organizations. And we have gifted students who are ready to make the most of a Light of Day internship thanks to what they’ve learned about literary editing and publishing through their academic courses and on-campus Lit House internships.
Of course, a program like Light of Day works best when its financial stability is guaranteed in perpetuity. Thanks to the generosity of Literary House supporters, the Light of Day endowment currently stands at 50% of what we need to ensure the continuation of Bob Day’s legacy, allowing future Washington College students to benefit from the kind of life-changing experiential learning he championed.
We welcome your help to reach our goal of fully funding this program by June 30, 2024. Help us give our students the Light of Day!
Previous internships have included partnerships with:
Coper Canyon Press
Book TV
CSPN
National Geographic
24 Pearl Street (Fine Arts Work Center)
Bob Day founded the Rose O'Neill Literary House in 1972 at Washington College. For more about Bob's work and incredible impact as a writer, teacher, and visionary, please read this remembrance or watch the tribute reading we held to honor Bob below. If you'd like to purchase a letterpress broadside excerpting Bob's groundbreaking novel The Last Cattle Drive, visit our online store here.
Give the Light Of Day