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Becoming Electric Lit’s Deputy Editor Is My Dream Job. Reading Got Me Here
Your support can help shape literary futures like mine
This article is free to read. So is every article Electric Literature publishes. No limits, no paywalls—now or ever. Support from readers like you makes that possible.
Electric Literature is proud to be a space where writers are always paid and reading is always free, and we plan to keep it that way.
Donate now to our spring fundraiser to help ensure the future of free, accessible literature for all.
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Dear Reader,
When I was a college senior, I used to sit in my favorite coffee shop, hook my laptop up to the free wifi, and pretend I was an editor at Electric Literature. This is a true story.
Now, as EL’s incoming Deputy Editor, remembering my slightly delusional daydreams makes me feel mildly embarrassed, but more importantly, extremely proud that all these years later I get to be a part of an organization I’ve admired for so long. (Not to mention impressed by my younger self’s impeccable literary taste!)
It’s not by chance that EL was the literary magazine I set my sights on. With my limited cash going straight to books for class (and, way, way too much coffee), I was starved for contemporary literature I could access for free. Electric Literature offered me exactly that: strange, wonderful stories that, true to EL’s mission, were exciting, relevant, and inclusive—an education in literature that went beyond what I was getting in my classes. And I was able to read those stories because of supporters like you, who ensured that people like me could access Electric Literature’s digital pages without fees or paywalls.
Back then, I needed free literature. Now, I get to provide it. Back then, I wondered if I would ever be paid for my writing. Now, I get to ensure that each of our writers is compensated for their work.
By donating to our spring fundraiser, you help ensure that readers like you, my college self, and millions of others maintain free access to our extraordinary and growing archive of short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction, graphic narratives, cultural criticism, and insightful coverage of forthcoming books—all written by contributors who are paid for the work they do.
Donate today to help us keep literature accessible for everyone. You never know—your donation might just allow an over-caffeinated college student with big aspirations to read her way into her dream job.
Gratefully yours,
Katie Henken Robinson
Senior Editor and incoming Deputy Editor
