We’re delighted to announce the next two assistant editors who will be taking part in our Editor Development Programme: Will Harris and Joanna Thompson. They will be working with Michael and me (Fiona) on the next issue of The Rialto for early 2017 and will have their own pages to edit in the summer 2017 issue. Here they are.
Will Harris
Will was born in London, of mixed Anglo-Indonesian heritage, and studied at the universities of Oxford and St Andrews. He has worked in schools and as a tutor, co-edits the small press 13 Pages and organises the The Poetry Inquisition, a night of poetry held to account. He is also founder of the So Shu Network, a website specialising in cultural and political commentary from a mixed (or otherwise slant) perspective. His poetry has been published or is forthcoming in The Rialto, The White Review and the Manchester Review, among other places. He is a fellow of the Complete Works III.
Joanna Thompson
Jo grew up in Yorkshire and is a recent graduate of the University of East Anglia, where she first became sincerely excited about poetry, attending and reading at events, working on anthologies, and occasionally running poetry workshops in local schools. Now working in a literary agency in London, Jo continues to be a keen reader and writer of poetry, and is entirely thrilled to be a part of The Rialto’s Editorial Development Scheme. (Jo retains her ties with Norwich and we’re extra pleased to have someone on the team with local connections.)
We have recruited Jo and Will from last year’s candidates – when choosing a shortlist to interview was hard enough and choosing from our interviewees almost impossible. It was exciting to discover that so many talented people want to edit poetry. Will and Jo will be joining our expanding team; the six graduates of the Editorial Development Scheme, Abigail Parry, Rishi Dastidar, Holly Hopkins, Ed Doegar, Degna Stone and I, are all still involved with the Rialto in one way or another.
Many thanks to the Arts Council for continuing to fund this scheme.
At the top is the sea a couple of days after our launch at Poetry in Aldeburgh. I’m a little afraid Nick may say that pictures from my phone are not up to our usual standard of artwork. If I mention WG Sebald, Nick will say he didn’t take his photos with a smartphone.
