Meet Our Pathway to Publishing Fellow: Ariana Benson

Ariana Benson is a poet-storyteller from Chesapeake, Virginia. A graduate of Spelman College and Royal Holloway University of London, where she studied Poetic Practice as a 2019 Marshall Scholar, she received the 2021 Graybeal-Gowen Prize and was a finalist for the 2020 Auburn Witness Poetry Prize and the 2021 Pink Poetry Prize.

Her poems appear or are forthcoming in West Branch, Shenandoah, Great River Review, ANOMALY, Lunch Ticket, Southern Humanities Review, and Auburn Avenue, where she serves as Nonfiction Editor. She is a 2021 Obsidian UK Fellow and a 2021 Helen Degen Cohen Summer Reading Fellow with RHINO Poetry.

Ariana’s work often interrogates questions of language, environmental concerns, and the connection between African Diasporic peoples and the natural landscape. Through her writing, she strives to fashion vignettes of Blackness that speak to its infinite depth and richness.

What inspired you to pursue a career in writing, editing, and publishing? 

As a psychology major in undergrad, I was most taken with the mechanics and function of memory: how it works, how it colors our experiences and worldviews—even the “memories” that didn’t happen to us, the ones that are collective or passed down through generations. I see the literary world as having infinite potential as an archive of these memories—to preserve and curate our stories and experiences long after we’re gone. This is especially crucial for the most marginalized among us, whose voices are too often allowed to fade in our absence. In that sense, I’m pursuing a career in editing and publishing because I’d like to make sure these stories make it into the archive; that they are protected, valued, and treasured through the beautiful medium of books for generations to come. 

What has been your favorite thing to learn during the UCSD Copyediting Certificate course so far? 

I’ve really enjoyed re-learning the most technical aspects of grammar, punctuation, and syntax. I’m reminded of my childhood days spent diagramming sentences and practicing proper annotation, and am grateful for the very comprehensive refresher the course provided in its thorough explanation of the purpose and place of every part of speech, verb tense, etc. 

What does your life look like outside of Wise Ink’s P2P Fellowship? What exciting projects, hobbies, or endeavors are you working on these days? 

Outside of Wise Ink’s P2P Fellowship, I spend most of my time writing and editing my own poetry. This summer, I focused heavily on generating poems. I attended virtual workshops/retreats with Tin House, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference, and the Mendocino City Writers Conference, writing and workshopping new poems that will hopefully be part of the manuscript I’m currently developing. I also taught a two-week intensive course on personal statement writing at my alma mater, Spelman College. Lastly, I’m a huge sports fan, so there’s a good chance you’ll find me watching the NBA playoffs, Wimbledon, or international football (soccer) in my downtime. 

What are your favorite subjects/genres to edit? 

I’m learning that I really enjoy editing creative nonfiction, particularly essays/memoirs that employ a more experimental structure. I’m most fascinated by people’s ability to tell their own stories and to synthesize how we experience the world around us into images and language, so I enjoy reading this material most as an editor whose primary desire is to populate the publishing industry (and people’s bookshelves) with a myriad of unique, intriguing narratives. 

How should editors go about establishing trust with the writers they’re editing? 

I think it’s crucial to “meet” an author’s story in-person (or virtually, given the times) before you ever lay eyes on the words on the page. Making it clear that you’re invested in their work, in the narrative they’ve created, before you being formally editing may lend itself to an author feeling as though you understand that what they’ve written is a piece of who they are, not merely words on a page to be rearranged and reworked.

Tell us what makes your approach to editing.

As I grew more confident in my editorial practice, I began developing my own process for selecting and developing essays for publication. I eventually named this method the “Firestarter Process” after the metaphor upon which it was founded. First, I review and solidify the basic soundness of the writing as the “matchstick” in the metaphor, asking myself if the piece is well-structured, grammatically sound, broadly readable, and imbued with a strong voice—essentially, is the matchstick of this story sound enough to start a flame? Next, I investigate each piece for standout qualities—illuminating imagery, unexpected choices, incisive and insightful narratives. These special characteristics are the “paraffin,” demonstrating the piece’s potential to spark passion in its readers, to enlighten and empower those who encounter it. Finally, I turn my gaze inward and explore our role as publishers, or the proverbial “flint” in the metaphor, asking myself how we as editors can spark the flames of the piece, to make it burn brilliantly and reach as many eyes as possible, both through meticulous editing and amplification of the parts of the piece that shine brightest.

Connect with Ariana Benson:

Twitter: @literari_ana 

Website: www.arianabenson.wordpress.com/about

Location: London, England