Praxis Course: Praxis Independant Study
Semester: Spring 2026
Faculty Advisor/Professor: Daniel Torday
Community Partner(s): JackLeg Press
Praxis Site Supervisor: Jennifer Harris
Praxis Poster:
PIS TallulahStallvik
Further Context:
As my poster details, my work as an intern at JackLeg Press was very focused, consisting of practically the same repeating task for the whole semester. This level of consistency allowed me to dive incredibly deep into how I was approaching my reviews and how I was reading the poems in the first place — hence why I chose to focus on the reading process itself and the “craftsmanship” of the poetry for my poster. Centering the idea of craftsmanship in my reviewing played the largest role in controlling
aesthetically-driven bias. It was a challenge, though, to make this dissection. To a certain extent, all aspects of poetry — even the ways formal craft elements are utilized — are subjective, and therefore victim to overlaid aesthetic bias. Growth in this area was truly a by-product of the sheer amount of time dedicated to the repetitive motions of reading submission after submission. In terms of a life progression, this internship worked in tandem with and built off of my time as an intern for the online poetry magazine Poetry Daily last summer. I bring this up because of the way in which reading as an eye of a press differed from that preliminary experience evaluating poetry for individual publication to a magazine. I felt my opinions were imbued with a more significant weight, which led me to be even more intentional with every thought and review. Publishing a poetry book is introducing the world to someone’s work in the exact form, order, and overall presentation that the artist intends for the work; it is allowing space for this person’s work. Aside from this feeling of responsibility, being a part of this process was somewhat out-of-body; I kept asking myself why does my opinion of someone’s work matter? But, of course, the literary community is built on this massive web of “peoples’
opinions.” In good faith, it is the thoughts and contributions of a whole array of people that make arts communities strong.