Take a lunchtime stroll down Washington Avenue, and you’re bound to find Sarah Kosch at the top of a ladder, rain or shine, swapping out headlines on the Englert Theatre marquee. An English major (and first-rate speller), Kosch, a UI junior, regularly updates the historic theater’s marquee as part of a work study job she’s held since her freshman year. But this isn’t the only “writing” she does—Kosch is an aspiring fiction writer and poet who credits her mother, an author herself, for nurturing her interest in writing. “When I was a kid,” she says, “I used to write my own versions of books. Mom would be in one room working on her novel, and I’d be across the hall writing my own version of a Goosebumps book—‘Night of the Living Dummy’ or something like that.” Still, Kosch says, she never expected to find herself on the creative writing track at Iowa, and she especially didn’t anticipate working for the College’s flagship literary magazine, The Iowa Review, where, for the past two years, she’s been an intern and an ICRU fellow.
“It just happened,” says Kosch, modestly, “I wanted to job shadow an editor, so I asked Russell [Valentino, the Review’s editor] if I could volunteer at the office, and he said okay.” Valentino puts it differently: “Ed Folsom told me he had a very talented undergraduate student interested in the world of publishing. When Sarah first came over to talk with me, it was obvious that she was enthusiastic, a good listener, and a good speaker. She’s since proven a really great addition to our crew and has learned to do a whole range of things that, in some cases, only the managing editor knows as well”—including blogging for the magazine, proofreading galleys, and transcribing interviews. Kosch especially enjoys helping the associate editors read submissions: “It’s been really good for my own writing.”
While she can’t decide which of her classes she’s enjoyed most—it’s either Victorian Literature or her Honors Proseminar—Kosch’s favorite professor is Harry Stecopoulos, who she first met during a class but soon discovered was her next-door neighbor. “It’s so cool to have a professor I can talk to outside of class,” she says. “One thing I like to tell new students is, don’t be afraid of your professors! They might seem intimidating at first, but they’re nice people who will help you in life.” Her other advice for first-year students, to which her own accomplishments certainly testify, is, “Be active, not passive. If you want something, don’t be afraid to do what it takes to get it.”
This spring, Kosch won’t be climbing ladders or reading through the Review’s slush pile, as she’s off to study abroad at London Metropolitan University, through a program jointly offered by the UI’s Office for Study Abroad and Global Student Experience. When she returns, she’ll write an honors thesis, and after that—who knows? “It all depends on where life takes me,” she says. “You never know with an English major.”
by Jenna Hammerich