Meet our Intern, Minh Wang

This summer, Carve is fortunate to have Minh Wang as our editorial intern.

Minh is a creative writing major at the University of Houston. He is a second generation Asian American and United States Marine Corps Veteran. At the moment, he enjoys reading and writing short story fiction. He plans to submit his work to literary magazines/contests and hopes one day to publish a collection of short stories.

Minh will participate in Fall issue editorial conversations and Raymond Carver Contest readings. Read on to get to know Minh!

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what experiences and interests drove you to seek an internship with Carve.

Hi, my name is Minh Wang. I am a senior at the University of Houston, majoring in creative writing and minoring in political science. I am Vietnamese/Chinese and I grew up in Houston for the most part of my life. I still consider myself fairly new to the literary world. I wasn’t a big reader or writer growing up, but my stint in the Marine Corps forced me to write many letters to my friends and family, and through those anecdotes, I came to appreciate telling stories.

I think the most prominent event that led me to Carve was taking a course called Journal Practicum. My professor, Audrey Colombe, to whom I am grateful for her support, helped me learn about the publication side of literature. We got to work with the school’s literary magazine, Glass Mountain, and we explored various literary magazines and their works. One of our projects was to find a literary publication to write about and present to the class, and Carve was my choice.

At first, I came across Carve because of Raymond Carver and I figured there was a strong focus for short stories, which aligned with what I liked. But as I reviewed the website and the publication, I found what Carve is doing is intriguing and wonderful, how authors are given recognition whether they are declined/accepted, or keeping up with the author’s progress. I felt I would gain valuable experience interning here at Carve, and hope I will be able to lend as much assistance as possible.

Why do you think literary magazines are important?

I think literary magazines are important because they’re the subtle way in which authors may develop themselves and acquire a certain degree of recognition before taking on larger projects. I believe in the process of how literary magazines take works from all parts of the world and make these prose, poetry, and art accessible to readers, allowing them to discover other great authors and their work.

 What do you hope to learn from participating in Carve’s editorial process this summer?

My main hope is to learn about the nuances of choosing a story or any body of work, what my senior peers are thinking when they discuss someone’s writing, and how they propose to edit certain things. Another interest would be the interaction between the publication and the authors, and where compromises are met. I do have to say I am not that big on the business/financial side of publication, which Prof. Colombe iterated to me there must be a balance of art and money. Thus I also hope to understand this balance and what is publication harmony.

What are some of your favorite short stories, and why?

1. “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” by Raymond Carver

2. “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo” by Haruki Murakami

3. “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri

4. “Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenian

I’m not sure if I am qualified enough to express why I like these stories. I just know they seem to draw me in with a certain degree of expression and language. I would say I am a pretty simple reader. I tend to like prose like Ernest Hemingway, where the expression is basic but also profound. Where the author is able to convey this thought that makes me think and empathize with the character and story.

 Other than writing and editing, how do you like to spend your time?

I like to spend my time reading stories and news articles. I’ve been studying stocks a little bit and watching Netflix. I also like to work out and go jogging. 

What publications, magazines, or books you’ve recently read would you like to shout out?

I guess the most obvious one would be University of Houston’s literary magazine, Glass Mountain. I know it is a small publication, but I think the magazine is great because it comes from the mind of students and we are all able to learn and share our opinions as we grow as authors ourselves.