People might wonder what it’s like to be a junior fellow here at First Things . “What’s the best part?” such an imaginary interlocutor would say. The power? The fame? The money? The sex appeal?
Without question, junior fellows enjoy all of those. But more than that, you get to work with and learn from respected scholars, excellent staff, and impressive peers. Here’s a little of what I wrote about the job last year :
I think of the junior fellowship as having three parts. The first involves doing what needs to be done around the office: helping to format the archives, running errands, managing book reviews, managing the website, answering the magazine’s primary e-mail account, etc. These jobs are divided up among the fellows and assistant editors.The second involves lots of reading. We all keep our eyes on articles in the news, in other magazines and journals. We also read the articles that are being considered for publication, and we participate in the editorial meetings where the content of the magazine is decided. Once the magazine is laid out, we proofread the issue before publication.
The third part of the job involves writing, primarily for First Things but also for other publications. This year, we fellows have written a few essays that appeared on the website, as well as posts for our daily blog. Now, five months into our time here, we have small book reviews in the magazine and are hoping to publish full-length reviews soon.
On top of that, you live in a community with daily evening prayer and excellent meals on Saturday nights. And occasionally you get to kick off your shoes and have an old-fashioned hootenanny .
Now who wouldn’t want a little of that?
