Building Her Future Career
In just two years at Roger Williams University, Hannah Little has gained enough experience to build a career on. She has helped edit a soon-to-be published manuscript, helped put together RWU’s literary magazine, and met and shared her own creative work with famous authors. All of this led to yet another opportunity for her: a full scholarship to attend the prestigious New York State Summer Writers Institute, where she will deepen her writing and editing skills even further.
“I’m most looking forward to having the chance to meet and listen to all these amazing writers that I’ve been studying and really admire,” Little says about attending the Writers Institute. “I know I have so much to learn from them so I’m really going to try to take everything in while I’m there.”
Little credits this opportunity to her participation in RWU’s Bermont Fellowship, which gave her the opening and funding needed to dive deeper into her writing as well as her work as an editor, which she hopes to pursue after graduating. Each academic year the Bermont Fellowship provides students with the opportunity to attend an intensive, full-day master class with a distinguished visiting writer. Little was among a group of students who worked with renowned author Rick Moody.
“The writing I had actually submitted for the [Summer Writers Institute] application was work-shopped with Rick Moody,” says Little. Moody, along with RWU Writer-In-Residence Adam Braver helped advocate for Little when she applied to the Institute.
Because of RWU’s small class size, Little has been able to form a personal relationship with Braver, who is the author of six novels. Little is now working alongside Braver in editing a manuscript of letters from Maryam Rafiee to her father while he was imprisoned in Iran for speaking out in favor of a nuclear deal. With the publication of the book coming out in September, Little says it’s been amazing to see the manuscript progress from draft to finished product.
“I saw this chance with Professor Braver as an opportunity to see if I actually enjoyed editing because before that, I hadn’t gotten a chance to do it for real,” Little says. “I’ve learned that I do really like being a part of that process and am looking to go into that in the future.”
Little has also been building on her editing and publishing skills as a Financed Individualized Training (FIT) Intern with RWU’s literary magazine Mt. Hope, which just published its Spring 2018 issue.
“Hannah clearly has demonstrated that learning extends beyond the classroom,” Braver said. “And with each step there always will be another one to climb, but with work, perseverance, and dedication there can be great joy and satisfaction along the way.”
Little says she has valued and appreciated all the opportunities that the creative writing program has offered her so far and can’t wait to see what her final two years at RWU will bring both inside and outside of the classroom.