By: Miller Huertgen, Media and Communications ’22
The Gleaner is back for its 2022 issue at DelVal and along with it, a new blog! Our first interview for the blog is with Claire Drolet, Access Services Librarian and Assistant Professor at Delaware Valley University.
Claire has been the copy editor for the Gleaner since the fall of 2018. Back then, she heard there was a literary magazine at DelVal and knew she wanted to get involved, being a former English major and a lover of literature. Her job at the Gleaner is to review, rate, and check the submissions for spelling and grammatical errors. She also has a big part in the conceptual steps for the magazine. She and Dr. Wilbert Turner, Associate Professor of English and Publication Advisor of the Gleaner, get together and run ideas by each other to figure out concepts for the current issue of the Gleaner and all the small things that might go into it.
Over the course of the four years of Claire’s time working with the Gleaner, the outreach and community has grown and changed. They have promoted the Gleaner to all of DelVal and encouraged students of any major to submit creative pieces of their own. It has grown to a publication that not only the English majors know about and is able to “bring the community together as an outlet for DelVal creativity,” Claire says.
Claire says one of her favorite parts of being the copy editor is being able to read the student works that are submitted. Through a blind-review process, she doesn’t see the name of the creator during the first read-throughs, but she does see after the Gleaner is published. When talking about seeing students’ works that she’s talked to or seen before on campus, she says, “that’s one of my favorite parts. To read their outpouring of thoughts, emotions, memories. It’s very humbling to read these things.”
Over the course of her time working for the Gleaner, Claire has enjoyed the part she has played in the publication process and is looking forward to the campus seeing this year’s publication! She hopes that the Gleaner can continue to grow into DelVal’s creative outlet for students and that it brings “everybody from all different disciplines together to express themselves in a publication that represents the whole DelVal community.”