ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½

Hi there!

±õÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™m Aleksandra Fazlipour, although I typically go by Alek. Chad introduced me before, but I finally got registered as a contributor to the site, so itÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s my turn to do it again!

I started doing an independent study at Open Letter in January in an attempt to fill out a Creative Writing minor that I took alongside two degrees: one in Brain and Cognitive Science, and the other in Linguistics. IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ve always loved to read, and ±õÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™m a native speaker of Polish, so it just seemed natural to get some credits for reading and reviewing translated works.

I expected to like it.

I didnÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t expect to fall in love with it. It was classwork, after all. . .

But all of a sudden, my assignments didnÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t feel like homework anymore. Granted, it was terrifying at first to have my reviews ripped to shreds by Chad, but I got over that quickly, and I still am surprised and exhilarated whenever I see one of my own reviews online. And they are much better than they started out as, courtesy of all of ChadÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s advice!

So when the opportunity to intern at Open Letter was presented to me, I snatched it right up.

Now, having graduated from the University of Rochester, here I am! IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ll be taking over as the threepercent book review editor until the end of August.

If what IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ll be doing for the rest of the summer is anything like what IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ve been doing thus far, itÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ll include a lot of coffee-drinking and copious soaking-up-of incredible books. ItÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s an added bonus to be able to get an early peek at the wonderful reviews IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ll be posting throughout the summer.

Sometimes I also stick labels to books and envelopes and send out stuff. Surprisingly, I enjoy that. It reminds me of sticker books.

Some random things about me: I bop around Open Letter wearing teddy bear sweaters and blouses embroidered to look like a Lite Brite. And I wear big glasses. I am often hard to overlook. In my free time I write short stories. I am handy with spreadsheets. I like kittens until I start sneezing because of said kittens, and then I like them decidedly less. Sometimes ±õÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™m too brutally honest for my own good and for other peopleÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s feelings. It hasnÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t become a huge problem yet. Nothing wrong with being passionate, right? IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™d like to think it shows in my reviews.

Most of all though, I really adore working at Open Letter, and I hope that shows too! Feel free to comment here or send me an email (Aleksandra.fazlipour@gmail.com) if you have any questions or concerns about any of my posts, or if you just want to chat! IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½˜Til then, enjoy threepercent!