By Keeley Duffy 

Whenever I tell people I am an English and Creative Writing major, they ask if I’m going to be a teacher. While teaching is a wonderful profession, it is not right for me. Usually, the next option for people with such a degree is an author, which is also a wonderful choice. But what about all of the other great job opportunities? Some alternative routes include journalism and ghostwriting. Journalism, of course, is all about the production and distribution of or reports on the news, sports, celebrities, fashion, facts, and ideas. Ghostwriting is for people who are not ready to put their names out to the public. You write about any kind of topic you like and then sell it to any company that needs it.  

But have you ever thought about travel blogging? Travel blogging involves going to all kinds of places and writing articles about your amazing adventures and experiences, and you don’t need someone to hire you for it! You can simply create your own website and travel to places you have always wanted to visit. Maybe you want to visit the Colosseum in Rome, or The Great Mosque of Cordoba in Spain. How this works is that you create your blog and use it as a resume. The more post you make the more people will see and review it. While you are working on your blog, you can work as a virtual assistant with other blogs to get experience. After you get into affiliate marketing and start placing your ads on websites, you can start selling your videos and even make videos about your adventures to generate income. If your blog ends up becoming successful, you can end up getting sponsored by brands and they could pay you to travel somewhere and blog about it. After you create a website and start writing and taking pictures of the sights you’ve seen, you can advertise your blog on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.  

Below are links to some travel blogs to see what yours could potentially look like:  

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Travel Bloggers Share Their Favorite Literary Inspired Destinations

How to Make Money with a Travel Blog: My Top 10 Tips

By Stefan Cozza

Widener University continually goes above and beyond for its students, particularly when it comes to providing students with an inside-look at the professional world side of what they are studying. Every year, The English and Creative Writing Department brings in a visiting writer to speak in classrooms, engage in tutorials with students, and put on a public performance to a larger audience. The honorary guest and speaker this semester was Aimee Nezhukumatathil, who is an accomplished author, poet, and literary editor, with four poetry collections, one chapbook, and a creative nonfiction collection to her name. Her most recent nonfiction collection, World of Wonders, was Barnes and Nobles’ 2020 book of the year, a New York Time’s Best-seller, and listed as a must read of 2020 by NPR. Embedded within her works is an innate connection to nature and the environment, which is one reason Aimee’s works speak so much to me. Her work is both deeply personal and incredibly relatable, always feeling so grounded. This semester, I had the pleasure of reading World of Wonders as well as the poetry collection, Oceanic. While two different genres, I was inspired and amazed at Nezhukumatathil’s attention to the context and background that surrounded every subject and idea covered. As a poet myself, I was exposed to entirely new poetic modes and forms that I have attempted to experiment with in my own poetry, including the “review” and “self-portrait” models. The former acts as a play on “yelp-style” poetry, and the other involves writing from the persona of a specific location or natural object. Aside from her own writing, Aimee is the poetry editor for Sierra, a magazine under the Sierra Club, and is a professor of English and Creative Writing in the MFA program at the University of Mississippi. Apart from hearing Aimee speak and read her wonderful work aloud, I had the chance to participate in a one-on-one tutorial. I have met with a couple visiting writers in the past, but none of them were poets. I was so grateful that Aimee took the time out of her busy schedule to read and comment on my works, and I was beyond surprised to hear that she enjoyed my poems! It is such a validating feeling to have a writer applaud your work, especially if you are having trouble seeing the value in it. Aimee is such an inspiring and uplifting writer, and that attitude translates to her real-life persona. Whereas some writers will overly critique student work, Aimee was constructive while maintaining kindness and positivity. I cannot speak enough on how connected I feel with her work and how highly I view her as not only a writer, but an instructor.  

By Shpresa Ymeraj 

When I was still living in Albania, I remember watching a TV program called “Follow Me,” a crash course on the English language, and I could not get past some idiomatic expressions. “Keep Off the Grass” was one. I translated it word by word, yet I could not understand how it was supposed to mean “Stay Off the Grass” when the meaning of the word “keep” is “to maintain.” This and other examples showed me that words placed within a sentence operate in groups, and when translated separately, may be taken out of context. The way we interpret the world beyond our language barriers depends on translation.  

But imagine translating figurative language. While it may be challenging to translate scientific, historical, and cultural data, literary translation is particularly complicated considering the many layers of meaning and the purpose an individual word, phrase, or passage.  

A faithful translation recreates the original’s atmosphere by rigorously rebuilding the essential meaning intended. It reflects on the connections within the passage as it does on allusions. Translators must consider cultural context and reflect on cultural, artistic, historical authorial references, considering the time the work is written, thus mirroring the original text in the intended context. When translating colloquial expressions, for example, consider how important it is to portray the region and the time a work reflects correctly, or use a word in the exact denotation, how it affects accuracy.  

Learning another language widens one’s perspective and helps one to understand differences and similarities. That is an excellent place to begin. We agree computing is complex, and there is so much more to consider beyond basic syntax rules. As someone who reads and writes in more than one language, I’ve come to understand that translation is also about acknowledging the process of a work written in English from one whose first language may be another.  

Furthermore, shared experiences are necessary to understand a text, and thus respectfully translating its meaning. There is no perfect translation, as it depends on each reader’s perspective and interpretation. Still, one closest to the original is one that recreates the same ideas, especially evoking the same emotions and provoking one’s thinking to ponder similar, if not the same, author’s aimed questions.  

Experimenting with translation–engaging in the act of communicating with a different language and culture, even at a beginner’s level–is an enriching endeavor, one that will undoubtedly make you a more sensitive reader and writer.  

If you are interested in looking at literary journals that feature translations, follow the link: https://pen.org/journals-seeking-work-in-translation/  

   Keeley Duffy 

Stories can be written in all kinds of ways. However, many people might think of longer pieces, like J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter or Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight novels. But what about flash fiction?   

Flash fiction, which has become especially popular in the last twenty years or so, is a genre of fiction writing consisting of very short stories that are no longer than 1000 words. In Brevity: A Flash Fiction Handbook, David Galef not only writes about the many different kinds of flash fiction, but he also provides examples by a wide variety of writers. Here are just a few examples of some types of flash fiction stories, and what Galef advises fellow writers to do when creating them:  

Vignette: A short piece that uses imagery to describe a subject in greater detail. Galef suggests that writers “dramatize the writing, do more with fewer words, to go for evocative, concrete details, and to make your piece mean more than what it seems on the surface.”   

Fable: A short narrative that exemplifies a moral or principle of human behavior. Galef mentions that fables should “emphasize simple character traits rather than complex psychology, a quick unfolding of events instead of a suspenseful tale.”  

There are other kinds of flash fiction that only have one rule, and that’s the word count. Here are a few that Galef does not mention:  

Drabble – A 100-word story  

Hint Fiction – A 25-word (or less) story 

Fiction Fragments – A one-sentence story   

The shorter you go with your stories, the more difficult they become. Writers must carefully decide what details to keep and what to take out. It is a difficult, exciting challenge to see how few words you can use to tell an exciting story.   

If you’re interested in learning about how to write flash fiction, check out Galef’s Brevity: https://www.amazon.com/Brevity-Fiction-Handbook-David-Galef/dp/0231179693/ref=sr_1_2?crid=L4QS0OGGRUMG&keywords=brevity+a+flash+fiction+handbook&qid=1643917355&sprefix=brevity+a+flash+fiction+handb%2Caps%2C572&sr=8-2  

By Ciana Bowers

In honor of Black History month, I decided to share this poem from the author Langston Hughes titled I, too

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I’ll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

“Eat in the kitchen,”

Then.

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

You can find this poem on the poetry foundation and also find many more amazing Black poets on their website

Poetry Foundation Website

By Gabby Norris

Most commonly, when someone learns that you are earning your degree in English, or have already earned your degree in English, they assume that you are either aiming to be the next James Patterson or a teacher. Sometimes this is actually the case, but not in every situation! If you are working towards an English degree, a degree in a similar field, or have already completed your degree, I would like to bring up the copywriting and copy editing fields for you to consider! If you are not already familiar with these careers, copywriters typically work closely with businesses or ad agencies to produce thoughtful and intriguing slogans, campaigns, and sometimes even emails to be sent out by the company. Copy editors can work with most any type of business, with their main focus being editing pre existing work to ensure that it is polished and ready to be consumed by a large scale audience. If either of these career fields pique your interest and you would like to browse open jobs in the aforementioned fields, consider opening the links listed below. Happy job hunting and best of luck! 

https://www.themuse.com/search/keyword/copywriter/

https://www.themuse.com/search/keyword/copy%20editor/

By Stefan Cozza

It’s that time of the year again and submissions are flooding in! Students from all over the globe are sending in their creative pieces hoping for a chance to highlight their work. As the Blue Route’s mailbox starts bulking up, I wanted to take a brief chance to remind our readers of our guidelines. While we appreciate every single piece we receive, due to high number of submissions and hectic schedules, it does seem some contributors have blurred the lines of what the Blue Route accepts. As a reminder, if you are submitting poetry, you may have a total of 3 and no more! If you are submitting a prose piece, please make sure the maximum word count does NOT exceed 3000 words. The Blue Route loves to see the enthusiasm from so many different writers, but without adhering to our guidelines, it does hinder the publication’s ability to read and accurately judge every piece. When you can, please take a look over our guidelines; it means a lot. Happy contributing!

The Blue Route is open for submissions for the spring issue. Please see the Submission Guidelines page for more information. The deadline for submissions is March 15.

It’s that time of the year, and I’m not talking about the holidays. The Blue Route’s Fall 2021 Issue is now live! On behalf of myself and the whole staff, thank you to every incredible submission we received throughout the semester; we had so many engaging conversations regarding everything we read, and we wished we could have taken more work.

This time of the year can be chaotic, and we all easily get swept up in what’s going on around us. Literature provides that sweet escape, even if it is only for a brief moment, and that’s our intention for the work we publish.

We are beyond grateful for the eight pieces of creative fiction and poetry in Issue 26. The   vulnerability and poignancy these authors displayed in their writing are amazing, and we hope you take time out of your hectic schedule to read their beautiful work!

This semester the English and Creative Writing department of Widener University got the opportunity to meet flash fiction writer Sherrie Flick. Editor of the Blue Route Stefan Cozza had the chance to interview her about her craft and works from one of her flash fiction collections~ Ciana Bowers

Interview with Sherrie Flick conducted by Stefan Cozza:

1.) For many, flash fiction is an intimidating genre to tackle. You have many in “Thank your Lucky Stars,” but there are also non-flash pieces of short fiction. What is the process going into writing a piece like “Open and Shut,” versus “Home,” and “Trees.” I am personally fascinated with how much can be said with as few words as possible. I love your narrative heavy pieces, but in a way, your short pieces evoke this mood and tone that I cannot shake. How do you differentiate whether a particular spot in the collection is better suited for a story with a clearer trajectory like “Lenny the Suit Man” versus a “7:23 p.m?”

a. “Open and Shut took years to draft, and it goes all the way back to 1997. It was consistently worked on, complicated, and layered with different characters. These stories drafted through exercises, constraints to write in small spaces be evocative with space and image. A lot of these micro pieces are crafted like a still life and they usually require less revision.

2.) This is very much in a similar vein to my previous question, but I find it relevant and intriguing, nonetheless. You have a few composite flashes in this collection, my personal favorite being “Garden Inside.” What makes a narrative suitable for this experimental form? How do you choose which specific scenes to depict that will add to the overall tone and trajectory?

a. Each section is its own contained story. You get a story putting them together, but each piece has the power to stand alone. They were originally written as part of a collaborative exhibition with the photographer Sue Abramson and displayed as text panels on the gallery walls. They were written with a slightly different purpose than flash fiction. My end goal is not always to connect the pieces. For “Garden Inside,”

I was heavily motivated by Abramson’s visual art and was challenged to put words to photographs.

b. Also, there was a revelation that came with learning about chapter breaks while writing my novel and the possibilities they offer. One minute you’re in one place and you turn the page, and the next you’re somewhere completely different. Transitional phrases are not as necessary in composite flashes. I treat the section breaks as punctuation.