English Department Chats with Graywolf Press’s Jeff Shotts ’96

Jen Katz ’19

Last month the Career Development Center (CDC) kicked off a series of alumni chats, a new initiative designed to connect current students with alumni who have excelled in their fields. The English department co-sponsored a chat with Jeff Shotts ’96, executive editor of Twin Cities-based Graywolf Press. If you weren’t able to make it to the chat, not to worry! The Words was there to report Shotts’s expert advice on how to excel in literary publishing.

Jeff Shotts graduated from Macalester in 1996 with majors in Classics and Creative Writing and a minor in History. During his time at Macalester, he wrote for both The Mac Weekly and Chanter, Macalester’s student newspaper and literary magazine, respectively. With this experience under his belt, Shotts interned at the Hungry Mind Review, which he described as “the hottest literary corner of the Upper Midwest.”

Shotts looks back on his internship at the Hungry Mind Review as the jumping off point for the rest of his career as a literary editor. He called internships “a great entry drug into publishing and the literary scene,” one that abounds in the Twin Cities.

According to Shotts, the Hungry Mind Review was an “amazing newspaper-looking review of books” published by a wide range of presses. A “flagship publication for independent bookstores,” it was offered at bookstores nationwide.

As an intern, Shotts’s duties were varied: he pored over catalogs sent by publishers in the hopes that Hungry Mind would review their books. He requested catalog blurbs for the books lucky enough to be reviewed. He wrote rejection letters to the less lucky authors who had submitted manuscripts. Sometimes, he just answered the phone and fetched coffee.

Through an informational interview, Shotts gained a second internship at Graywolf Press and worked both there and at Hungry Mind Review for several months. In a stroke of luck, the person who had hired him at Graywolf was leaving, so Shotts interviewed for his position. Needless to say, the interview went well.

So how can aspiring English majors follow in Shotts’s path?

“Know your stuff,” Shotts said. “You really do need to know things like the Chicago Manual of Style, which I’ll be the first to say is hardly a thrilling read.” From Oxford comma usage to distinguishing between single and double quotes, aspiring editors must have impeccable technical skills.

Beyond that, Shotts advises students to get involved in the literary community and help edit the work of like-minded people.

“A lot of people ask, ‘Do I need to get a Master’s degree or a Ph.D.?’ and the answer, really, is no,” said Shotts, who himself has an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. “You really learn by doing.”

Make sure to keep up with the CDC (by looking at Handshake) and the English department for more alumni chats with fascinating and accomplished English majors!