Learning to Lead

A reflection on a year of leadership on a 45-year-old literary magazine publishing fiction, nonfiction, drama, art, and poetry.

By Sophia Considine

After being a Poetry Editor for earthwords: the undergraduate literary review for two years, I earned the position of Executive Editor for the 2024-2025 school year through a Q&A panel, discussion, and vote conducted by other staff members. This position required the responsibility to oversee a staff of 27 people with the goal of growing our literary community and publishing diverse voices; create the magazine production schedule aligning with the goals of the magazine and staff members; facilitate meetings and discussions while delegating tasks based on need and interest; and email staff and advisor weekly to schedule meetings, to gain and give information, and to remind staff about deadlines.

My first task back in April of 2024 was to assist in organizing the schedules for staff interviews, attend the interviews, and send out acceptance/rejection emails. While most of this went smoothly, I immediately noticed a mistake in my emails—all of the rejections mentioned an interview, even to applicants that never had one! I was so embarrassed, but in the end, all I could do was learn to be more detail-oriented and check over every email before I sent it.

Once I was on my own, it was my responsibility to delegate tasks to the team. There was just one small problem — I didn’t know how to delegate in a leadership role that actually meant something. I delegated tasks for inconsequential school group projects, but this was different; how I approached this would affect my relationship with my staff for the whole year. But I was determined to learn, as said in my goal: “Actively delegate tasks and work with the team with their voices and opinions in mind, allowing for the magazine and staff members to grow throughout the year.” Using my resources, I contacted Daniel Khalastchi, the Director of the Magid Center for Writing, who gave me the best advice I needed to start off — you’re not alone, and you can trust other people to tell you what they want. I scheduled a meeting with my managing editor, and out of a project list for the magazine, I asked her which ones she preferred, and we chose our roles from there. This emphasized how important it was to gain opinions from all staff members.

Sophia Considine (center), Elana Walters (left), and Lily Giddings (right) pose with earthwords 45 and celebration cake at the launch party.

I addressed another goal when taking on the Executive Editor position: “Build meaningful and lasting connections in earthwords and the community by knowing all staff members’ names, facilitating group events once a month, and incorporating team-building activities into our weekly meetings.” My next order of business was meeting online with every staff member to get to know them more. We had new hires and people from the past year that I hadn’t talked with much, and I wanted to make our communication as easy as possible. Knowing everyone’s names was the first step of this goal. During the first semester, I included a quick get-to-know-you question — like, “What’s your favorite emoji?” — or a little activity — like, “Find something around you that holds a special memory and share” — at the start of meetings. Those were fun, but they took up a lot of time because our staff is so large. Instead of icebreakers, I decided to host “staff outings” once a month. Our first outing was a mocktail night at The Stuffed Olive in January. Recently, we went to The Kitty Corner Social Club and played with cats, and soon we’ll enjoy a staff open mic at The Greenhouse. I believe the implementation and continuation of such efforts were successful attempts at bridging the gap between “management” and “staff” because, at one point, a staff member felt comfortable enough to share how much pressure they felt was placed on them. Because they opened up to me, we could discuss and come to a solution.

On a similar wavelength, I actively worked toward my goal to: “Keep an open method of communication between me, our publisher (Danny), staff members, and the literary community throughout the year to ensure an inclusive environment where everyone is learning and getting the most out of earthwords.” By always keeping an anonymous feedback form available to the staff while addressing concerns quickly and efficiently, I ensured understanding and accountable staff relations. By communicating with various campus literary magazines via email about events and collaborations, I increased awareness and love for earthwords and all literary magazines on campus.

One of the biggest takeaways I have from this experience is that sometimes it doesn’t matter how many theoreticals you know how to handle. Experiencing it and handling it is so much different. Whether it’s a conflict within the group or externally, or an issue with timing and deadlines, handling them in the moment takes patience, care, understanding, and assistance. I couldn’t have done any of this without the amazing people around me, including managing editor Elana Walters, publisher Daniel Khalastchi, event coordinator Lily Giddings, designer Beth Sloan, and everyone on our wonderful team.

Through it all, my time as Executive Editor has been a wonderful experience that I’ve loved and learned so much from. I officially accomplished my goal to “Learn what the entire publishing process looks like from business, to acquisition, to editing, to design, to printing by the end of the 2024-25 school year through magazine and chapbook production,” especially working with printers and designing. I officially did the work and discovered the career of my dreams. And to quote my ‘letter from the editor’ in earthwords 45:

“I hope every word, photo, and flip of a page reminds you of the dedication it took to create earthwords—the community and the magazine…I am endlessly proud of the creators and of the earthwords staff; and I couldn’t feel more blessed to have this chance to grow with such wonderful people.”

Cover of earthwords issue 45 (published 2025), designed by Elizabeth Sloan.

Original article posted by the University of Iowa's Honorable Messenger: Sophia Considine: Learning to Lead – Note to Self