Each year, the Bucknell University Press takes on an undergraduate and a graduate intern, teaching them the ways of an academic press and offering a thorough examination of what it means to work in the publishing community. In his time at the Press, past Bucknell University Press graduate intern Patrick Henry (2008-2010) discovered “the community that one university press could build—on campus, with other presses, and with academics the globe over,” a lesson he learned under the leadership of the Bucknell Press’s director Greg Clingham. After his time with the Press, Henry moved on to Rutgers, interning with The Story Prize, and then on to George Washington where he “co-taught a service-learning course with the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.”
“On a personal note, [he] found that the Press’s community goes far beyond the offices in Taylor Hall. Recently, [he] had an article accepted for publication at European Romantic Review. The essay wouldn’t have been possible without [his] faculty advisors at George Washington, including Tara Ghoshal Wallace—who published Imperial Characters with the Press in 2010.”
As Henry says, his years at the Press were “life-changing” as he worked alongside Clingham and Publishing Manager Nina Forsberg, especially during such an exciting time at the Press as they celebrated their 40th anniversary and began their partnership with co-publisher Rowman and Littlefield. Remembering his time at the Press, he describes “There was what Nina and [he] called ‘Christmas’: opening boxes of books, fresh from the printer” and “the three of [them], closing each semester over tea and a fruit tart in the Press offices.” With Henry’s time at the Press coinciding with the anniversary, one can find “a few pictures of [him] clad in [his] kilt—at Greg’s request—for the 40th’s festivities.”
Since Henry’s six years at the Press, he’s been publishing fiction pieces, often relying on
“[his] upbringing in Pennsylvania to write stories that seem familiar, yet strange. [He’s] drawn to historical fiction for the same reason. ‘The Brothers’ (Northville Review) is a flash fiction in which a soldier returns to Pennsylvania after the war in Kosovo—an event that has cast a harrowing light on a childhood memory. In ‘Space Cases’ (Revolution House), a father abandons his son over Space Race hype, so the boy takes comfort in the seemingly alien neighbor boy who builds a cardboard spaceship. In ‘Takeoff’ (Lowestoft Chronicle), a young couple with a rocky marriage sets off for Paris, pinning their hopes on the jet age’s promise of escape.”
Also publishing book reviews on contemporary fiction and poetry, Henry has reviewed Amanda Leduc’s novel The Miracles of Ordinary Men (ECW, 2013), Lisa Dordal’s poetry collection Commemoration (Finishing Line, 2012), and Modern Language Studies has run his longer review essays on Ian McEwan’s novels and David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King.
Henry has also “stayed in touch with the editing and publishing process by working with Modern Language Studies as the journal’s copy editor, and (soon!) [he’ll] be taking over as the journal’s fiction and poetry editor.” With his passion for book publishing, Thomas holds the dream of “running a small press that publishes novellas, novella-length books of criticism, and other odd (yet beautiful) mid-length texts that have a difficult time finding homes in today’s publishing environment.”
Now as Henry works on a few large-scale projects, a manuscript for a short story collection, a novel that “shamelessly raids the genres of historical and detective fiction,” and his dissertation, we at the Press wish Henry the best of luck in his future endeavors.
Brief Bio: Patrick Thomas Henry is a PhD candidate in the English Department at George Washington University; his dissertation research investigates the aesthetic and political interventions of criticism by Modernist writers. He has earned graduate degrees in English and Creative Writing from Bucknell University and Rutgers University-Newark. His short fiction, poetry, and book reviews have appeared in Revolution House, The Northville Review, Sugar House Review, Necessary Fiction, and Modern Language Studies, amongst others. Beginning in spring 2016, he will serve as the Associate Editor for Fiction and Poetry at Modern Language Studies. He currently lives in Alexandria, VA, with his wife and their two cats.
Website: patrickthomashenry.com
Twitter: @Patrick_T_Henry