Landmarkings #17
Landmarkings #17
Notes & readings on how we “see” the world and tell its stories.
Hello! I’m Emily, and this is a newsletter about how we seek and tell stories to make sense of a rapidly changing world & our personal and collective place in it.
When I was in my early twenties, I interned at a daily in London and did something—or rather, didn’t do something—I’ve always kind of regretted.
I had read a really well-told longform feature about human rights violations at one of Apple’s contractors by one of the paper’s staff writers, and when he came by the Legal news desk, which I had opted to be assigned to at the time (I had studied law at university), we struck up a brief conversation when I told him how much I liked the piece and shared my own thoughts about it. He seemed to appreciate my perspective and we got around to talking about my internship and the kind of writing I hoped to do in the future. Before he left, he said that I should send him some writing samples, which he would be happy to take a look at. He didn’t say to what end, but I hoped it might mean something I almost didn’t dare imagine—that I would get a byline at the paper sooner rather than later.
But I never did share my writing with him, nor seek him out again—not when I was still at the paper, and not after.