Notes from Crew Quarters: Dream Jobs

This week, we asked our editors: If writing or the world of academia were out of the question, what would be your dream job?

Robin McCarthy, Managing Editor

I'd get a truck and drive around and buy old junk. Then I'd get some land in the country, put all my junk there. I'd spray paint some of the stuff, spruce it up and make it shiny. Then I'd get a "for sale" sign and sell the junk to people who stop to gawk at my wares on their Sunday afternoon drives. It is, essentially, the same business model as both writing and academia, but with more recycling and less time on the internet.

Andrea Wuorenmaa, Associate Nonfiction Editor

A tour guide in a European country.

Amy Hansen, Associate Poetry Editor

I'd be a nurse.

Timston Johnston, Fiction Editor 

Traffic safety control.

Matt Weinkam, Managing Editor 

Garbage collector. As a kid I waited by the window Friday mornings for the garbage men to come and would shout and cheer when they tossed the bins to the curb, hopped on the back of the truck, and rode off into the distance like badasses.

Jason Teal, Associate Poetry Editor

Billionaire astronaut cowboy.

Hayli Cox, Associate Nonfiction Editor

Corvid trainer.

Jacque Boucher, Spoken Word Poetry

I'd be a community organizer. Even if it couldn't be for art, I'd want to be doing something that allowed me to work with smart people and create safe spaces for others to do what they loved.

Tyler Dettloff, Associate Nonfiction Editor

A floral gardener/landscaper for writers and people in academia. Just to let the gardens tell a story, and maybe be heard and mentioned in another story :)

Sara Ryan, Associate Poetry Editor

A chef. I've always said that if I didn't love poetry so much, I would have gone to culinary school.

Patricia Killelea, Poetry Editor

i'd make music and tour with Modraniht full time because black metal has vitamins.

Hayley Fitz, Associate Fiction Editor

I'd want to work on movies or video games in some capacity, like a foley artist or something. pay me money to make weird noises in a room all day, please.

James Dyer, Associate Nonfiction Editor

Cannibal.

John LaPine, Associate Nonfiction Editor

Dishwasher.

Annie Bilancini, Associate fiction Editor

I would be a voice actor for cartoons or else one of those people that goes to grade schools and talks about self-esteem while dressed up as a historical figure like Lady Bird Johnson. Or wait, is she still alive?

Ashely Adams, Associate Nonfiction Editor

I would definitely go back to my dream job growing up, paleontologist. I'd either research dinosaur-bird evolution or Cambrian life.

Stephen Wardell, Associate Poetry Editor

I'd be a Cat on a Hot Tin Roofer.