Interview with our outgoing intern Anna Macleod

Posted by Katie da Cunha Lewin on 2026-06-05

From February until May 2026 C21 Literature hosted an Open Access Academic Publishing and Academic Communication intern through the StARIS programme at St Andrews University. This semester, our intern, Anna Macleod, worked on a range of tasks at the journal. We asked Anna to reflect on her work at C21. 

Tell us a little about yourself, and what interested you in this role.

Hi, my name is Anna Macleod and I am a 4th year English and Comparative Literature undergraduate student at St Andrews. Across my time in university, I have served as class representative, had experience teaching, and was involved in a summer research project that focussed on improving student support at the university. My sights have therefore been firmly set on exploring the world of academia. I have been very interested in the various different roles that support student experience, module structure and lecturing, and academic publications. It was for these reasons that I was drawn to the StARIS internship with C21 Literature. I jumped at the opportunity to involve myself in the world of publishing, and to learn about the process of editing and advertising required to maintain a successful publication. Kiron Ward and Katie da Cunha Lewin were very supportive from the outset and encouraged me to get involved in as many areas as I could.

What kinds of things have you been doing?

During my time as intern, I have maintained C21’s presence on Instagram, advertising each article on issue 12.3: The Century at 25. I created cohesive post and story templates on Canva with C21’s colourway for the publication to continue using.

I copy-edited an article for an upcoming issue. I enjoyed being part of the process of publishing more directly. It interested me to learn about the many levels of revision and support that go into each article.

I created an ‘end-of-issue digest’ to inform those on the mailing list of current affairs related to the publication and The Century at 25. Initially, I created this on Canva, but after some communications and collaboration with Kiron and Katie, I made final edits through OneNote for Outlook directly. These areas of the internship caused me to build heavily on my initial skills and understanding of admin and advertising. 

Towards the end, I attended and minuted an editorial board meeting. I was excited to have the opportunity to listen and speak to some of the editors and writers of several of the articles that I had read and promoted across my experience. It was a full-circle moment for my internship, as I was more of a physical presence for those in the publication, and I could have a feel for the amount of effort and global collaboration involved in each issue. 

How do you feel about the internship overall?

Overall, my time with C21 filled me with a sense of purpose and achievement. I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to expand the skills and interests that I have been building across my university career to a more vocational area. It was very fulfilling to know that each of my contributions would build towards a final product that has seen the collaborative efforts of many. My experience has motivated me to look further into the world of academic research and editing. I would like to relay my gratitude to Kiron, Katie, and the whole editorial board of C21 for the opportunity and for their support across the semester.

 

Thank you to St. Andrews for their support with this internship. We look forward to welcoming more interns in the future.