The Wall Street Journal's Book Reviews and Arts in Review departments are
seeking beginning journalists - juniors, seniors or recent graduates with
reporting and writing backgrounds at their school newspapers or elsewhere -
for 10-week paid summer internships in our New York City office.
Our internships - formally, the Bartley Fellowships - are in honor and memory
of our section's former Editor, Robert L. (Bob) Bartley. Opportunities will be
awarded to young thinkers and writers who intend to pursue a career in
journalism or cultural criticism.
Several fellows will be selected each year through an application process that
will be judged by senior editors. Bartley Fellows will be assigned to a
department within the Opinion section - Arts in Review; Book Reviews;
Editorials; or Features (Op-Eds and Columns). The fellow(s) selected to work
with the Books and Arts teams will assist in commissioning reviews,
researching, fact-checking and editing content for the print and digital
editions of the Journal, contributing to social media and digital production,
and will be encouraged to submit their own ideas for works to review. They may
also submit ideas for articles or projects to editors in any part of the
Opinion section.
Internships are paid, and generally take place over June, July and August,
though start dates can be flexible in certain circumstances.
If you are interested in applying for both the Books/Arts and Opinion Bartley
fellowships, please submit an application to both positions.
Guidelines and Application Deadline
Applicants should have experience writing, and preferably editing, in an arts
or criticism context for their college newspaper or literary magazine, or a
comparable publication. Students from any discipline may apply, but preference
will be granted to students concentrating in Literature, History, a Foreign
Language, Classics, Pre-Law, Music, Theater, Art History, Architecture,
Philosophy, Political Science or Archaeology - via coursework (though not
necessarily a major) or sustained leisure-time activity. An appreciation for
both Western and non-Western canon is desirable, as is an understanding of
current issues in the arts. A demonstrated ability to multitask and meet daily
deadlines is critical for success. Applicants should be familiar with
technology as it relates to journalism. Social media experience with a
publication or brand would be a plus.
If you’d like to be considered, please submit the following in one single,
complete PDF file:
- A cover letter
- Your resume
- Links to or cited full text of your best clips
- Your response to one of the following prompts in no more than 600 words
- Make a case for any book of your choosing on history - fiction or nonfiction.
- What value does the criticism of books, arts or culture provide in the broader context of journalism?
- Write a “Masterpiece” column. (Examples: https://www.wsj.com/news/types/masterpiece )
All materials must be received by January 31, 2018 and a decision will be made
by the end of February. Only applicants who are selected for final
consideration will be interviewed.
About Arts in Review & Book Reviews at The Wall Street Journal
Criticism of books and the arts are recognized at the Journal as an editorial
function, and as such operate under the umbrella of the the Opinion section.
Like the rest of the Opinion section, in our Arts and Book reviews we believe
in rendering clear, independent judgments that are as well-argued as they are
deeply informed.
In its Arts reviews, the Journal covers the full spectrum, from high art to
TV, movies, theater and the many forms of popular music. Our approach is
strictly art-for-art’s-sake: We review things because they are intrinsically
interesting, not to fulfill a quota. We believe in the past and its
traditions, but are keenly interested in the new—not in novelty for its own
sake but in the ways those traditions are being extended and new ones
invented. And we prize above all a lively, lucid prose style free from jargon
of all kinds. **
** The Journal’s Book reviews are among the most timely, most widely read and
most influential in American literary journalism. Our daily reviews are part
of the Opinion section, and focus on nonfiction books of interest to ambitious
readers of politics, business, science, religion and the issues of the day.
Our weekend reviews, which make up a stand-alone six-page Books section in
print, offer judicious criticism of the best of the week’s new titles in a
broad cross-section of subject areas, from the fine arts and literary fiction
to popular culture, narrative nonfiction, children’s books and more. In all we
do, our goal is simple: to cut through the noise of hype and publicity to
identify true excellence in publishing--and then match it with excellence in
reviewing.