Happy Friday, readers! Today marks the first day of Spring Break for us at Lewis University (super early, I know), but we here at the Jet Fuel Review Blog don’t take breaks! Of course, we have another entry in the “Meet the Editors” series so that you can learn a thing or two about the people who run this journal. So, today we have Haley Renison.
Assistant Poetry Editor Haley Renison is a sophomore at Lewis University with a major in theology, a minor in peace studies, and a soon-to-be minor in creative writing. She hopes to travel the world and work with Catholic Relief Services or nonprofits and make her mark on humanity by providing services for those in need. Eventually, she plans to settle down and go back to school to obtain a PhD and become a professor. She has a secret passion for creative writing though, thanks to a wonderful high school teacher, and is excited to be working for the Jet Fuel Review. Haley runs cross country and track for Lewis and the little free time she does have is spent with friends, watching The Office on Netflix, discovering new music, or complaining about how hard practice was that day. Haley also loves attending concerts and hopes to publish some of her own poetry someday.
Below is our Q&A with Haley:
Who are you and what is your role in the Jet Fuel Review?
I am Haley Renison, and I am an Assistant Poetry Editor as well as a Special Sections Editor!
What book might we find on your nightstand right now?
Currently, I have a Bible, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, I Am the Messenger, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson, and a few personal journals (my nightstand piles up).
If you had the chance to co-write with one author, who would you choose? Why?
I might choose Markus Zusak, simply because I love the rawness with which he writes and I also adore his sardonic diction, which is consistent throughout his books. Or I would choose to write with J.K. Rowling. I know this is so nerdy, and she may not be the most talented author in the world, but I grew up reading her books and I would love to meet her.
Describe your perfect reading atmosphere.
I like to be anywhere quiet where I can concentrate — preferably with good, natural lighting.
What might your personal library look like?
It would be full of a lot of theology books, as a theology major I am accumulating my own small library. I would have some poetry books, and most likely some form of fiction.
If you could “re-make” a poorly written movie that was based on a book, what movie would it be?
Harry Potter, duh (It wasn’t bad, I just stress over every detail).
What piece of literature can you reread over and over again?
I Am the Messenger is my favorite book, I have even written in my copy of the book, and it’s my go-to book. Also, Harry Potter.
Give us a quote from your favorite (or any) book/movie.
“I am ready now. I am ready to keep standing up, no matter what. I’m ready to believe that I welcome the pain and that I want it so much that I will look for it. I will seek it out. I’ll run to it and throw myself into it. I’ll stand in front of it in blind terror and let it beat me down and down till my courage hangs off of me in rags. Then it will dismantle me and stand me up naked and beat me some more and my slaughter-blood will fly from my mouth and the pain will drink it, feel it, steal it. and conceal it in the pockets of its gut and it will taste me. It will just keep me up, and I won’t let it know. I won’t tell it that I feel it. I won’t give it the satisfaction. No, the pain will have to kill me” –Ruben Wolfe
If you were invited to have coffee with any fictional character, who would you most like to meet? Why?
Holden Caulfield or Howard Roark. Enough said.
Share your top five favorite pieces of writing (anything included, be it movies, books, etc.).
In no particular order:
- “Footsteps in the Sand” by Mary Fishback Powers
- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
- I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
- Into the Wild, directed by Sean Penn
- The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
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Now you know yet another one of our editors! Come back next Friday to “meet” another editor!
