Meet Natalie Lopes, Fiction Editor
My journey with Tributaries began several years ago during my time at Tarrant County College, where I enrolled in a creative writing course. In that class, I honed my skills in writing poetry, crafting short stories, and developing screenplays. During my time in this course, I stumbled upon a creative writing club and decided to become an active member. Engaging in both writing courses and the writing group, I naturally found myself providing feedback on others’ work, highlighting aspects I admired in their pieces, and suggesting ways for improvement.
After earning my Associate’s degree, I set my sights on auditioning for the music program at the University of Texas in Arlington. Unfortunately, I did not gain acceptance into the program. Determined to improve my chances, I dedicated a year to furthering my education at Tarrant County College, focusing on the areas where I needed improvement for another audition. However, life took a turn, and my family relocated to Indiana, leading to a hiatus in my academic pursuits. During this period, I joined a book club at my local library, where I discovered my true passion: becoming a librarian who works with teens.
To pursue this career path, I began exploring local universities and came across Indiana University’s Master’s program in Library and Information Science. The only obstacle was that I lacked a Bachelor’s degree, prompting me to apply to Indiana University East for a degree in General Studies.
I decided to explore the creative writing courses offered at Indiana University, which led me to Dr. Brian Brodeur’s Writing Poetry course. As the semester concluded, one of the course requirements was submitting three of my poems to Tributaries. Unfortunately, my pieces did not find their way into the journal, but the experience did provide me with valuable insights into areas I needed to enhance, should I choose to submit future pieces.
My deeper understanding of the publishing and editing process came to fruition when I enrolled in the Literary Editing and Publishing course. My motivation to take this course was driven by my appreciation for Dr. Brodeur’s teaching style, and little did I know that it would open the door to an exciting opportunity: working at Tributaries as the new fiction editor.
Throughout my journey at Tributaries, I have always loved helping authors amplify their voices by providing feedback on their narratives. I am hoping that this skill will help me in my future career as a librarian to review and select appropriate, engaging books for teen readers.
