Skills Session 1: From the Margins to the Main Feature

How do you turn a specialized cultural interest into a compelling long-form feature in a major publication? In this skills session, award-winning culture writer and translator Carina del Valle Schorske takes writers behind the scenes of some of her biggest magazine features, as she unpacks the editorial process required to bring ambitious cultural features to print. Designed for working critics and freelance journalists, this session offers practical insight into developing stories that retain their craft, complexity, and cultural depth while reaching broader audiences.

Carina del Valle Schorske is a freelance writer and translator of Puerto Rican poetry. She earned her PhD in comparative literature from Columbia University in 2022.

Del Valle Schorske’s essays and translations have been published in many venues, including The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and The New York Times Magazine, where she is a contributing writer.

Del Valle Schorske won a National Magazine Award for her cover story on grief and belonging on apocalyptic dance floors in 2021. Her translations of the work of Marigloria Palma have won prizes from Gulf Coast and the Granum Foundation.

Del Valle Schorske lives in Brooklyn, New York.