The cover letter that I wrote to Next magazine for my second internship.

                                                                                        Early Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Dear NEXT Magazine staff,

             Hello and thank you for taking the time to read my letter and resume.   I hope a PDF version of my clips is a satisfactory way of showing you some of the pieces I've had published.  I don't really have any way of copying and pasting them into the body of this email.   Format concerns, anyway.

            I'd like to introduce myself.  My name is Bill Chenevert, I'm 24 and I live with my parents in the Hudson Valley.  Let's be frank, here.  To live at home at the age of 24 when you are a young, gay man is a challenge.   Especially after living in Oregon for two years and dating like crazy.  The Hudson Valley is a barren wasteland for young gay people.  Hudson and Poughkeepsie are the nearest gay oases – 30 and 45 minute drives respectively. 

            I went to high school in the town I am currently living in, Red Hook, NY, and had my first male fantasy in the eighth grade but feigned outrage and surprise at accusations of homosexuality over the next five years.   It was not really an option to be out and gay in Red Hook.   There were hicks who drove pickup trucks to school that carried sharp weapons and brandished confederate flags on their rear fenders.   It was frightening. 

            Then I went to a WASPy and conservative student-bodied liberal arts college in the middle of nowhere central New York called Hamilton College.  There were only 1,800 students on a Hill with the nearest metropolis being Utica, then Syracuse at an approximately 45 minute drive.   There were a handful of gay students and they were the subject of jokes, taunts or harassment.  I came out to a few friends and my parents after meeting my first boyfriend at a camp where I taught journalism and poetry; he, architecture and urban design.   It was so exciting.

            I moved to Oregon three weeks after obtaining my bachelor of arts in English and American Studies to pursue a masters degree in Magazine Journalism.   In Oregon I went to my first gay bar, went on my first online date(s) and had my first non-long-distance-boyfriend.  It was heaven.   I spent a year in Eugene and then a year in Portland which is a fabulous young city. 

            In Portland I interned at the Willamette Week as a music intern and it was a dream-come-true.   I'm an aspiring music writer but relished every minute of being a part of the Arts & Culture section of the paper which included "Film," "Words," "Dish" and general culture features.   But after two years being so far away from family it was time to return home but, well, I'm broke.  So to save up money, here I am, full circle, back in the house I grew up in and figuring the next step.  

            I currently work 30 hours a week writing obituaries, wedding, engagement, and anniversary announcements and type legal notices for the Classified section of the Poughkeepsie Journal (Metro-North station nearby) and wait tables at Ruby Tuesday.   I'm busy.  But I'm pulling in the money and saving it.  But I need more in my life.   I can work my schedules around interning.  I can.  I can give you ten hours on Mondays and Tuesdays.  I promise.  I could also occasionally make it down to the city for coverage of a Friday or Saturday night event.  I have a car, train stations are nearby, and friends to crash with in Brooklyn and Manhattan.  What do you think?  I'd love to come work for you.

                                                                                                Sincerely, 

                                                                                                      Bill Chenevert