Photo by Anna Erickson
During the Fall 2024 semester, you witnessed the resurrection of the English department magazine, Between the Lines. Din Keserovic, a senior majoring in technical communication and political science, played a key role in the return of the magazine. Following a lead about a possible technical writing internship in the English department, he met with Dr. Volker Hegelheimer, the English department chair, and got the job.
The Fall 2024 issue of the magazine focused on the theme of reconnection. Because the magazine had been away for nearly 10 years, the primary goal was to reintroduce the magazine by focusing on interesting university programs like Science with Cyclones.
Keserovic was responsible for writing the articles for the magazine by following leads and designing page layouts prior to publication. When asked what his favorite part of working on the magazine has been so far, Keserovic shared that he has really enjoyed the interviewing process.
“I like interviewing faculty, and finding out about their research, because you find that these professors are pretty passionate about what they teach and about what they’re researching,” he said. “It’s very enlightening, and inspiring too, seeing how they feel about this kind of work.”
Keserovic shared that his role working on the magazine and working with the faculty has taught him a lot about useful software and tools that are often used in the publishing process, like Adobe InDesign and Photoshop. “I had editors, I had graphic designers, I had people teaching me to do things and so that was really helpful,” he said. “I had to learn a lot”—a lot of real-world job skills.
Future plans are in the works for growth of Between the Lines with the potential for a Reddit account, Instagram, and YouTube shorts. When asked what visions he has for the magazine, Keserovic said that he hopes there can be more than one printed copy a year. “I hope that a lot of people like it and that enough people like it that we can expand it,” he said.
Postgraduation, Keserovic plans to stay in the Des Moines area and hopes to get a technical writing or user experience (UX) design internship.