By Patrick Healy, Opinion Editor
The Griffin is pleased to welcome Grace Brown as assistant Opinion editor. Brown joins the staff after contributions to every edition of The Griffin this semester and amid a hectic lifestyle of workouts, work and academics. Maybe it is that activity which gives her the ability to write on just about anything, bringing a diversity to this paper appreciated by readers and editors alike. In addition to her well-rounded contributions over the past academic year, she embraces an explicit passion for editing.
Some want to be the Robin to another’s Batman or the Watson to another’s Sherlock. Brown wants to be a Richard Todd to another’s Tracy Kidder; an editor to another’s author. She specifically cited “Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction,” co-authored by Todd, a longtime editor, and Kidder, a Pulitzer-winning author, as an influence on her desire to to “build a relationship with an author and help them make their work better.”
Now a junior at Canisius, Brown has helped friends since high school. Her friends from West Seneca East benefited from her straightforward editing aid, and she continues to be a source of blunt advice. Describing that process, she said characteristically: “They send me their papers, and I tell them what’s bad.” Blunt Brown may be, but don’t mistake that for boorishness. She’s an efficient, direct communicator — a trait both appreciated and admired by her peers.
She also doesn’t lack editorial experience. Brown was named an executive editor for the 70th publication of Quadrangle, Canisius’s annual literary magazine. Working in collaboration with other editors to whittle down the pool of submissions has been both motivating and challenging, she said, and has allowed her to work with another team of editors. She now joins Griffin copy editor and multimedia director Emma Radel as an editor of both Canisius’s newspaper and its literary magazine.
In addition to her informal tutoring of friends and her work with the Quadrangle, Brown has tutored at Canisius’s Writing Center for most of her time at Canisius. “I get a total thrill out of helping someone, especially when they really want help; when they’re excited about their work.” Particularly exciting, Brown said, is discovering a student who has a mutual passion for creating good writing.
Though she can dish it out with the best of them, Brown is also aware of her own eccentricities. Her Crossfit obsession and dog-walking responsibilities admittedly lead to occasional tardiness, and alliterative wordplay is her forte. And don’t ask her for food recommendations: “I straight up drink mustard. If you haven’t seen me do it, you’re missing out.” Pressed on which type of mustard is best, she confided, “You can’t go wrong with yellow mustard.”
From reflecting on The Beatles to advocating open-book exams, to discussing international politics and disagreeing with decisions of the Canisius administration, Brown has been a versatile writer for this paper. We’re lucky to be a part of her busy schedule and look forward to continued contributions with a side of editing… or mustard.