!

M A R I A A D E L M A N N

WRITING PORTFOLIO

Maria’s

M A R I A . A D E L M A N N @ G M A I L . C O M

9 7 3 . 6 0 0 . 9 1 8 0

!

From product descriptions to corporate communications, research

grants to academic essays, website content to college guidebooks,

I’ve written and edited copy for a wide variety of clients.

In addition to freelance writing and consulting positions, I spent two

years as a Visual Merchandising Creative Manager at the corporate

headquarters of clothing retailer Steve & Barry’s. Here, I worked

closely with merchandisers, graphic designers, and overseas

partners to create visual and written directives which were sent to

over 250 stores nationwide. I also designed window displays, wrote

copy for in-store banners and signs, and became well-versed in

programs such as Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. My strong visual

sense and knowledge of the fashion industry and graphic design

have both proved valuable for my later work as a writer and

creator.

I have an undergraduate degree in English and psychology from

Cornell University and a graduate degree in Fiction Writing from The

University of Virginia, an extremely competitive program with over

500 applicants for seven spots. During the program, I fine-tuned my

creative talents and began publishing my work. My most recent

essay, from a book published by Faber + Faber, was quoted in The

New York Times.

This booklet includes a few samples of my writing.

Maria

M A R I A . A D E L M A N N @ G M A I L . C O M

9 7 3 . 6 0 0 . 9 1 8 0

Contents Product Descriptions 4

Corporate Communications 6

Website Content 9

Articles 11

Creative Writing 13

Skills 15

HELLO, I’M MARIA. NICE TO MEET YOU.

P r o d u c t D e s c r i p t i o n s / 4

Product Descriptions CLIENT: Target.com

INFORMATION: I have written thousands of product descriptions for all Target departments including apparel, shoes, jewelry, baby, kids, home, electronics, toys, entertainment, beauty, and health. I incorporate SEO research and keywords into my copy.

!MALLORY DRIVER MOC Traditional moccasins get a modern update with the women's Mallory Driver Moc. Appropriate for work wear or casual wear, these penny loafers are crafted with genuine leather and feature timeless detailing like an apron toe and iconic split strap. Offering contemporary construction details like a cushioned insole, arch support and a flexible rubber sole, these stylish slip-ons are as comfortable as they are chic. Available in a variety of classic colors and finishes like black, grey and hazelnut brown.

MAD PAX SPIKED BACKPACK Little monsters will love going back to school in the Spiked Backpack from Mad Pax. With playful padded spikes and perfectly practical features, this half-shell style book bag really puts the fun in functional. Features a protective laptop sleeve, a spacious interior with room for 5-6 books and air-mesh padding to keep kids comfortably cute. Ready to stand the test of textbooks and time, this backpack has a lifetime limited warranty.

!

“Ready to stand the test of textbooks and time, this backpack has a lifetime limited warranty.”

P r o d u c t D e s c r i p t i o n s / 5

MONSTER HIGH PICTURE DAY FRANKIE DOLL You’re invited to picture day at Monster High with the Frankie Stein Doll from Mattel. Frankie has been working all morning to look freaky fabulous and ghoulishly glamorous. She’s wearing a haunting black and white dress and bright turquoise and yellow accessories. Frankie has her purse and skull-shaped hairbrush in tow for final touch-ups. Plus, she has her notebook, Fearbook yearbook and picture day stickers to swap, trade and store memories. Doll stand included. Great for monster-loving kids ages 6 and up.

HIGH RISE SKINNY JEANS Nineties mom jeans get a modern makeover with high rise skinny denim. These high-waisted jeans hit you right around the belly but are cut with a modern, skinny silhouette. This super-sleek style elongates the leg, making you look taller and trimmer. Available in a variety of colors like super-slimming black, classic medium wash and modern grey wash.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLE MEN’S TANK TOP Get radically retro in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles men’s tank top. This stylin' yellow tank is a trendy 80s throwback with a colorful graphic of Michelangelo on a skateboard wielding his famous nunchucks. Cut with a fashionable U-neck and made of 100% cotton, this casual men's shirt easily coordinates with cargo shorts or jeans. Or, you could always pair it with board shorts and have a cowabunga day at the beach.

EDWARDIAN UPHOLSTERED VELVET BED & HEADBOARD COLLECTION Add romance to your bedroom with the exquisite Edwardian Upholstered Velvet Bed and Headboard Collection. This enchanting bedroom set is built with sturdy hardwood, filled with plush foam and upholstered in sensual velvet. Elegant and luxurious, this bedroom set includes a button-tufted headboard and coordinating bed frame. Available in a variety of seductive colors. ◆ !

“Nineties mom jeans get a modern makeover with high rise skinny denim.”

C o r p o r a t e C o m m u n i c a t i o n s / 6

Corporate Communications CLIENT: Steve & Barry’s

INFORMATION: As a Visual Merchandising Creative Manager at the corporate

headquarters of clothing retailer Steve & Barry’s, I wrote corporate

communications that were used to create visual displays at over 250 stores

nationwide. I managed creative projects such as celebrity clothing launches

and spearheaded research initiatives that resulted in company-wide policy

changes. I presented my work to stores by designing communications such as

the one below.

C o r p o r a t e C o m m u n i c a t i o n s / 7

!INTRODUCTION TO CATEGORY PLACEMENT PLANOGRAMS (excerpt)

What is a wardrobe?

In Visual Merchandising, wardrobing (also known as cross-merchandising) is

the strategy of presenting product as it would be worn, displaying

coordinating and/or layered separates adjacent to one another. Each fixture

group offers the customer a variety of apparel and accessory components that

speak to one another. The concept of having wardrobed key looks is especially

important as we try to maintain strong lifestyle presentations in our celebrity

brands. Communicating plans in this way also allows Steve & Barry’s

associates to become more knowledgeable about seasonal trends and cross-

merchandising techniques.

!How is this different from our old planograms?

Previously, planograms gave specific instructions for each style and colorway

and were difficult to execute due to each store’s unique room layout, size,

and allocation. This new format,

used for our top celebrity

b r a n d s , a l l o w s f o r m o r e

flexibility by indicating which

s ty le s shou ld a lways s tay

grouped together, regardless of

specific fixture layout. While

ideal placement in the room will

still be specified, your store

should place each wardrobe

collection in your room(s) according to the general guidelines given, flexing

merchandise as necessary to fit your unique floor plan and available space. As

you receive new items, refer back to these plans for appropriate wardrobe

grouping rather than merely filling the into the dominate wall. ◆

!

“Wardrobing is the strategy of presenting product as it would be worn, displaying coordinating separates adjacent to one another.”

C o r p o r a t e C o m m u n i c a t i o n s / 8

CLIENT: University of Virginia Children’s Hospital

INFORMATION: To create a sense of sharing among hospital staff and to

present interesting initiatives and research to the public and potential

patients, the UVA Children’s Hospital wanted to develop monthly and weekly

internal and external newsletters. For this project, which I jumpstarted and

ran for over a year, I wrote, researched, and interviewed staff to create a

wide variety of articles, doctor spotlights, and other content.

!“NEGATIVITY BIAS” NEWSLETTER ARTICLE (excerpt) !!Dr. Julie Haizlip’s article “Perspective: The Negativity Bias, Medical

Education, and the Culture of Academic Medicine: Why Culture Change is

Hard,” published in Academic Medicine, was recently recognized by the ABIM

Foundation as one of three top articles in medical professionalism. The prize

was established to recognize outstanding articles in medical professionalism,

a frequently overlooked category of medical literature but one essential to

improving health care.

Dr. Haizlip’s article is about negativity bias — the tendency for people to

remember negative experiences more strongly than positive ones — and the

ways it is reinforced in the medical community. The committee, which

reviewed more than 100 articles, praised Dr. Haizlip’s article as “a rare piece

that provides a new framework and a new language for understanding a

problem that has long been recognized.”

Dr. Haizlip’s interest in her subject matter originated several years ago when

she went on a retreat focused on what faculty members found valuable in

medical education. “It was well timed,” says Dr. Haizlip, “because, despite

being a relatively young faculty member, I was very disillusioned with

medicine.” At the retreat she heard many inspiring stories, and she left

feeling re-energized and hopeful. ◆

W e b s i t e C o n t e n t / 9

Website Content CLIENT: Professional Photographer

INFORMATION: A Cape Cod family and wedding photographer wanted website

copy to create a web-presence and introduce herself to new clients. As a

family photographer who worked with all different age groups, it was

important to portray both both her approachability and professionalism. I

wrote the copy in the voice of the photographer herself.

!WEBSITE COPY (excerpt) !About Me I was raised on Cape Cape Cod, Massachusetts as the youngest, tallest, and

cutest of three sisters. After my formal education in Art at Hartford College, I

worked as a photojournalist in New York for five years while starting my own

business. In 2007, I followed the siren call of sunshine and sand dunes,

heading back to the Cape where I now live with my husband, dog, and two

young children. Cape Cod isn’t just my home, it’s a way of life — and it makes

a pretty good background for a photo, too. !What I Do If you can think of it, I can do it. If you can’t think of it, I can help you come up

with the perfect photo op or keepsake. From family portraits to boudoir

photography, I’m ready to capture you with a mixture of traditional and candid

shots.!!!!

W e b s i t e C o n t e n t / 10

Dedication My education, artistic background, and over 10 years experience as a

professional photographer are essential to who I am as an artist, but I think

it’s my experience as a daughter, sister, mother, wife, and friend that make

me an exceptional photographer. From great-grandparents to babies, I’m

skilled at making my clients feel relaxed. I’m energetic, fun, and easy to

work with. I want my clients to enjoy their sessions and to love the results.

!Portrait Session $350

A portrait session is perfect for individual portraits, family portraits, or

engagement photos. This package gives us plenty of time to shoot a great mix of

posed and candid pictures. For family sessions, I aim to get pictures of both the

family as a whole and the child or children alone.

!✴ Pre-portrait consultation to decide shooting location and goals of session ✴ Unlimited shooting time during session (usually about 2 hours) ✴ Image review and consultation after the session ✴ Image editing of 30-50 photos, placed in a gallery that is easy to share with

family or on Facebook ✴ Digital copies of 5 favorite images ✴ Ability to purchase digital copies, prints, or products of any other photos in

the gallery ◆

!

A r t i c l e s / 11

Articles PUBLISHER: Faber+Faber and n+1

INFORMATION: Wrote “Basket Weaving 101” on assignment for the book MFA vs. NYC. The essay highlighted the financial differences between living and working in NYC and being in an MFA program in Virginia and included my own infographics. In addition to this essay, I have written articles for media outlets and blogs across the web.

!“BASKET WEAVING 101” (excerpt)!! Yes, many of us MFAers were rounding into our thirties while making

10 pm IHOP runs, eating eggs for dinner that didn’t look quite right, as if

they came from some other kind of bird, maybe a pigeon. I lived in a

questionable neighborhood (literally on the wrong side of the tracks—freight

trains ran right through the yard), in a government-subsidized house that

had a mouse problem and a possibly related plumbing problem. One

weekend, the kitchen literally filled with shit; I found a dead mouse at the

bottom of my trashcan and a lizard in my mousetrap. None of this was very

different from New York—just replace the lizard with a cockroach—but living

off canned beans and pigeon eggs for the sake of art seems somehow cooler

and more risky as a New Yorker than as … a graduate student.

When I first arrived in Virginia, people seemed to move in slow

motion, and graduate school made me feel lazy. I could spend an entire day

in bed reading David Hasselhoff’s god-awful autobiography or making a dress

out of Star Wars sheets because I wasn’t in the mood for real “work”—

which, I realize, is a serious misnomer, because work is something you get

A r t i c l e s / 12

paid for. Writers talk a lot about “gestation,” about letting stories brew.

Especially writers with funding.

Once my brother, an engineer, asked what I was writing. “Short

stories?” he responded. “Didn’t you write those in, like, fifth grade? That

would be like if I went to graduate school for addition and subtraction.”

When I told my dad I had written a novella, he was similarly skeptical.

“Novella?” he said. “That chocolate spread?”

I might have made more money

off of chocolate spread, as novellas

are notoriously unsellable. But that is

the beauty of the MFA—we were given

the opportunity to follow our whims.

A sharply dressed New York

agent in black heels who visited the

MFA program told us, somewhat

hostilely, why our future books

wouldn’t sell (because no one reads

short stories, because Jonathan

Franzen already wrote that novel,

because no one cares about your road

trip across the US). We looked back at

her in shock, like children who had just been told that Santa is dead and

we’d never be President. In a way, the MFA had helped us to keep our

innocence about literature and publishing, and thus allowed us to discover

what we wanted to write instead of urging us to write what would sell or

was trendy. ◆

“None of this was very different from New York, but living off canned beans and pigeon eggs for the sake of art seems somehow cooler and more risky as a New Yorker than as … a graduate student.”

C r e a t i v e Wr i t i n g / 13

Creative Writing PUBLISHER: Bateau

INFORMATION: Many of my short stories have been published in national

literary magazines. Fiction s a way for me to stretch my creative muscles,

try new voices, and create my own projects that I wouldn’t be able to do

anywhere else.

!AFTERMATH: LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD (excerpt)

We stand before my own front door. The huntsman knocks twice, each

knock heavy and distinct. The axe handle rests on his shoulder so that the

blade is behind him, shining silver, the dark red speckles glistening in the

sun. Sweat has gathered in his thick brown beard and in the crevices of his

brow. He glances at me quickly and, knowing I’ve seen him looking,

attempts to smile, but I just stare down at my muddy shoes and my red

cloak, which droops around me heavy and deeply colored because it is wet. I

am covered in a clear, sticky-wet film, like a newborn foal. I tap my thumb

and forefinger together and when I draw them apart, columns of goop grow

between my fingers and look as long as teeth. I know what I smell like: like

insides, like organs, like throw-up and blood. In that dark, hot hollow I felt

those smells snaking their way into my skin, into my very lungs, burning me

truly.

When my mother finally opens the door, I begin to cry.

As soon as the huntsman leaves, my mother sets straight to work on

me, her face expressionless, her mouth unmoving. In the backyard, she

C r e a t i v e Wr i t i n g / 14

scrubs me raw with a dark yellow sponge, rakes her fingers through my hair

over and over.

But the smell remains.

I sit in a tub of tomato juice. My skin becomes redder and redder, as

if I’ve been turned inside out. When I stand up for a rinse, there is a tomato

peel sticking to my stomach that looks like torn flesh.

My mother tucks me into bed, but I

stop her before she bends down to kiss

me goodnight. “I need more light,” I say.

She rubs my hair back in reply. I push her

hand away and squint up at her. I want to

make sure her teeth are her teeth and

her ears are her ears.

My mother blows out the candle next to my bed, and there I am

again, in the pitch black. It feels close and airless. The smell… it’s not just

on my skin, but inside of me somewhere. It surrounds me inescapably, like a

memory…

… the thin line of light grew longer and longer. Then, suddenly, before

me: the huntsman’s handsome face. And behind me, fallen away as if it

were my own skin: the wolf. ◆

“Columns of goo grow between my fingers and look as long as teeth.”

S k i l l s / 15

Skills I have a wide variety of computer skills and subject specialties, but I’m also

a versatile and flexible writer and researcher, and I’m always ready and

excited to learn more.

!PROGRAMS: Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator),

Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint), Mac

iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iMovie)

WEB: SEO Content (Google Keyword Planner), Blogging

(including Wordpress), Social Media (Twitter/Hootsuite,

Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, etc)

STYLE GUIDES: APA, Chicago, MLA

!SUBJECTS SPECIALTIES:

Lifestyle: Film, Fitness, Nutrition

Education: Academic Essays, American Sign Language, College

Admissions, MOOCs, Teaching

Fashion: Women’s, Junior’s, Men’s, Kids’, Baby, Accessories, Shoes, Sports

Psychology: Counseling, Family and Relationships, Mental Illness

Writing: Academic, Creative (fiction & short stories, poetry,

nonfiction, travel), Screenwriting