Editor-in-Chief Tori Telfer is a writer and editor who’s worked on everything from children’s literary magazines to product copy for artisanal German manicure tools. She graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University and went on to work in publishing (assistant editor for Cricket Magazine Group), teaching (associate creative writing instructor at Indiana University-Bloomington), and academic editing (credits include a book on Montesquieu and an academic paper published in the Mid-America Journal of Theology). Today, she works as a freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in VICE, Salon, Jezebel, the Hairpin, Barnes & Noble’s book blog, and elsewhere. Her preference is for longform features that explore odd subcultures, especially subcultures of the internet. She is currently working on a nonfiction book — LADY KILLERS — which will be published by Harper Perennial sometime in 2016. Why I love working for Hippo: I think it’s fascinating to create articles and blog posts for such diverse, specialized industries. One day we’re researching VOiP providers; the next day we’re looking into how ads might affect the elections. Fascinating! My favorite academic work: I’m going to go with 2666 by Roberto Bolano, because I first read it on my own, and and then I read it with a professor. Let’s just say it helps to have an academic mind guiding you when you’re working with almost one thousand pages of surreal violence. In another life, I’d be a: Florist. Working at a tiny flower shop is my idea of heaven. Aside from the mighty hippo, my favorite animal is the: Something noble, like the horse, or something poetic, like the snow leopard.
