All around the school there are bright posters with bold lettering advertising the literary magazine, a publication full of prose, poems, photos, and art put together by the editor-in-chief, senior Olivia Phelps, and her team.
The literary magazine, or LitMag, is a yearly publication called “The Rough Draft” where students can submit their own work to be read by other students after the magazine is distributed on Senior Day, and though it may seem like a simple compilation, it is painstaking work for the editors and club members. Phelps and her team of three editors, senior Lilliana Mahdi, junior Cormac Kaplan, and junior Jennifer Kim, begin the year by opening the LitMag club for new members and hosting the first meeting in Upper School English Teacher Dr. Christine Allred’s room, but after that is where the work begins. Once posters are hung up around the school, Phelps and her editors begin to organize the work in categories for the work and take one category to upkeep, Phelps, for example, chose art. Next, Phelps says “Since each submission is done through email, we go through each email and then put them into a massive spreadsheet and organize based on the type of work submitted. From there, we document the title of the piece, the author, and give it a code to make it anonymous to eliminate bias when rating the work.”
Phelps would like to note that essays will be accepted, but not recommended as the LitMag would rather encourage creative writing than analytical writing. Though, if there is an analysis essay you would really like to submit, it will still be considered for the final publication.
When the first submission deadline comes to a close, Dr. Allred hosts what is called “Reading Day” at her house, where every club member attends. There are two Reading Days throughout the year, one after the fall deadline and one after the spring deadline, during which club members and editors read through the works and look through the art and give each work a rating out of five, five being outstanding. This meeting helps decide what works will be included in the LitMag and what will not, though hope is not entirely lost for pieces that did not achieve a high rating. After the Reading Day, the rankings are shown during a club meeting, and if a club member feels strongly about including a piece that had a low overall ranking, Phelps says they can “Advocate for a certain piece that they think should be included in the publication.”
After the fall deadline, work begins again as the club does the same process for the spring deadline, though in between the fall and spring deadlines, the editors “Will be workshopping literary works and introducing students to the design aspect of the Literary Magazine”. When spring break comes around, the club begins the final steps of putting together the publication for that year. Phelps says “We pair prose and poetry with art and photography. This finalizes our table of contents, and then we can start designing the publication.”
By November 22, fall submissions will be closing and Dr. Allred will be hosting the first of two reading days. The LitMag club members will soon begin the hard work of organizing, workshopping submissions, and designing the publication, all headed by Phelps. To submit to the fall deadline, email a folder of your works to [email protected] after clicking here for further instructions.
The LitMag team is incredibly excited to see what all their peers created and chose to submit to the LitMag this year. They emphasized that student contributors and readers alike should “Expect an amazing publication to come out at the end of the year.”
