NEW YEAR, NEW BEGINNING

By AMANDA FOWLER

With a mixture of creative writing and captivating artwork, the Literary Magazine represents Washingtonville High School in the most unique way. The magazine takes poems, short stories, essays, book reviews, along with various art pieces from around the high school, and compiles them into one exclusive literary piece. The club is run by Ms. Bac and Ms. Diamond, two driven English teachers at Washingtonville High School. 

Members of the Literary Magazine Club//AMANDA FOWLER FOR THE WIZARD WEEKLY

Ms. Bac and Ms. Diamond both began advising the club this year due to the retirement of the previous advisor, Mrs. Martinson, who ran the club for over a decade.  Ms. Bac teaches Creative Writing which is one of the many reasons she decided to become an advisor. “Literary magazine is a nice extension to the creative writing class; a lot of those kids would like to be published one day. Hopefully, in the future, students can submit their writings to different, bigger publications. The best part of writing is to eventually be published.” 

The Literary Magazine is definitely one of the more under appreciated clubs at WHS.  What many people might not know is that the magazine is actually an award winning publication. The extraordinary thing about this is the fact that the club is mostly controlled entirely by the students. The members of the club read and choose which pieces are put into the magazine.  They also determine who will be in charge by voting for their officers. 

This year, the club’s goal is to publish the magazine by spring of 2019. The theme is New Beginnings, which is why they made the decision to release it in 2019.  Will Besterman, president of The Literary Magazine Club, expressed that the theme for this year represents how they felt at the first meeting.  “...We came in and it was very new; a lot of us didn’t know that we were going to be coming back.  We had new advisors, and we also had new members. So, it was like we had a fresh start, a new beginning.”

The artwork that is included in the magazine could potentially change a budding photographer’s  life. Our generation, as a whole, has trouble putting our emotions into words. For this reason, many people use art as a way to communicate. Expressing oneself, no matter what the platform, is extremely paramount. Even if writing and drawing isn’t in a student’s repertoire, reading and analyzing it might be. Literary pieces, in general, are a great way to enhance a student’s reading, writing, and comprehension skills. 

Be sure to look for the Literary Magazine’s release during the Spring of 2019.  They will be sold in lunches and at the school store. If interested in joining the club, members meet every Tuesdays in room 132.  See Ms. Bac or Ms. Diamond for any further information.