Literary club releases magazine
For the first time in four years, the Literary Club has produced a magazine. An accumulation of visial and literary art, the magazine was developed throughout the year by students who both created the content and designed the final copy that was distributed to the student body free of charge.
“I’m really excited to showcase what we’ve been working on all year,” president of Literary Club junior Julie Elorza said. “I’m active in a lot of clubs, but the measure of success isn’t the same in them. With Literary Club, we are able to look at this magazine we published and remind ourselves that we actually managed to do something. Sure, there’s been setbacks and there’s always things we can improve, but getting to see the physical evidence of the work we put in is really rewarding.”
Since the magazine is something that has not been created in the time that the new staff has been at Plant, none of the students currently in the club have had the experience of making a magazine before this year.
“Since this year introduced a series of board members who were trying to revitalize a magazine that had been untouched for so long, the most challenging yet most fun part was working as a team,” designer and junior Brandon Lovinger said. “I didn’t know some of the board members before this and all of a sudden we were meeting almost weekly after school.”
The stories within the magazine are created by individual authors within the club, and designers work to put it together.
“The amazing thing about literature is how personal it is to the author, so being able to have a group of people sharing that was an experience I will never forget,” Lovinger said. “In the magazine there is a lot of amazing pieces done by both board and other members from Plant. We have some amazing narratives and stunning photos that I believe many will find enjoyable.”
Members said that they were satisfied with the way the final magazine turned out.
“I think that it was a really good start because we haven’t published a magazine in quite a few years,” junior Greta Schmitzer said. “But I think we’ll definitely improve in later years from here.”
Members who helped contribute to the magazine want to continue the work that they started this year.
“I think we can get the process down more efficiently,” junior Eric Zhou said. “This was our first year doing it so there was a lot of stuff we were testing out – like where to order the magazines, how to find editors, how to get people so send in stuff. But next year we’ll be more experienced so I think it will go more smoothly.”
Seniors who are in their last year of the club hope that future members will continue to work on improving the magazine.
“Originally I joined for my college resume,” senior Isabella Ank said. “I just wanted to put something on there, but I really fell in love with it junior year. I’m very happy and proud because I honestly didn’t think that we’d be able to do it. I hope that they’ll be able to publish another magazine next year, and I hope it’ll be longer.”
The group has encountered some challenges throughout the year but was able to overcome them.
“The most challenging thing for sure would be trying to get our name out there,” Elorza said. “For all four years I’ve been at Plant, the club hasn’t published anything, so I feel like the student body kind of lost hope in the club as a whole. We are trying to take on some form of professionalism by working with much more established publications at the school like the Pep ‘o Plant to raise awareness and show that this new staff is dedicated to actually doing something with the club.”
The magazine has recently been dispersed to students, and the club hopes to create another magazine next year.
“I’ve always loved books, and I’ve wanted to be an author for as long as I can remember,” freshman member Shannan Adams said. “I really hope that we can produce another magazine next year because this one turned out awesome.”