We have sports teams and a thespian society, a Spanish club, French club, Chinese club, National Honor Society, Computer Bowl, Art Honor Society, even a BBQ club: but where’s our literary magazine? That is the question I asked myself when I embarked on my capstone project for Leonardtown’s Global and International Studies program (GIS). It all started this year when I had to pick a problem plaguing the world to research and work toward solving. After years with Leonardtown’s creative writing club and my ongoing courtship with the written word, the answer seemed obvious—writing. After 33 pages of research and ideas gushed onto the page, I had to consider how to make a local difference in the community, and what better way to foster writing than with a literary magazine? But, why have a literary magazine, what is it and how can budding writers post their work?

Let’s set the record straight; writers do not pump out literature that readers consume because any teacher is forcing them, at least in most cases. People read and write because they have a fever to express themselves, to have a conversation with the page. This word therapy, bibliotherapy, abridges apathy. When people feel alone, when they feel no one cares or listens or understands, the act of writing empowers them to examine themselves and the act of reading reminds them they are not the first with their problems. People often scoff at school forcing them to read and write but it is an effort to rescue their emotional health, to plug them into the human collective. Words are the largest network of human connectedness and without a literary magazine, without a proper platform to appreciate words, we are just providing lip service.

Now, what is a literary magazine? It is a periodical home to short stories, poetry, and essays. It is a stage for every breed of writer to express their creative gifts and it is high time for Leonardtown offer students such a platform. Leonardtown’s literary magazine will have its own page on our online school paper, The Imprint, where you are reading this article. So look for student stories soon if you need a piece of literature to get you through the day, and you all do. Trust me, I have 33 pages proving you do.

Now, here comes the inevitable question for those budding writers out there that want to publish their work: how to get published? The magazine is launching through Leonardtown’s creative writing club, and you can catch your fellow writers Tuesdays from 2:45 to 3:30 in Mrs. Wogman’s room, 2e10. This magazine is about growth, about putting out the best possible product and about the therapeutic value of words.

When I joined GIS three years ago, the capstone project was a hassle. It was an assemblage of deadlines already staring me down from my junior year. But, now that I’m here and in the throes of this project, I realize it is not the curse I thought it was because I have a chance to make a difference here at Leonardtown High School, beyond using it to build my transcript. I have a chance to build a platform to foster writing, the builder of bridges and the abridger of apathy. School’s dedication to the literary is all lip service without a platform for expression, and that is why is literary magazine is coming alive as we speak.