SHS revives literary magazine

In 2008, Samra Spear, an English teacher at Sisters High School, started a literary magazine. The literary magazine is called Verbatim (student-titled in its first year). The last published issue was in 2011 and one hadn't been created due to lack of student interest.

This year, senior Johanna Geisen decided to take on the task of reviving the publication.

"I needed a first period and had already taken creative writing once so I decided [on] advanced creative writing as an independent study, and was figuring out projects to work on. I mentioned to Mrs. Spear that I wanted to be an editor, so she suggested that I do the literary magazine" said Geisen.

"I had wanted to start it up again but I needed to find student interest, and I look for people that have an interest in a future of editing and writing," said Spear.

The literary magazine is a collection of student-written pieces of poetry and stories. Students write their pieces and then submit them to be reviewed. The 2017 edition contains nature photos all taken by Will Werts, a senior at SHS. The magazine mostly ended up containing submissions from Spear's AP English class. Students could submit anonymously or with a byline.

Spear gave Geisen full rein over the magazine in design and finding out what to do to get it produced. Johanna chose the publishing company and explored and researched all she would need to know about publishing it.

"She was in contact with whoever she needed to be in contact with to get it produced" said Spear. "Johanna just ran with it."

"My favorite part of doing the literary magazine was getting to choose and read all of the students' submissions," Geisen said. "It was really hard to pick because there was so many good ones."

She has been working on the literary magazine all semester.

"It was really great to see the final product," she said.

There are a limited number of magazines; they can be purchased in Spear's classroom for $10.