Status Update: An update on the iliad Editorial Board
(From left to right and from top to bottom) Ethan Caspary Poucher, Cate Demaria, Olivia Daniel, Salai Diekumpuna, Maya Shrivastav, Kaija Gilbertson Hall, and Ollie Hendershot stand on the steps of Clarke Central High School. Caspary Poucher has enjoyed connecting with people at CCHS. “This year, I’ve really enjoyed collecting submissions and connecting with the CCHS arts and writing community.” Caspary Poucher said. Photo by Lucas Donnelly
For the past few months, the iliad Editorial Board has worked hard to prepare for the production of the 2023 iliad literary-art magazine, interact with the community, and revive iliad club meetings.
At the beginning of the school year, members of the iliad Editorial worked with the ODYSSEY production staff to produce a compilation of stories about the new teachers at Clarke Central High School.
From there, we’ve met with various guest speakers like director Carlo Nasisse, designer Nicholas Bryne, CCHS Associate Principal and Freshman Administrator Dr. Cindi Lowe, and realtor Alex Sams to discuss the essentials of marketing.
After reaching out to community members about becoming iliad patrons we began working on stories for the website like Why We Do iliad, Clarke Central Time Capsule Photo Gallery, and our first podcast: What is the iliad?
To continue working on expanding our media presence and improving our magazine, members of the iliad Editorial Board attended the Georgia Scholastic Press Association fall conference at the University of Georgia on Sept. 20. Our Editor-in-Chief Kaija Gilbertson Hall gave a presentation about how to run a literary-art magazine.
Editor-in-Chief Kaija Gilbertson Hall gives a presentation about how to create a literary-art magazine at the Georgia Scholastic Press Association conference on Sept. 20 at the University of Georgia. Gilbertson Hall presented about how to run a literary magazine four years after watching a presentation on literary-art magazines given by Beatrice Acheson and Georgia Blue Simmons, which inspired Gilbertson Hall to join the iliad Editorial Board. “It felt monumental to have that opportunity in the first place,” Gilbertson Hall said. “It's crazy seeing everything that’s happened since I saw (Acheson and Simmons) give that presentation, just how passionate I have been about the iliad since then.” Photo by Aza Khan
Shifting our focus back to CCHS, we had our first fundraiser of the year, a bake sale, to raise money for our publication. We received food donations from the Independent Baking Co. and Big City Bread Cafe, as well as various food donations from our Editorial Board and students at Clarke Central.
Recently, the iliad Editorial board has been focusing on expanding our outreach and collecting literary and art submissions for the 2023 iliad literary-art magazine. Submissions to the iliad are now open and can be found on our website at the link bit.ly/iliad23 and our Instagram bio. Aside from the process of compiling the 2023 iliad, we’ve revived the iliad club for the 2022-2023 school year.
Since the beginning of the school year, we’ve had two club meetings. At the first meeting, Editorial Board members and club members got to know each other and did creative writing exercises. In the second iliad club meeting, InfUSion Magazine, the multicultural publication at UGA, visited to talk about their experience being a multicultural publication at a predominately white institution. Then, both members of the iliad club and InfUSion Editorial Board did a creative writing exercise using inspiration from visuals in previous InfUSion magazines.
Now, the iliad Editorial Board is working to get submissions for the 2023 iliad, and we’re so excited to see what the students of Clarke Central create.
Story by Salai Diekumpuna