Welcome to Winchester High School's Spring 2023 Literary Magazine! We are happy to bring you our second issue of this school year, with more creative works from WHS students. This issue features a mixture of profound love and mystifying loss (as well as an odd trend of gruesome deaths from eating strange things). We would like to thank everyone who submitted work to this issue of the LitMag and we hope you enjoy this outstanding collection of stories, poems, art, and photography. We wish all the best to the graduating class of 2023, and we'll see everyone else in the fall for the next issue!
Sincerely,
The LitMag Editors - Aniana Garciano, Kyle Plosky, and Mahima Kakol
Front cover art and photography: Kangni Huang (upper right and lower left), Anonymous (center), CWG club members (everything else)
Back cover photography: Beni Curcio
During Creative Writing Guild meetings, we spend a lot of our time on collaborative writing activities, usually involving everyone starting a story and then passing it around to continue, so that everyone's unique writing style is visible within one creation, often resulting in hilarity. These are some of our favorites from the past semester.
There once was an Old Elm Tree that had stood for several centuries in an abandoned forest shrouded with magic. And then one night, when nobody was there to hear it, the tree fell. The ground shook with the tree's impact, the birds scattered and the creatures of the tree ran. But no person heard it...
As we all know, sharing is caring, but some people just don't care. Like me. So it just so happened that I saw someone eating popcorn, and my first though wasn't That looks delicious, but ME WANT! I immediately approached the bag and stuck my hand inside. I pulled out a buttery, delicious handful and stuffed it inside my gaping mouth.
Weirdly enough, I didn't notice it until it was in my mouth. One scathing review from the world's most renowned food critic, and the restaurant was out of business. A furry apple found in what might have been a delicious risotto. It had crawled out of the risotto, looking a bit depressed before it lunged at the people in the restaurant.
Conviction. To be found guilty of a crime. Or, really anything that could be roughly considered a crime. But in this case, it was arson. Jackson had been burning down the courthouse every time he came to trial. It worked– which is why he kept returning.
As the movie ended, the people cheered with happiness, finally it was over. Their first round of torture via cinema was over. However, this was only the beginning of the horrors they would face. When they tried to exit the theater, they were stopped by a banana.
Twelve mushrooms sat together in the forest, admiring the kitten in the middle of their circle. The small kitten slept in the circle, unaware of the mushrooms that surrounded it. The forest glistened with magical bioluminescence, shaded in an eternal twilight.
It had been five days since Jeffrey had last seen his sister, Jefferson, and he was starting to get anxious. He had found a strange note in the refrigerator that read, "I am going to France for a week," but Jeffery could not read it since he was only three years old.
Thank you for reading this collection of creative works by the students of Winchester High School. As we go into the summer, we hope that you feel inspired by the imaginations and creativity of the students. Thank you to every student that submitted and we hope you feel proud of your hard work and creativity. Congratulations to the senior class of 2023 and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone else next fall.
Sincerely,
The LitMag Editors - Aniana Garciano, Kyle Plosky, and Mahima Kakol