Even the most brilliant creative writers can often go unnoticed.  Unless you have a class with them or ask to read something they write, there’s a good chance you won’t have any idea what sort of work they create.  Creative writing just simply isn’t a flashy talent that leads to a lot of public accolades.  That’s part of why CWA’s Middle and Upper School literary magazines are so important.  

Every year the Upper School lit mag club selects from a broad range of submissions from the upper school and creates a single volume celebrating the community’s creative literary and visual talents.  The magazine accepts literary work such as poetry, short stories, and short plays, and art work of various media such as painting, drawing, photography, and digital art.  Students in the club then create a cohesive and a creative layout for the publication that highlights the quality of the works included.  This yearlong process culminates in a polished magazine that every student and teacher in the school receives in May.

A copy of Inkblots is given to every Upper School teacher and student in the spring.  If you’d like a copy, call the Upper School or the admissions office.

The 2009 edition of CWA’s literary magazine recently won an excellent rating from the National Council of Teachers of English.  There were 425 entries from around the country and CWA was one of eight Washington state schools honored.  Last year’s Inkblots was created by student editors Ben Mishkin ’10, Tori Portnow ’10, Stephanie Friend ’11, Austin Jung ’10 and Iean Drew ’10.  Patti Crouch and Heather Cantrall both served as faculty advisors.  The eleventh edition featured original works of student poetry, short stories and artwork.

The cover art for the 2009 Lit Mag was created by Colleen Carson ’09.  Here are a few of the other pieces published in the award-winning magazine:

Rowing
By Rutger Gunther ’09,
now a student at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point

We dig our oars deep
The water ripples away
as if undisturbed

The Lonely Coconut
By Lindsey Evans ’09,
now a student at Santa Clara University

Coarse, rigid, hairy,
Sits the uneven wooden shell upon the sun-heated sand
The hollow object meets the crashing waves
The deep-blue Pacific lures her long lost fruit
Down the shore towards the sea.
The white foam remains
A blanket to the chestnut colored figure.
The warm, grainy sand grips to the object
As the vast ocean beckons this lost, lone coconut
Into unknown latitudes.

Questions to pop culture
By Jeff Crabill ’10

Why does shortie want a thug?
What type of candy shop is this?
Which club are you in precisely?
Don’t you think this is sort of a mediocre moment to wait a lifetime for?

How does mo money equal mo problems?
As is the relationship between the two variables fixed or exponential?

Maybe a scrub could be a nice guy?
What’s so great about big butts?
Well, even if you didn’t start the fire, then who did?
Why do you want to jump so badly?

You will be watching me for every breath I take?
How about some personal space?

Even if you do get his girl, what about Jesse?
Won’t your good friendship with him be ruined?

Yes, you know how to love, but could you survive today’s financial crisis?
Why on Earth was everyone Kung Fu fighting?
If this song isn’t about me, which it probably is, then who could it be about?
Yes, I know you heard it through the grapevine, but could be more specific?
How can you think that letting her into his hearth will allow Jude to start to make it better?
Isn’t it possible that ther is a mental block which is preventing you from getting your satisfaction?
How could one really fit the whole world in his hands?