It’s that time of year again. As the weather gets colder and the leaves begin to crinkle, writing organizations at Carlisle High School begin to fall under the excitement of the new school.

Pandora’s Box and YAWP are two organizations offered at CHS for creative writers, and both have already been planning ahead for  this year. Below are some insights into what both groups are all about, what their major goals are, and how interested students can submit and even help out if interested.

Pandora’s Box

Pandora’s Box is a writing organization run by Sarah Clayville, an English teacher at Carlisle High School. Lydia Estes, a senior this year at CHS, is the organizations Editor-In-Chief.

The organization, Clayville said, “is a great avenue for writer’s because all work accepted goes online and it can be seen by anyone at any point in time.”

She also added that “all students receive critical feedback from experienced student writers to help them improve upon their craft if they is accepted or not, which can be helpful to any writer.”

Pandora’s Box accepts art and writing, which is different from YAWP, and all work accepted goes online on the Pandora’s Box website. The site will be celebrating its grand reopening for the school year on Mon Oct 26.

To submit to Pandora’s Box, Clayville said that “students need to email Pandora’s Box, with no name on their submission for a fair evaluation. Then reviewers will decide whether or not the work will be accepted and the student that submitted will be notified with results and will be given editorial mark ups too regardless if their work was accepted or not.”

The email to submit work to Pandora’s Box is [email protected]. For specific length requirements dependent on the genre of interest, go to the Pandora’s Box website and then go to the home tab where there is an area to click that says submit here.

Clayville also added, “The site will take writing and art submissions as long as they are original pieces done by Carlisle High School students. Whether work is accepted or not though is dependent on whether it passes through the editorial process.”

In terms of art, Pandora’s Box art editor Seth Turnage said, “[Pandora’s Box] accepts photographs, paintings, sculptures (photos of sculptures), anything really.  Also live performances (videos) but they have to be original; they can’t do a cover of a song but can do an original song.”

On a final note, Pandora’s Box is now running a Ten Word Horror Story Contest on Twitter (#tenwordhorrorstory). There are prizes involved, so make sure to submit!

YAWP

Yawp stands for “Young Adult Writers and Poets” and the acronym fits since it is a major writing organization at CHS.

Gifted teacher Matthew Fahnestock is in charge of YAWP.

“YAWP releases an issue every year that includes the work we decided to accept,” said Fahnestock. “We have some really good writers at our school and it showcases their writing.”

He added, once the yearly issue is released, it is available for students on Amazon, from the school store, English teacher Ellie Park, or from himself.

Each issue is roughly a little more than one hundred pages in length.

Fahnestock added that “there are students that help with the editorial side of the process too and while reviewing submissions they take into account originality, style, and how pieces compare to other entries.”

He said that “they want the issue to be selective so kids feel proud to have made it into it, but that the goal is to get as many students as possible to submit to YAWP.”

To submit to YAWP, “Carlisle High School students should place a print out copy of their work and submit it to one of the YAWP drop boxes,” said Fahnestock. “One box is in the library, there is one in each building’s main office, and there is one in Mrs. Park’s room (S11) and also my room, the McGowan ACT Office.”

“The Editorial Staff makes the final decisions on whether to accept a piece or not together,” said Fahnestock.  He added, “It is done is name blind. That way it is fair to the piece submitted.”

So, there are the two options for areas to submit writing to for interested students. Picking which one to submit to is just based upon preference.