Writers

ZANE AUSTILL is a senior at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities where he concentrates in Creative Writing. His writing has won several regional Gold and Silver Awards in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and he was recognized nationally as a YoungArts finalist for his fiction. He also loves Liverpool Football Club.

BRIANA TROISE is a junior in Northern Highlands Regional High School pursuing a career in storytelling and digital art. She is second generation Brazilian American and spends a lot of time playing video games, drawing her own characters, drawing other characters, making stories for characters, and lots and lots of eating. She is blond. Her blood type is O+, probably. She has had work submitted to her local high school, participated in the Poem-a-Day challenge, and successfully quit fast food.

DARIUS ATEFAT-PECKHAM is an Iranian-American poet and essayist. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Texas Review, Brevity, The American Journal of Poetry, Rattle, and elsewhere. He also has work forthcoming in the Other Voices International Project Anthology (Reelcontent) and Iran Musings: Stories and Memories from the Iranian Diaspora, as well as the bilingual anthology, Persian Sugar and English Tea, Vol. II. Atefat-Peckham lives in Huntington, West Virginia with his family and his Golden Retriever, Ivy. He currently attends Interlochen Arts Academy, where he serves on the editorial team for the literary magazines The Red Wheelbarrow and Interlochen Review.

SOPHIE PAQUETTE is a junior at Interlochen Arts Academy, originally from Bloomington, Indiana. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming in The Offing, Midwestern Gothic, and Up North Lit. Her writing has also been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, Princeton University’s Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize, and by the Bennington Young Writers Awards.

YANNA CASSELL is from North Carolina, and is a junior at Interlochen Arts Academy.  She has won two Silver Keys for poetry from the Scholastic Art & Writing Arts as well as an honorable mention in the Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest.

JULIA BOHM is from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her work can be found in the Red Wheelbarrow, The Interlochen Review, Winter Tangerine, and Anomaly. Julia was the winner of the 2017 Virginia B. Ball Creative Writing Competition at Interlochen Arts Academy. She is also the recipient of a Gold Key for her senior portfolio in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, a finalist for the Winter Tangerine Awards in prose, and placed first in poetry in the 2018 Bennington Young Writers Awards. She will be attending Bard College in the fall.

MIRACLE THORNTON is a sophomore Creative Writing major at Interlochen Arts Academy. She is from a small town in South Jersey called Franklinville where she lives with her four siblings, parents, and four cats. Miracle has been published in the Spring 2018 Issue of UpNorth Lit and has received one Gold Key, three Silver Keys, and a total of four Honorable Mentions from the Regional Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Miracle serves on the editorial team of the Interlochen Review.

COOKIE DUTCH is currently a sophomore at Interlochen Arts Academy. He enjoys both writing and visual art. Cookie's visual work has been featured in the ⌘Z Juried Digital Exhibition, as well as in Interlochen's Red Wheelbarrow. In addition, Cookie's writing has won an Honorable Mention and a Gold Key in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. He is from Coronado, CA.

BRIAN MORRIS is a junior at the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, South Carolina where he studies creative writing. He was born in Kingstree, South Carolina.

GRACE ADEE is a senior at Jones College Prep in downtown Chicago. This is her fourth year participating in Louder Than A Bomb, the world's largest youth poetry slam, where she has performed at Semi Finals and Finals. She was the editor of The Mash, the Chicago Tribune's teen newspaper; her non-fiction has appeared both in that publication and in the Chicago Tribune. She enjoys scribbling dream summaries with hints of story ideas in the margins of her school work. She will be attending Columbia University next fall.

NADIO JO is a junior at Deerfield Academy. Her works have been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and the Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest, and they appear or are forthcoming in DIALOGIST, Souvenir Lit Journal, Blue Marble Review, Red Queen Literary Magazine, and Alexandria Quarterly. Nadia serves as a Poetry Reader for The Ellis Review and COUNTERCLOCK. A poetry mentee of Raena Shirali through the 2017 Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program, Nadia lives in South Korea. Read her rap blog at nadiaeugenejo.com and watch cello performances at https://www.youtube.com/user/NadiaJo3/videos.

ANTHONY D’EREDITA is a senior Motion Picture Arts major at Interlochen Arts Academy. This fall he will be attending California Institute of the Arts for graphic design. A few of Anthony's current inspirations in his art right now are Virgil Abloh, his favorite designer, Paul Thomas Anderson, his favorite film director, and Kanye West, the most influential musical artist to him.

MARIN HART is a sophomore at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas. She has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for her poetry and fiction and has been published by Teen Ink.

KALEY MAMO is a writer and high school senior who currently resides in Westchester, New York, though she will soon leave her small-town roots behind when she moves to the Big City as a Columbia University freshman next year. She has received six National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, including three National Gold Medals and a Best-in-Grade Award, and is a 2016 alumni of the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program. In addition to writing, Kaley enjoys watching movies, drinking coffee, reading about the lives of her favorite authors, and exploring new cities.

VICKY BROWN VARELA is a senior in the Creative Writing Department at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. Half-Costa Rican and born in the sandhills of South Carolina, she splits her time between the two. Her writing has been recognized nationally in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. You can find her trekking through rebel territory and surviving on nothing but Weetabix in her downtime.

JESSICA HARPER is a senior at Interlochen Arts Academy, where she studies as a Singer-Songwriter. She was recently named a YoungArts Merit winner in Popular Voice and attended the Grammy Foundation's "Grammy Camp" for songwriting. Jessica is currently working on bringing a humanitarian aspect to her music. She has already raised awareness (and thousands of dollars!) for the Children's Miracle Network from her first single "Strong Again" and benefit concerts.

ARDEN DODGE is a junior at Charleston County School of the Arts. She's won numerous awards nationally and regionally in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and is a finalist in the Atlantic Institute Art and Essay Contest. She mostly enjoys writing fiction and personal essays, but loves it when she's on a roll with a poem. This particular piece was inspired by her maternal grandfather and their lake house in Lapeer, Michigan.

ADAM KRASNOFF is a junior creative writer at Charleston County School of the Arts in Charleston, South Carolina. He has received both Gold and Silver Keys from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and recently received an honorable mention in Princeton University’s Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize.

ROHSHAYE LINCOLN is a junior at the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities in South Carolina where he resides as a creative writer. He has won two Gold Keys in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for one poem and one short story, and a Silver Key for a portfolio of poems. He enjoys reading poets such as Hanif Abdurraqib, Mark Wunderlich, Mary Ruefle, and Louise Glück.

ROEY LEONARDI is a junior at Charleston County School of the Arts in Charleston, South Carolina, where she majors in creative writing. She has won 38 regional and 6 national awards in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and has also placed in the PTA Reflections Contest and the Carl Sandburg National Poetry Contest. Her poetry has been published in Rattle magazine both online and in print. While her favorite form of writing is poetry, she enjoys nonfiction and fiction as well. Roey is most inspired by the natural world and the strong female influences in her life, particularly her mother and three sisters.

ELLIOT BLAKE HUESKE is a junior at Charleston County School of the Arts in Charleston, SC, and is a creative writing major. She has been published in the Poetry Society of South Carolina. She has won several notable awards such as the Carl Sandberg Poetry contest and the PTA Reflections contest. She has won several Scholastic Art & Writing Awards throughout her writing career with close to forty regional awards and over five national awards. She loves magical realism and her favorite author is Gabriel García Márquez.

KELLY HIU is a sophomore at Lexington High School in Lexington, MA, where she is on the slam poetry team. She has won one Gold Key, two Silver Keys, and two Honorable Mentions in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and recently received the Silver Award in Poetry for the Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest as well as a scholarship of $1000. Her favorite poets are Safia Elhillo, Sylvia Plath, and Richard Siken.

SEVEN LIU is a creative writing sophomore at the The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas. She enjoys writing experimental poetry and short plays. Her writing influences include Anne Carson, Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov and her general influences are Joan of Arc, Catherine of Siena, and other female hysterics.

HYOWON KANG is a junior at Concord Academy. She has received Gold Key and American Voices nominations for the Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards, and received an honorable mention for the Royal Nonesuch Humor Writing Contest. She enjoys drawing and naps in her free time.

LANE MCKENNA is writer, filmmaker, and an artist. She is currently a senior at Interlochen Arts Academy, where she majors in Motion Picture Arts. She is originally from Long Island, New York. She recently directed a short film, 'Grab Him by the-' and would like to continue making films for a social change. Lane has always been a film enthusiast and is excited about the creating new work.

DESIREE WINNS is a senior at Bonn International School in Bonn, Germany, and aspires to be a screenwriter. She was a writing finalist for the National YoungArts Competition and in Harlem International Film Festival's Short Screenplay Competition, the 2013 Tennessee winner for the Do the Write Thing Essay Competition, and has received a Gold Key in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. She wants to tell stories that encourage diversity not only with characters of color, but with storylines that allow characters of various backgrounds to become complex and compelling cinematic figures that will be memorable for years to come.

LEAH COHEN is from Los Altos, CA, and currently attends Interlochen Arts Academy as a third-year junior. She is a Theatre Performance major, but her other great passion is playwriting and directing.

ALEX CLIFFORD lives in Charleston, SC, and attends Charleston County School of the Arts. She has been published in Rattle's youth anthology as well as Southern Florida Poetry Journal.

Visual Artists

MERVYN JONES is a second-year sophomore studying visual art at Interlochen Arts Academy. From local origin, he is inspired by horror mythology, film, and comic design. Mervyn has won the Award of Excellence at the Oliver Arts Center, as well as an Honorable Mention in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

DAVID FRYD is a photographer from Miami, Florida. He is a Junior at Ransom Everglades School. His work mainly incorporates nature and wild animals, but he occasionally dabbles in the studio.

COOKIE DUTCH is currently a sophomore at Interlochen Arts Academy. He enjoys both writing and visual art. Cookie's visual work has been featured in the ⌘Z Juried Digital Exhibition, as well as in Interlochen's Red Wheelbarrow. In addition, Cookie's writing has won an Honorable Mention and a Gold Key in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Things Cookie is obsessed with: clouds, gas stations, cool chandeliers, climbing tall trees.

NATHANIEL KROHN is a junior visual artist at Interlochen Arts Academy. He is from the Washington D.C. area. His current work is based on drawing attention to environmental issues, such as fracking and natural gas pipelines. He received a gold and silver metal and honorable at the regional level in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. His print work received a presidential honorable mention in the 2017 Interlochen Visual Arts Student Juried Show. He will continue to explore his body of work during his senior year at Interlochen Arts Academy.

JI-YOON HAN is fourth-year senior at Northern Highlands Regional High School. She currently lives in New Jersey but she hopes to leave the state in search for warmer weather soon. Her work is inspired by human vices and the confusion experienced during youth. Han has won two regional Gold Keys for Comic Art and Digital Art in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

SITONG LIU, also known as Cindy to her American teachers and classmates, is a student artist from ShenZhen, China.  Her love for the arts began at 3 years old, and her training began when she was 9 years old. When she was very young, she received an award for visual arts—the 8th and 9th "Tian Yan" China International Youth Children's Cartoon Competition Excellence Award.

YUN O KIM is a junior at Seoul International School in South Korea. His works have been published in the 2017 Summer Celebrating Art; his two digital artworks were selected as Honorable Mentions in the 2017 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

JEONG WIN SHIN is a senior at Cheongshim International Academy in South Korea. She has worked to address her interests in sociology, art history, and the arts.

MARIA THERESA IVANCSICS is a junior at St. Joseph High School in South Bend, Indiana. She has received 4 Silver Medals and two Honorable Mentions from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. She hopes to continue art into her higher education and career.

ELAINA YIP is a third-year senior at Interlochen Arts Academy and is originally from Hong Kong, but has since relocated to New York City in July 2017. Elaina’s work examines the relationships within her family and how they affect her ability to adapt in other areas of her life. Through carefully organizing experiences and conversations in her artwork coupled with a strong influence in psychology, Elaina is able to make sense of the disorder that is presented through a new family structure and environment. Using art as a means of grappling with these issues, she is able to come to terms with a new family dynamic, ground herself, and work through emotionally precarious situations.

ELAINA YIP has received an Honorable Mention Award in the 2018 YoungArts competition and a National Silver Medal for her piece "Communication Series: +852 9739 8820 / +852 9878 0992" in the 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Next year she will be attending Parsons School of Design to pursue her dream of becoming an art therapist.

YOON SUNG HUR is a second-year senior visual art major at Interlochen Arts Academy. He is from South Korea and currently resides in both Jakarta and Seoul. He vastly works with oil paint and illustrates his experiences of dealing with mental illness. He received a Silver Medal for his prints and Honorable Mentions for his paintings in the 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Next year he will be attending Parsons School of Design and be continuing his academic and artistic pursuits.

QUINLAN LEWIS-MUSSA is a second-year senior visual arts major at Interlochen Arts Academy. She is from San Diego, California. She is highly socially engaged and is interested in exploring the role of race in her life and in society at large. She received an Honorable Mention Award for her portfolio in the 2017 YoungArts Competition. She has received a National Silver Key from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. She has received an Outstanding Achievement Award and a Fine Arts Award from Interlochen Arts Academy, and her mixed media door piece received an Honorable Mention for the President's Award for the 2018 Interlochen Visual Arts Juried Show.

SAM KESHISHIAN is a second-year senior visual arts major at Interlochen Arts Academy. He is from Bozeman, Montana, and has worked to address his combined interests in both storytelling and the arts. He received a Gold Portfolio award and two Gold Keys in the 2017 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Next year he will be attending Parsons School of Design in New York to continue his artistic path.