At the recent release party for the newly-created student literary journal “Ink Stains,” high school students from across the Delta received a chance to share their thoughts and insights about life, love and youth in front of a packed audience at Turnrow Books.
Out of 38 submissions, 19 pieces made the cut to be printed in “Ink Stains’” debut volume.
The selected writings were from students who attend Amanda Elzy High School, Greenwood, Leflore County, H.W. Byers in Holly Springs, Wingfield High School in Jackson, Humphreys County in Belzoni, Ruleville Central and Marked Tree in Arkansas ranging from grades 6-12.
Amanda Elzy Teach for America teachers Andrew Stevens and Seth Paddock created the journal after talking over the idea for the project before the 2012-13 school year.
“There was nothing available for the students to put their writing out there,” Stevens said. “They were tremendously excited to get the chance to share their writing.”
By the second week of classes Stevens had printed out fliers and handed them out to his creative writing students.
“Watching them coming out at the release party, seeing their faces was the best time I had teaching at Amanda Elzy.”
Stevens and Paddock spread the word to other Teach for America English teachers throughout the state and in parts of Arkansas. Many jumped on board with the project, and submissions began flowing in.
“The idea was to get all of the students in one place to share their writing,” said Stevens. “The project was partially for Amanda Elzy and partially for Teach for America and various other teachers’ classes. So, all of those people came together to make it happen.”
January was the deadline for submissions. Stevens was in charge of collecting, selecting and editing the pieces that would be published. Stevens said that imagery was the main criteria when selecting the poems.
“The biggest thing for selecting the writings — are you using an image, are you trying to put a picture out there for the reader,” Stevens said.
Stevens sent the poems back to students to make revisions and perfect their work, making this project an interactive learning process for the students.
To convert the idea of Ink Stains into the finished project that it is now, funds were needed.
Paddock, Stevens and another Teach for America teacher, Sarah Franzen, began two fundraisers for the book.
They held a successful T-shirt fundraiser and started a Kickstarter page to acquire the funding needed to pay the fees for publishing the journal.
“Kickstarter is a website where you can put a project up. How it works is you can put a goal dollar amount up, and you have 10 days to raise the money. If your target goal is not reached, you will not be eligible for any of the money.”
The “Ink Stains” project goal was $500. In 10 days, the project received $618 in donations.
“It was exciting that people care about the writings of students in the Delta as much as we do,” Stevens said.
On the day of the release party, the students received the same treatment as any other published writer.
They ate dinner at Delta Bistro before reading their pieces at Turnrow. After the readings, the students participated in a book signing and signed copies of “Ink Stains” for those purchasing the book.
Books are available to purchase at Turnrow and at the 25 schools that participated in the project.
“The students in the Delta have unique experiences,” said Stevens. “I enjoyed reading their writing and reading about their experiences. Looking through the writing it was fun to see that most were about the love, school feeling alone — the universal teen experience.”
Stevens plans to start working on the second volume of “Ink Stains” soon. He said he hopes one day this journal will be a statewide contest that students and teachers look forward to each year.
For more information about “Ink Stains” or to submit a piece for the 2013-14 volume, contact Stevens at apsteven8@gmail.com.
• Contact Ruthie Robison at rrobison@gwcommonwealth.com.
