For those of you who may not have known what a sestina was, last Monday, February 5th, the Literary Magazine Gathering Leaves, advised by Mrs. Smith, held a sestina workshop.

This workshop after school went over exactly what a sestina is, which is a poem with six stanzas of six lines and a final triplet, all stanzas having the same six words at the line-ends in six different sequences that follow a fixed pattern, and with all six words appearing in the closing three-line envoi. Sounds complicated right? Students showed that they mastered it by the end of the workshop though!

During the workshop, the students learned how to write one and went over a few sample pieces. After all of this, they grouped together to brainstorm ideas and write their own!

This was the first time the literary magazine has done a sestina workshop. Mrs. Smith said she wanted to do this because she knew that no one at the school taught sestinas, and it would provide a unique creative writing opportunity for students.

The overall success of the workshop was good and a few students have submitted sestinas so far.

Mrs. Smith said, “I hope these workshops and the literary magazine itself, promote creative writing outside of the classroom.”

For those of you who missed this workshop, there will be another one in March (TBD) before the literary magazine submission deadline. Anybody can submit to the literary magazine even if you are not part of the staff. If you have work you would like to submit, you can turn in a hard copy to Mrs. Smith, or you can email it to [email protected]. The deadline for submission is March 12, 2018.

The literary magazine is looking for a creative cover for this year’s magazine too. Any artists or photographers should see Mrs. Smith with any unique cover art!