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Public libraries are not only a helpful resource for readers of all ages, but also an important part of many communities. They host fun and educational events, as well as provide things such as internet access, classes, bathrooms, and shelter to everyone. Despite your appearance or beliefs, public libraries are open to support and help you. The importance of public libraries Public libraries can be a valuable resource to everyone! They provide shelter, bathrooms, and sometimes even food, water, and medication. Gitnux even says, “Approximately 77% of Americans believe that public libraries provide them with the resources they need” (Gitnux, 3). One of the most amazing things about libraries is that they have something for people of all ages. For example, they may host events such as online or in-person storytime for children, help with homework for teenagers, and a wide variety of classes such as parenting or literature classes for adults. Many other things that can be enjoyed by multiple age groups include access to books, free Wi-Fi and internet, help to find jobs and create resumes, and events such as movie nights. The services provided by libraries may vary, so make sure to look online or ask around before looking for something specific. Many resources found at libraries are especially useful for teenagers and young adults. Many high school and college students are required to read specific books for their classes, which many people have to buy. Instead, you can check with local libraries to see if they have it. You can also look for library books to read in your free time, instead of buying a whole new book. This is a great way to save money! High schools and colleges typically require you to do research, and libraries can be a great resource to help get this done. If you aren’t able to find all your research in school, you can usually find books, computers, and even help with your research from librarians at public libraries. If you have any interests you wish to expand your knowledge on, some libraries offer classes on a variety of topics. Checking those out can be very beneficial. Finally, if you’re starting your first job or planning to apply to a college, many public libraries provide help with creating resumes, finding jobs, and applying to colleges. According to one source, “About 74% of public libraries offer SAT/ACT test preparation services” (Gitnux, 4). How you can support public libraries Donate your old books to libraries. If you happen to have any unwanted books that are still in good condition, consider donating them to a library. Before doing so check on the library's website, or ask in person, to ensure they'll be able to accept them. This is a great way to support libraries, make room for more books, and let others have access to amazing books. Get books from library book sales. Sometimes libraries host book sales. Books at these sales are typically used, but will likely be discounted. This can help you save money, expand your book collection, and support libraries. Find ways to volunteer. Many public libraries are open to volunteers. This may include restocking shelves, teaching classes, organizing, cleaning, helping with inventory, collecting data, etc. For more information on volunteering, check out the library's website or ask staff there. This can also provide you with volunteer hours for a resume, and if you're old enough you may even be able to become a part of the staff at the library. Visit and utilize libraries. Simply checking books out, asking librarians questions, getting a library card, using library computers, and utilizing any other resources provided by the library can support them. Some government funding is affected by the usage statistics that libraries collect. Inform others. Informing others about the importance of public libraries and the resources they provide can influence more people to utilize them, which will help with usage statistics. Supporting public libraries is often beneficial to both the library and those supporting them. Because of this, it can also be a great idea to share ways to support public libraries with others. I hope this gave you some insight into why public libraries are so important, and provided you with resources you can utilize at local libraries as well as ways to support libraries. Keep in mind that different things on this list may benefit some libraries more than others. For more information on these topics visit your local library’s website or ask a librarian in person. References ‌Cabello, Marcela, and Stuart M. Butler. “How Public Libraries Help Build Healthy Communities.” Brookings, 30 Mar. 2017, www.brookings.edu/articles/how-public-libraries-help-build-healthy-communities/. Accessed Aug. 2023. Krause, Shea. “8 Public Library Resources to Take Advantage Of.” Reading Partners, 22 Apr. 2020, readingpartners.org/blog/library-resources/. Accessed Aug. 2023. Bezner, KM. “8 Ways to Support Your Local Library.” The Masters Review, mastersreview.com/8-ways-to-support-your-local-library. Accessed 28 Aug. 2023. Kat, et al. “Unique Volunteering Opportunities in the Library.” 5 Min Librarian, 8 Feb. 2019, www.5minlib.com/2019/02/unique-volunteering-opportunities-in.html?m=1. Accessed Aug. 2023. Gitnux. “The Most Surprising Public Library Usage Statistics and Trends in 2023 • GITNUX.” Gitnux Market Data, 2 Aug. 2023, blog.gitnux.com/public-library-usage-statistics/. Accessed Aug. 2023. Howard, Jennifer. “The Complicated Role of the Modern Public Library.” National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), www.neh.gov/article/complicated-role-modern-public-library. Accessed Aug. 2023.

While pursuing a passion can be enthralling, it can also be a battle between deciding whether it is an obsessive or harmonious passion. Once we decide I enjoy engaging in a certain activity, for example writing, I wonder if I write to get the job done or if I truly enjoy it. Even when I’m equipped with a passion to write, sentences are constructed by words that are challenging to stack. Sometimes, passion itself isn’t all that writers need because they are passively forced to produce creative work. In the research paper Image of Everyday Creativity. An Individual Case of a Person with Passion, there are two mentioned streams of passion, in which there is harmonious (adaptive) and obsessive (maladaptive) passion. To get into this, researchers explained examples of people’s activities based on their passions. Harmonious passion is autonomous when done with the natural correlation of someone’s interest. It takes a natural process to accept that they are passionate about a certain activity and they do not feel controlled by the consequence of their action. They are willing to turn their emotions to be positive in order to engage in the activity. When passion does not overwhelm them, a positive correlation between creativity is found in harmonious passion. For example, we could never turn the river to flow uphill from downhill. The river flows from a starting point that gravitates downstream to end at a broader water surface by the sea. Our mind works the same. By letting the flow go, the cognitive process releases the ability to birth new ideas. Staying on the harmonious stream does not engage with external demand but we are excused to make autonomous decisions that risk lighter opportunities for growth. For example, while we look for inspirations, we tend to seek the works created to please our taste and by creating the soft duplicate of an inspiration, we feel a sense of creative safety. Harmonious passion is not a feeling determined by pure creativity or joy in creating art, but the sense of safety to induce new challenges so we could be open to new types of activity. After all, the key to self-development is formed out of curiosity and a sprinkle of risk. However having a harmonious passion does not mean we can always go with the flow. If we stick to this type of passion as a safe zone, then there is nothing worth creating, or could be said, there is no use in bringing passion as an excuse in the first place. Why bother creating something out of your sincere passion if it does not give you a room for new challenges? Creativity is born out of perseverance is one of the processes in making us human. With this mindset, sometimes we feel that pressures are coming from many sides which leads us to have an obsessive (maladaptive) passion that only demands us to engage in an activity that identifies with negative motivation. We turn to the mindset of wanting to just get it done and seeing the outcome grow in quantity. This is the starting point of growing an obsessive passion. Why are we doing what we love to do if we befriend suffering in the process? This is probably why: Society demands us to do what they virtue. No matter how conducive we are to engaging in the activity we are passionate about, there is no use making it an achievement to prove to society since society does not see progress as an achievement. In society’s eyes, no ends are worth pursuing, especially if the value that they pursue is for them to gain collective happiness. An excerpt from the book Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do by Michael J. Sandel mentioned: “Whether my skills yield a lot or a little depends on what the society happens to want.” This directs to the entertaining bits that people want to see and ditch the less valuable creativity made by people. If the drive to create a work is to gain validation from society, then we are classifying the meaning of the previous statement. As we are living in the age of catastrophic consumerism, the end goal of creating art can be to feed the eyes of society. The passion held by an artist could be misled to gain validation rather than creating a sincere personal statement. As I am writing this, I focus on my selfish reason to write in the most sincere way to please my passion. Anyone who writes would understand that their words come off subjective to the tone they want to convince the readers. Imagining the purpose of writing to completely please the audience would mean I gain nothing from my hobby. But then again, this exact piece of mind I am sharing is what we accept as passion. This is what we all fight to call a harmonious passion because we want a positive experience to be gained out of the activity. People who write well are rewarded as good writers. Poets are awarded. But we writers who choose words every day tend to see that we are merely passionate. How about we move the perspective this way: Rather than going on with the flow to find new ideas, we should be able to determine our best pace to avoid working too hard or too unpinned. This article is a letter to someone who never wants to run out of words to please theirself . Who never wants to believe that the flow is the safe zone, but to have their own pace in exchanging ideas be it by writing or reading. As I believe that passion is growing an idea from a seed into a tree, passion is a work in progress whose object is us humans. We have always been a whole being who pursues constant changes whether we realize it or not. We bloom through seasons and passion is what makes us human. Read the original blog post here. References: Uszyńska-Jarmoc, J., & Kunat, B. (2022). Image of everyday creativity. an individual case of a person with passion. Creativity. Theories – Research - Applications, 9(2), 94–118. https://doi.org/10.2478/ctra-2022-0013 Sandel, M.J. (2016) Justice: What’s the right thing to do? Vancouver, B.C.: Langara College. To learn more about the author, follow @sarahbasalim on Instagram.

by Smrithi Senthilnathan Howdy, everyone! I hope your submissions for issue v: jabberwocky are going well. A bunch of you asked us for inspiration of what constitutes a 'wacky' piece so this post is for you guys! Read this piece, then start curating your own submissions. Reminder that there are only 10 days left to submit <3 Note: This piece was written by me in 2021 and has been left alone since then so please pardon my grammar and word choice (and do not judge me too badly, I promise my writing has improved since then). Also note that this piece isn't based on a 'wacky quote' in particular, however your issue v: jabberwocky submissions should be attributed to a quote. Happy reading! P.S. Read till the end for an analysis of this piece and more examples you can check out!! Laughing My Apples Off I stagger under the weight of my sight returning. After not being able to see for months, the outside world is too bright. The sun shines directly into my eyes. It feels surreal and frightening to see after two years. I’m not completely sure I’m not hallucinating, but if I am, I try to drink in the illusion of sight as fast as I can, before I lose it. Once my eyes have adjusted to the brightness, I stop squinting and fully open my eyes for the first time in two years. It’s funny; even though I haven’t seen in so long, the act of seeing comes naturally. I almost forget how it was like to not see. Almost. I remove my hands from my face and inspect my surroundings. Every surface is decked with bright colors, splashed all over. The paint is clumsy but it would’ve been done by blind people. A couple of meters away people are milling around, going about their jobs as always. New York is as busy as ever. It takes a beat but I soon realize what is odd: Everybody else’s eyes are still closed. A spot of green on the building next to me catches my eye. I walk closer to examine it. My breath catches in my throat. What I thought was just a random assortment of paint, is actually a group of words painted over and over again: Don’t tell them you can see. A shudder passes through my body. I whirl and look at the other buildings. Those words are everywhere. Every single wall, every single building has them. A chill creeps up my spine. Something’s going to happen. I can feel it. Two seconds later, a hovercraft descends from the heavens. I gaze at the people around. Nobody seems to hear the whirring of the engines. I wonder if there is some kinda Great Deafening going on. Am I the odd one out? The hovercraft lands about three feet away. The front part opens up. For the second time, I’m blinded by dazzling light. I throw up my hands to cover my eyes until they adjust. A single figure emerges out of the hovercraft. It isn’t a person but it’s unlike I’ve seen before. The ‘creature’ resembles a head on a huge bouncy ball. And to complete the image, its clothes are splattered with colors, black polka-dots interrupting the vibrancy. I want to call it an ‘alien’, but from all the sci-fi YouTube channels I binged before the blinding, aliens have green or blue skin, their heads are big and their bodies are thin. This ‘creature’ is a living bouncy ball, with a tiny head and yellow skin. “Greetings human,” a chirpy voice says from underneath layers of hair on the bouncy ball. I glance around but nobody seems to notice the hovercraft and the creature. I swear I see one person walk right through the hovercraft. “Uh… hi?” I respond. Another bouncy ball, with white polka-dots and orange skin steps up from behind the first one. “Are you the creator of this… siteweb called Tumblr?” Like the first one, it’s voice is high-pitched and sounds like an excited five-year-old’s. “Y-yes?” I’m the definition of a nerd but creating Tumblr is the greatest thing I’ve done. I only did the base work and the Tumblers elevated the platform to another level. But still. I’m amazing. “You have our gratitude. We are from the planet Caprica. We are the reason the Great Blinding occurred on your planet.” A ball of fury rises in me. Who were they? How dare they blind every person on my planet? I’m one of those typical depressed Gen Z people, but I’m still possessive of my planet. Wait. Earth is the only planet with life. I learned that in science five years ago. I let out a laugh, but it comes out shaky. These ‘creatures’ were probably just kids, having some fun. “Yeah I totally believe you. Great job on the hovercraft.” The ‘creature’ walks to me, and then extends its hand. At first I think it’s for a handshake, but then I see a sizzling ball of flame. I stare as the ball hovers in midair, suspended by nothing. At this point I’m not sure what to believe. “Believe us, human. As you know, we have granted your sight back. We saw this platform you created… what is it called? Tumble something? Yes we saw this Tumble and were greatly impressed. Across the world, people respond to posts on Tumble with ‘LMAO’. After much research, we deduced that LMAO means ‘laughing my apples off’. We Capricans too would like to… discover the secret of laughing our apples off. As Tumble’s creator, you are the only human who can teach us. We are going to take you to our planet. You are welcome.” I’m dreaming. Or hallucinating. Weird creatures are abducting me to learn how to laugh their apples off? “Ass, not apples” I manage to say through hysterical giggles. “Oh. Thank you human. Now, we are taking you to our planet to learn how to laugh our ass off, whatever that means,” the first creature says. “This is a great honor. Treat Capricans with the utmost respect,” the second one says. And because this is definitely a dream, I nod and step into the hovercraft along with the ‘creatures’. Little do I know that I will never step foot on Earth ever again. ANALYSIS What the piece did well: It creates a suspenseful atmosphere where you're excited to read about what's going to happen next. The setup for the joke of 'laughing my apples off' is done well because it introduces aliens who don't know human speak and culture and the punchline is delivered well. It's kinda wacky and makes you go 'whaaaaat?'. What the piece lacked: Random isn't funny. You can't randomly be the creator of Tumblr or randomly have aliens occur. Worldbuilding could've been made a lot better to make it actually funny and interesting. The writing is bland (but I attribute that to my 15-year-old self who couldn't do descriptions for the life of her lmao). Overall: This fits the definition for wacky but we want you to make your pieces actually funny and resonate with us, instead of just throwing a bunch of random elements together and hoping they form a coherent piece. We want to reiterate that this kind of work is not what we're interested in, but rather the wacky part of this piece is to give you an example of our general theme. We look forward to your pieces! Examples of our theme we definitely recommend you read: The Tiger King by Kalki (Short story) The Tale of Melon City by Vikram Seth (Poem) Anxious People by Frederick Backman (Novel)

by Khione Archerone A number of us went through a phase in life of reading y/n fanfics, imagines, headcanons and what not for our favorite characters and fictional crushes. We loved them so much and fanfics gave us the chance to imagine what it would be like to date them or be friends with them. More often than not, these fanfictions and imagines would cater to a very specific kind of scenario. One in which the character we were reading about was showing affection in some way, to the reader or y/n character. Don’t get me wrong. It’s absolutely fine to read these, or even enjoy them. Everyone likes being loved, or shown affection to, it’s part of human nature to crave it in whatever way we can. However, the way we choose to do so now, and the way we interpret love and its ideal, has changed tremendously and is clearly evident in modern media. Recently, I watched a video talking about how modern love is a capitalistic ideal. How everyone wants to be loved but no one wants to love. The current societal norms and expectations have turned love into passive force or something that happens to you. As they say, art imitates life so it spread into popular books and tv shows too. Let’s take the example of Aaron Warner from the Shatter Me series. Don’t jump on me - I love him just as much as the next person - but we have to acknowledge the fact that he is literally written, to be this passive love interest character that just falls in love with the main character for no apparent reason. He’s simply obsessed. She means more to him than his life does, she is his world, his everything. He can do anything for her–but she doesn’t share the dedication or sentiment. She exists, he loves her. If it was the other way around we may call that unhealthy pining. But we don’t because it’s a guy doing it and not a girl. This is a trend you’ll mostly see with male love interests in female leading books. The love interest is obsessed with the girlboss main character, and he shows his love for her in extravagant ways. Society calls that love. But is it? From this example, love seems to be a passive choice, something that happens to the main character. The main character who doesn’t show any affection or dedication back. The main character who exists and is loved, not as a choice but as a consequence of being there. Love here is one-sided, and possessive. Almost shallow in this sense.. Dominated by the affection of one person who does everything for their significant other, while the other couldn’t be bothered to do much of the same. Real love is, fortunately, not like that. Real love is a choice. A choice that we, as individuals, make. An active choice that you make everyday. You choose to love your family, you choose to love your friends, you choose to love your partner. Love is a mutual thing - two people (or more, whatever) need to actively support and love each other to build a healthy dynamic, romantic or otherwise. But that’s not YA Romance. And this argument isn’t just limited to the romance genre. Like I’ve already demonstrated with Aaron Warner, it is wildly popular throughout YA in general. Fantasy, science fiction, romance, thriller, none of the genres are exempt from this kind of thing. It’s fairly common and only seems to be growing. Love interests exist in YA books as a representation - they exist to show the main character that they are loved, and can be loved for simply existing. They are perfect the way they are and will be loved for it - which isn’t a bad message per se, but the execution is depthless and thus the story lacks substance. The main character very rarely, if ever, shows affection back in the same way her cis male love interest does. When writing, a common advice given to write characters is that we need to treat every character as their own person with their own story. But, at some point while writing love interests, and very specifically male love interests, we turned them into being less a person, and more of an object to show how truly amazing the main character is. Love becomes a part of a checklist. It happens to the main character at some point for no obvious reason. And the main character themselves often isn’t a person, but rather a self-insert of the author that represents the author’s dreams and ideals - going on a big adventure, having multiple people fall in love with them, and more ideals that we read about in books. On the topic of love being a passive force, let’s discuss the idea of soulmates. The idea of soulmates dictates that someone is pre-dictated by the universe to be your friend or romantic partner, etc. This takes away from the fact that love is a choice and makes it seem like you just happened to fall in love with someone because a higher power deemed it so. However, as someone who does believe in the idea of soulmates, I also believe that the only thing “pre-determined” if you will, is the idea of potential. You have the potential to be best friends with someone, you have the potential to be romantically involved with someone. These things don’t just happen, they’re not predetermined, but rather a series of active choices that you make with the people around you that lead you into finding, or rather, making a relationship that can be described as soulmates. In most books today, especially young adult, characters exist only to further another character. What we promote as ships and the romantic relationships or otherwise we make edits for, are not love but devotion or obsession - which is fine as long as it’s mutual in some way. Take the example of Roma and Juliette from These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong. Both of these characters in the book make it very clear throughout the duology that they are devoted to each other equally. One-sided romantic obsession is frankly uncomfortable and deeply unrealistic. It promotes an idea of love that is not focused on loving as much as it is on being loved. But how can you be loved if everyone is unwilling to actually do the loving bit? That idea, that no one is willing to love in today’s world, is why authors write their love interests the way they do. But the media can affect people’s perception of reality, and vice versa. It becomes a self-repeating cycle to see it in fiction than in real life, and the only way to stop it is to break the cycle. So let love interests be their own characters. Let female leads be as tough as they want to be while being affectionate towards the people they love. It is not a weakness for two people to be mutually devoted to each other, but a strength. Let books show that. Show what it means to love, and be loved. Write stories that define love as a choice, and what it means to choose that. And remember: love is nothing to be ashamed of. Love is beautiful. Showcase that beauty. Love love. To learn more about the author, check out @wrajthful on instagram.

The likability of a character is perhaps the most contested facet of fiction. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the Young Adult genre of fiction. Even though immoral or flawed characters have existed as long as storytelling, there has been a recent boom in popularity for the archetypes of the anti-villain and anti-hero. The question is not what makes just any character likable, but what makes an immoral character likable? The prefix ‘anti’ means ‘against’; however, this does not mean that an anti-villain is against villainy or that an anti hero is against heroism. An anti-villain is a character who does bad things for good reasons, and an anti-hero is a character who does good things for bad reasons. In Six of Crows the main character Kaz Brekker’s most famously violent moments is removing the eyeball of a man who hurt his love interest. On the other side of the coin, Alistar Lowe is the very person to attack his love interest. He curses her to suffering in a body that can not die but has no heartbeat. Both characters speak about their own self perception as villainous characters in the text. For example, Kaz Brekker states, “When everyone knows you're a monster, you needn't waste time doing every monstrous thing.” (Bardugo, 42). Meanwhile, Alistar Lowe claims, “Monsters couldn’t harm you if you were a monster, too.” (Foody, 80). It is this second quote that is quintessential to the understanding of pop culture’s love for anti-villains. Both characters are acting in ways that are unethical, yet justified by their backstories. This is the key to their popularity or their likability according to readers. It isn’t about the way the character’s behave, but why they behave that way. Lynn Zubernis, a professor and licensed psychologist with a Ph.D in psychology, researched into the worlds of fiction and wrote the article: Why do we Root for the Anti-Hero?. In the article, she states, “This is one of the reasons fans are often attracted to fictional villains. When characters possess rich, complex psychology, that helps fans connect to them. If a character is complex enough, it challenges viewers’ capacity for understanding others’ beliefs and desires, known as theory of mind. (Zubernis, 6). A character can commit egregious acts, and readers can recognize those acts as wrong but still adore them regardless. Why? Ethical standards appear far looser for characters than people in real life. Why is this? Moral Blindfolds and Ethical Reflections: Imagination, Ethics and Film by Matthew Thorpe states that there exists both, “the simultaneous imagining of the fictional world from within the perspective of a character, and how things are independently from the way that he or she experiences it” (Thorpe, 221). There is a difference between how the world is, how the character perceives it, and how the readers are able to perceive the picture as a whole. From there it is up to the reader to play jury and determine what actions are right and wrong, justified or not. Morality as a term implies clear lines drawn that define the differences between good and evil. Various ethical theories prove that those lines are not as stark as they may initially seem. In the world of fiction, there is a third variable that factors into readers approval of a character or choice: likeability. If a character is likeable enough, their offenses may be outweighed by fan adoration. As Thorpe stated, people are capable of holding the objective facts in one hand and their opinions of a character in another. In the end, there will always be a level of subjectivity to the likability of characters in fiction. Both of the aforementioned characters commit deplorable deeds, yet are beloved by readers. The popularity of the anti-villain archetype speaks volumes to a paradoxical situation where there is a love for the villain but hatred of the villainy. In the end, many readers are drawn to characters who are not only imperfect but complex in their imperfections. There is no denying that anti-villains and anti-heroes alike push this idea to a further extreme. They are fascinating character archetypes that defy the traditional ethical values of the populace yet have won the hearts of millions nonetheless. Complexity lies at the heart of likeability. Works Cited: Bardugo, Leigh. Six of Crows. Thorndike Press, a Part of Gale, a Cengage Company, 2015. Foody, Amanda, and Christine Lynn Herman. All of Us Villains. Hachette Australia, 2021. Thorpe, Matthew. Moral Blindfolds and Ethical Reflections: Imagination, Ethics and Film. University of Kent, 2012. ​​Zubernis, Lynn. “Why Do We Root for the Anti-Hero?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 9 Jan. 2023, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-science-of-fandom/202301/why-do-we-root-for-the-anti-hero. To learn more about the author, check out @cryptic.cryptid.write

Are you looking for a way to expand your writing portfolio? Do you have opinions about the writing industry that you want to share with others, but don’t know how? Then we’ve got the perfect opportunity for you! Our blog is open year-round to submissions about everything from indie author interviews to opinionated articles. Here, we target new and aspiring authors to help them gain experience, whether that be submitting their pieces or publishing. What happens after I submit? Well, it’s a simple process. We will read through and analyse your work. This is usually done by only one Head of Content. If your piece fits the kind of content we publish and the writing style is appealing, we will pitch it to the other Heads of Content and discuss whether to accept it or not. What if I get rejected? There's no shame in that! Rejection is an integral part of expanding your writing portfolio and a great learning experience. If you have a 100% success rate, you won’t grow in your writing. Our team is committed to being professional when working with outside writers and we understand the sting rejection brings. Don’t be afraid of failure and take the risk. When the day comes that you have another article for us to read, we’ll accept it eagerly! It’s important to remember that rejections aren’t a mark of your writing at all. Rather, they are an expression of our tastes. For example, we were approached with an idea for an article about healing and wellness. While the article itself was written splendidly, it did not tie in with our magazine’s theme of publishing articles related to the writing and reading industry. So if you get rejected, maybe it just means you haven’t found the right idea yet :) What if I get accepted? We’ll send an official email to you confirming your acceptance. From then on, we will work together to polish and then publish your work. Whether that be going through one round of editing or more, we’re here to help you improve! Once the editing and revising process is over, we will send another email detailing the date your article gets published and the link to our blog page. Once the post is published, it’ll be shared on our social media to ensure your work gets the best possible reception we can offer! Want to know what our Heads of the Blog Department would like to see? Smrithi: The best kind of blogs are the ones with varied opinions and yet a common theme running throughout. All our blog posts share one trait that is evident from the post itself: the author’s passion for writing. Whether they are discussing their opinions on modern love interests or interviewing an indie author about how they published their book or giving readers ideas to inspire their writing, all of these authors genuinely love writing and want to give back to the writing community. So if you are submitting to us, this is what I want to see in your work. I want to see this passion. That means your article has to be written in your voice, and shouldn’t read like a forty-year-old academic who just swallowed a thesaurus. Don’t be afraid to be humorous in your submissions, don’t worry about whether you sound too “cringe” or informal. Our magazine is for teens after all; we don’t mind a dad joke every now and then :). With regards to specific posts I want to see, I love opinions of any kind! Give me all your hot takes on the latest booktok obsession. I also adore insightful posts that tell me something I don’t know. Think of Jeannie’s posts on historical references and obscure artwork. Enlighten me, dazzle me, and inspire me. Good luck <3 Jeannie: I love reading articles written distinctively in the author’s style. As an aspiring author myself, I often suffer from writing burnout and require inspiration. This is why I chose to write articles such as Artwork to Inspire Your Writing and Obscure Historical Ideas to Inspire Your Writing. I also enjoy reading about people’s niche opinions about the reading/writing community. If your article includes proper citation, grammar, and action for readers (if possible!), then it will make my editing process with you so much easier. Good luck with your submissions! Madhusree: Opinions. I adore articles examining different viewpoints, especially when contextualised with the current trends in literature. I enjoy articles examining the portrayal of society in the literary world - whether it is good, bad, or the ugly. Sharp writing, engaging narratives and a passionate voice, that is the trifecta for me. Not sure where to start? Here are some ideas: Trope glorification Writing how-to’s (ie, take a specific subtopic of writing and craft a guide for it) Indie author interviews Opinion pieces about trending topics Important issues like AI, plagiarism, copyright and more (If you’re a published author) publishing insights No matter what article you submit, we’ll give it a chance! You have absolutely nothing to lose, and everything to gain, so why not submit? You can check out our submission guidelines here and submit your work here. Look to the stars, and perhaps one day you’ll find your article among them. To learn more about the authors, check out @sj_writessss and @theunwrittenstories101 on instagram

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has recently experienced an enormous growth, since many avant-garde industries and companies are investing in its perfection and refinement. It’s undeniable that AI is useful for many things, but since it became trendy, there has been a debate on whether it should be used or not, and in what disciplines is there a room for AI. One of the most remarkable differences of opinion is between artists and AI apologists, and one of the aspects I find most interesting is the growing presence of writers that use AI in their work. To approach this questionable issue, we have to analyze it from the beginning, I mean, to ask ourselves what we think of when we think of art, what or who makes art art, and what’s the relationship between art and humans. For me, art is the materialization of perseverance. It is the idea of loving something so much, regardless of its nature, that we have to put it into words, into a canvas, or a sculpture, or notes on a pentagram. It is the concept of spending time and effort doing something inherently futile just to keep our sanity and our happiness, because it’s something that lets us live more than life itself. Writing, specifically, allows us to display our fears and deepest wishes, clear our heads, go places we can’t go otherwise. It’s a way of not letting dreams die when we turn fifteen. Then, what is art? Art is human, it’s born from pain and peace; it’s full of sweat, and years of keyboard smashes and erased strokes. But AI is the polar opposite of this. It’s empty, automatic, and cold. It focuses on the result, and the creative process is expendable because it’s less profitable than the automatic product. It takes away all the emotion human art conveys, and it’s ultimately an insult to artists, because it equates years of dedication to some combination of prompts and a database. This implies there is an established way of doing art, or an universal one, and invalidates or ignores experiences. It erases individuality because, for AI, writing beautifully doesn’t require great knowledge or many books to read, only the words of (usually stolen) works by previous artists. This virtual puzzle tries hard to imitate human art, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t represent any of us. And it may not be illegal plagiarism, but it is plagiarism at its core, a mimicking as an avoidance of the lack of creativity. Obviously, this has had an impact on writers, because it creates the illusion that wherever our art is, there is also a machine which does the same work. Scenes and dialogues can now be generated by AI, as well as story prompts, and when we actually sit before a blank page, we can’t help but think that the machine could do it better, and we’re worthless, and maybe not needed anymore. This has happened to artists now, who had already written pieces before the appearance of AI, so I cannot imagine what will happen when kids start typing their ideas into a purple prose generator instead of keeping awful diaries with the worst metaphors ever. Although my take on AI is skeptical and I am mainly against it, I do recognise the fact that it is a useful tool, at least in writing. But in my opinion, its use should be limited to consulting, rewording and generating prompts for our stories, like we would use a thesaurus or ask our friend about a certain phrase. The problem is when it starts looking more like a ghost-writing device, in which case I believe the author's credit isn't well deserved. It's fine to need a source of inspiration, but there must be some talent in our pieces, there has to be something that is ours because otherwise, not only will the machine be the protagonist, but our identity will also fade and disappear. It erases the growth, the process of finding the right words and creating your own rabbit hole with little bricks made of sentences you hear and experiences you live. It separates the art from the artist to the point where there’s no artist, and no receptor who needs it, it’s from nobody to nobody. That is a very curious thing, because art is, and has always been about non-conformism and rebelliousness; it has always been about jumping out of the norm just because the norm bothered us. There is just something that doesn’t feel right about the fact that those who make art now are also the corporations that control our wages, when it always used to be the other way around. After all, we need those corny metaphors, those handwritten letters and the diaries wherein we created our first stories. We need the Wattpad drafts, unfinished poemaries and crumpled up papers, because art is not linear, it’s a giant palimpsest. What writers are now is not new, it is what has evolved from all the previous plot holes, what we have worked on perfecting for so long. And we cannot let Artificial Intelligence take that away from us. We can’t unbind ourselves from our effort so easily. We have to fight back, and the only way we can do it is by being the best artists we can be. Yes, by continuing to work hard on our creations by not letting it hurt us, and being stronger than whatever is coming. Because no matter what, no one is going to write your story better than you can. Why? Because it’s yours. So don’t give up, because every mistake of yours is worth more than a million automatically generated successes. Follow us @rewritethestarsreview for more blog posts like these!

by Jeannie Lam Trigger Warnings: Gore/blood, rape Writing, a way of storytelling, is often associated with reading. But what most people don’t think about is the similarities between writing and art. Behind each art piece is a multifaceted meaning or a story that is integral to the artwork. Despite their physical differences, writing and art are very akin to each other. There is much to learn from art which could help improve your writing. Here are some examples and how they could apply to your work in progress: A Huguenot by John Everett Millais You may have noticed the woman’s odd facial expression at first glance but chalked it off as something insignificant. However, this curious look is not a trick of the light. There is a much deeper and more sorrowful story behind this story. Why is she tying an armband on her lover’s arm? And why does it seem as if he is tugging the strip of cloth off? What does the white cloth mean? And why does the man look so in love, while his lover is in despair? The woman is Catholic, and she is currently trying to put a white armband on her Protestant lover’s arm. This painting is a scene moments before horror hits. It refers to St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre, where thousands of Protestants were killed. Only a few of them managed to escape the city because they were wearing white armbands. Perhaps he escaped. Perhaps he didn’t. What would you do if you were writing out this scene? Is it a doomed love story - cursed longing for someone who would never truly belong to you? Did the man pass away in the woman’s arms if he died? Or were they separated, never to touch each other again? What goes through her head? Why didn’t he let her put on the armband, despite knowing it was the way to being saved? There is so much going on in the painting, from the historical background to the way they look at one another. Notice the tragically beautiful juxtaposition that happens: the woman realising death was the only option and the look of pure love the man gives his lover. What happens next…? The Roses of Heliogabalus by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema This is most certainly a beautiful painting, from the vibrant petals to the tranquil landscape. But then, you look closer at the facial expressions of the people buried in the flowers and think…what is happening? Well, the guests are dying due to asphyxiation. There are so many rose petals that it is choking the guests! All the while, Emperor Heliogabalus watches this scene unfold from where he reclines at the table (left) with an expression of utter carelessness. Hasn’t the pretty painting turned horrifying real quick? What would you do if you were writing this scene? Would you write about the ironically beautiful death, or will you focus on the terror and understanding of the people? Is there symbolism in the type of flowers? Will you focus on Heliogabalus? Was he misunderstood, or simply tyrannical? Or will you focus on the backstories of the people? Were they going home to a loving wife and family? Judith Beheading Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi One glance, and you can already tell that there must be a gruesome story behind this painting. Judith (right), the heroine of this tale, has snuck into the Assyrian war camp to behead their general, Holofernes (middle). But for this artwork, part of the story lies within the painter, Artemisia Gentileschi, who was one of the only female artists of her time. When Gentileschi was young, she was raped, which many people think inspired how she painted the piece. Put yourself into your character. If you were faced with their problems and circumstances, what would you do? What parts of your story were impacted by your personal life? How can you use your experience to make the narrative more realistic? The Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard No doubt, this is a beautiful, light-hearted painting. The woman on the swing seems to be having the time of her life, kicking her legs towards the joyous sun. But then you notice the man in the painting. Two men. One stands behind her, shrouded in shadows, and the other playfully stretches his arms out to his lover. His lover, not wife, like she is to the man in the shadows. An affair is brewing, and the statues nearby know it. One of them, a putto (winged baby that represents love), holds a finger to his mouth. Interestingly enough, the rose, commonly known to symbolise love, also represents secrecy. Think about how you can take your novel to the next level with the levels of depth. How can you play with symbolism and make your literary devices multi-faceted? In addition, think about what secrets your characters will take to the grave to make them more realistic. The Lady of Shalott by John Willian Waterhouse This painting is based on the poem ‘The Lady of Shalott’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson. ‘The Lady of Shalott’ is based on Arthurian legends and tells the story of a woman with the same name who is cursed to never look at Camelot (King Arthur’s fictional castle). One day, upon seeing the face of Sir Lancelot, she falls in love and her curse falls upon her. The Lady then gets into a boat with the realisation of death approaching her quickly. Around the boat, you can see symbolism pointing to the Lady of Shalott nearing the end of cursed life. For example, fallen leaves, representing a fallen woman, litter the river bed. Her anguished expression and the dull background colours add to the downtrodden feeling of the painting. What do the objects in the art mean to the Lady? Why did she get into the boat? How do facial expressions and descriptions add to the overall feeling of your book? Delve into the backstories of your characters: Why was the Lady of Shalott cursed, and how did she live with it? What these artworks teach us is to think deeply about the thought process of your characters and their background. Don’t simply stick a label on them and call it a day. Treat them as if they are real people. Dig deeper into their character and personality, and once you do so, there will be a deeper layer to your writing - just like art. To Learn more about the author, check out @sj_writessss on instagram.

by Jeannie Lam The mundaneness of being in writer’s block hits you hard. Every day, you make an attempt to continue writing, but your mind just can’t seem to find anything you’re passionate about, no matter how far you reach into the depths of your head. You’re desperate for an idea, but it can’t just be any idea. It has to be something original, something the general public hasn’t heard of before. What if I told you that your next greatest inspiration will come from history? History may seem tedious and distanced - which it is to some. But let me open your eyes and bring you to the past to show a time that you can bring to life. The Kandakes of Meroe The Kandakes (or Candaces) of Meroe were a series of queens who ruled the Kingdom of Kush (Sudan) around 284 BCE. Before the Kandakes were a series of kings that ruled, but after King Arkamani I changed the rules, women’s power over the country increased. Shanakdakhete was one of the queens who ruled by herself. She also lead her armies into battle and brought Meroe to prosperity. Amanirenas is the one-eyed queen who guided peace talks with Augustus Caesar after the Merotic War. When the Roman prefect Gaius Petronius attacked Kush, she once again brought her negotiation skills to the table without flinching from the aggression. During her time in Egypt, she brought back a statue of Augustus that she buried under a flight of stairs so that civilians would trample his head. These powerful women remain unknown to most people. This makes them the perfect story to retell now. How did Shanakdakhete achieve independence and what did the public think of it? What did Amanirenas think when she fought during the Merotic War? Bronze Age Collapse The Bronze Age is known as one of the three periods of prehistory. When it happened around 3000 BCE - 1200 BCE was when humans started using metals such as bronze. They crafted items like the wheel and weapons. But then this prosperous time stopped. The Bronze Age suddenly ended around 1200 BC. No living person is sure of the reason why. Civilisations all across the world suffered, with their cities forgotten and trade routes abandoned. But what truly happened? What did the people living during that time have to face? Were there stories of love and desperation? With the mystery shrouded around this time, it offers a way to pique the reader’s interest and inspire you to question the problem yourself. The Romanov Family The Romanovs were the royal family who lead Russia in 1900. Czar Nicholas II had four daughters and one son, Alexei. The young boy had inherited haemophilia, a blood disease that made the only heir weak. Desperation to cure him helped his mother, Alexandra, believed the holy man Grigori Rasputin could heal him of his ailments. Due to Rasputin’s influence over the royal family, the public raged at him and he was eventually murdered in 1916. Some say he was a fake, others said he performed miracles. But what was he? After years of civil unrest in Russia, the Romanovs were sentenced to death. Soon, they were murdered by the firing squad and were buried. There, they laid forgotten until they were discovered in a grave in 1991. But many believed that Czar Nicholas’ daughter, Anastasia, managed to escape death. Many women have claimed to be her, but none were backed by evidence. So what do you think? Did the family escape execution? If they did, then how? How would they have survived the World Wars? History itself is filled to the brim with countless stories, some forgotten, others thought of daily. As you finish this article, it's important to remember that history is not just plain facts. It is a person’s life: their love, hope, and despair, all bound into a neat sentence. Go wild with your ideas. Bring them back to life. To learn more about the author, check out @sj_writessss on instagram.

In preparation for Issue 5: Jabberwocky, our wackiest issue yet, I have created a list of wacky quotes to inspire your writing. This issue is all about embracing anything fun, weird, and wacky, and these quotes reflect that. It’s important to embrace all writing, even the silly kind. Of course these quotes can be used to inspire any writing, not exclusively any for Issue 5. Whether you choose to submit your wacky writing to Issue 5 or not, I hope these quotes can help! “People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” - A.A. Milne “When life gives you lemons, squirt someone in the eye.” - Cathy Guisewite “A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.” - Steve Martin “Not my circus, not my monkeys. But I definitely know the clowns.” - Unknown “It was me. I let the dogs out” - Unknown “A synonym is a word you use when you can’t spell the other one.” - Baltasar Gracián “Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?” - Edgar Bergen “I hope someday to write something worth plagiarizing.” - Shubhranshu Sharma “Money can’t buy love, but it improves your bargaining position” - Christopher Marlowe “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” - Will Rogers “The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job application form.” - Stanley J. Randall “It feels like the sky just sweated on me.” - Hailey (nine years old) “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow just as well.” - Mark Twain “You can spend your whole life trying to be popular, but at the end of the day, the size of the crowd at your funeral will be largely dictated by the weather.” - Frank Skinner “Everyone has a purpose in life. Perhaps yours is watching television.” - David Letterman “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” - Vince Lombardi “Friendship is being there when someone’s feeling low and not being afraid to kick them.” - Randy K. Milholland “Why do they call it rush hour when nothing moves?” - Robin Williams “Before you marry a person, you should first make them use a computer with slow internet service to see who they really are.” - Will Ferrell “I didn’t fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.” - Benjamin Franklin “I need a six month vacation twice a year.” - Anonymous “If at first you don’t succeed, find if the loser gets anything.” - William Lyon Phelps “I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.” - Steven Wright “I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.” - Fred Allen “If you’re too open-minded; your brains will fall out.” - Lawrence Ferlinghetti “If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments.” - Steven Wright “The first time I see a jogger smiling, I’ll consider it.” - Joan Rivers “When nothing is going right, go left.” - Unknown “The word abbreviation sure is long for what it means.” - Zach Galifianakis “Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.” - Elbert Hubbard “You know the trouble with real life? There’s no danger music.” - Jim Carrey “I learn from the mistakes of people who took my advice.” - Pakalu Papito “I walk around like everything is fine, but deep down, inside my shoe, my sock is sliding off.” - Unknown “Am I perfect? No. But am I striving to be a better person every day? Also no.” - Unknown “We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.” - Bryan White “To succeed in life you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone. - Reba McEntire “Two wrongs don’t make a right, but they make a good excuse.” - Thomas Stephen Szasz “The odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread and coming out with only a loaf of bread are three billion to one.” - Emma Bombeck “I don’t believe in astrology; I’m a Sagittarius and we’re skeptical.” - Arthur C. Clarke “My favorite machine at the gym is the vending machine.” - Caroline Rhea “I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early.” - Charles Lamb “Life is hard. After all, it kills you.” - Katharine Hepburn “Marriage is the chief cause of divorce.” - Groucho Marx “I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson “When I was a boy the Dead Sea was only sick.” - George Burns “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” - Douglas Adams “Can a cell in a cell sell ramen to a cell that sells cells?” - Sunny and friends I hope this post helped inspire you to create the wackiest story ever! Submissions for Issue 5 open on August 31st, and end on September 30. Follow us at @rewritethestarsreview on Instagram for more information! To learn more about the author, check out @clay_crafts_art_on instagram

I’m sure most of you have heard of the climate issue in some way. Maybe you learned about global warming and climate change in school, or you’ve read an article about the dangers of greenhouse gasses and fossil fuels. But did you know that you can help lessen the extent of damage done by these things by only changing small things in your day-to-day life? I would also like to add a disclaimer that most people contribute very little to the climate issue in comparison to some large companies. That being said, please don't feel guilty if you contribute to the climate issue. Many larger factors contribute much more than the general public, but it's still important to try and help. This is all to raise awareness! What is the Climate Issue? Before we start getting into more detail about the climate issue and talking about what you can do to help, let’s discuss what it is. This problem is often known as and associated with climate change and global warming. These two things have similar meanings. If explained simply, they are all based around how the earth’s climate is becoming warmer due to human activity. Now, let’s talk about why exactly this is happening. One of the main causes of climate change is greenhouse gasses, which are created by the carbon emissions burning fossil fuels creates. Over 30 metric tons of fossil fuels are burned annually. Fossil fuels include oil, coal, and natural gas. Greenhouse gasses create a kind of “blanket” around the earth, trapping the sun’s warmth inside and creating what is called a greenhouse effect. Over time this raises the earth’s temperature, leading to the climate issue. So far, Earth's temperature has increased 33.98 degrees Fahrenheit or 1.1 degrees celsius since the late 1800s. One of the reasons greenhouse gasses are so impactful today is because of deforestation. It's estimated that 15 billion trees are cut down each year, and over 30 million of these trees are used to produce books. Trees absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and create oxygen during photosynthesis, which lessens the amount of greenhouse gasses in the air and provides us with more oxygen. Some things that emit fossil fuels into the atmosphere include transportation, agriculture, and industrial purposes. According to The USEPA in 2021, agriculture contributed 10%, transportation contributed 28%, electric power contributed 25%, industry contributed 23%, and commercial & residential contributed 13% to the United States' greenhouse gas emissions. Of course, there are other human-related causes of the climate issue, but greenhouse gasses are one of the largest contributors today. Why you should help The climate issue will not only affect the environment, wildlife, and the earth but also humans. Because the earth’s temperature is increasing, ice caps and glaciers are melting and will continue to melt. This causes the ocean levels to rise, which will put coastal areas under water and potentially even almost all land on earth. This will affect humans because the land, resources, and wildlife in these areas will be gone or difficult to access. The climate issue will also cause the weather to become more unpredictable, leading to dangerous weather such as droughts, floods, and hurricanes all becoming more common. This will affect our safety, the safety of wildlife, and possibly threaten our water and food supply. Also, the more burning of fossil fuels and carbon emissions increase, the more our air quality will decrease. This will make going outside unsafe for children, people with breathing conditions, and potentially everyone. It could also lead to long-term health problems. All of these events will also make it hard for plants and animals to survive, which creates food shortages for people. Although the climate issue is caused by both natural events and changes, the main contributor today is human activity. This is why it’s important to educate ourselves and do what we can to help! How you can help Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. They’re in that order for a reason! They are ordered from what makes the most of an impact, to what makes the least of an impact. The first step you should try to take is to reduce your plastic use and waste. You can do this by using environmentally friendly products. Environmentally friendly products include things such as reusable bags, reusable cups and water bottles, wax wraps/covers, clothing made with recycled fabric, products with biodegradable packaging (such as paper), and other reusable, recycled, or biodegradable items. that, you should reuse any plastic or waste you use. This can be done by using items for crafts, washing, and disinfection. Please only do this if the item is safe to be used again! Finally, you should recycle anything that you’re able to. Make sure the item is recyclable, and check the recycling guidelines in your area. Use journals and notebooks made of recycled materials. These can be a great way to draw, write, take notes, complete schoolwork, etc. while helping the environment! There are many journals and notebooks made with recycled plastic and paper out there. You can find some through many online small businesses, and occasionally larger companies. Speak up and support others who are trying to help. There are many programs, communities, petitions, etc. out there that you can get involved in. A quick Google or social media search can direct you to some of these. You can also spread the word about how to help with the climate issue to others. If you happen to be a writer, you can raise awareness through your writing. Avoid buying paper copies of books. The production of books contributes a lot to deforestation and carbon emissions. Instead of purchasing paper copies of books, you can purchase online versions. There are many websites and apps that provide books that you can buy in order to support the authors and avoid using unnecessary paper. Reduce energy use at home. You can reduce the amount of energy you use at home by unplugging things if they aren’t being used, turning off lights in rooms you aren’t in, and taking shorter showers. Some of these things can even save you money! Donate books. Donating books to local libraries, bookstores, schools, and friends can help reduce the amount of people purchasing paper copies of books. Sometimes these organizations will even pay for books. This will also allow you to clear up space, and allow others to explore more amazing books. Use public transportation, carpool, or bike/walk places more often. It’s not only good for the environment but in many situations good for yourself to bike and walk places. An alternative to this is carpooling or public transportation. All of these options can help you save money and are beneficial to the environment! Make homemade paper from recycled paper. This is a great way to have fun, create something unique to write or draw on, and help the environment all at the same time! A quick search on the Internet will bring you to many methods, and you'll just have to try some that work best for you. One of the best things about this is that you can personalize your paper as much as you want, and have fun with it. Get food locally. Getting food from farmer's markets, local farmers, and other local sources can help cut back on fossil fuel emissions used during transportation. Getting food from your own garden can help with this even further. Write digitally instead of on paper. After all of the rough drafts and edits made during the writing process, a lot of paper can be used. In order to avoid the unnecessary use of paper and creation of waste, it's better to write digitally. It can also be a much easier and more organized option at times. If you would like to see what your carbon footprint is, and how many Earths we would need to live like you every day, please click here. Just as a quick disclaimer, I do not earn any commission from sharing this link. It is simply a resource that will calculate your carbon footprint, and give you tips on how to decrease it. I hope this resource and article have helped you become more aware about your contribution to the climate issue, and provide you with ways to change for the better. References: United Nations. “What Is Climate Change?” Climate Action, United Nations, www.un.org/en/climatechange/what-is-climate-change. Accessed July 2023. United Nations. “Actions for a Healthy Planet.” Act Now, United Nations, www.un.org/en/actnow/ten-actions#:~:text=Much%20of%20our%20electricity%20and. Accessed July 2023. Biferno , Anya, and Randal Jackson. “Global Warming vs. Climate Change.” Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet, NASA, 26 July 2023, climate.nasa.gov/global-warming-vs-climate-change/. Accessed July 2023. National Geographic. “Climate Change | National Geographic Society.” Education.nationalgeographic.org, National Geographic, education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/climate-change/. Accessed July 2023. ‌US EPA. “Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions | US EPA.” US EPA, 28 Apr. 2023, www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions#top. Accessed July 2023. US EPA “The Sources and Solutions: Fossil Fuels.” Www.epa.gov, 20 Jan. 2023, www.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/sources-and-solutions-fossil-fuels#:~:text=oxide%20emissions%20include%3A-. Accessed July 2023. The Royal Society. “The Basics of Climate Change.” The Royal Society, royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/climate-change-evidence-causes/basics-of-climate-change/. Accessed July 2023. ‌‌Onya. “48 Eco Friendly Products You Can Buy Today to Help Stop Plastic Pollution.” Onya Life, 20 July 2017, www.onyalife.com/eco-friendly-products/. Accessed Aug. 2023. B-cap. “Eco-Friendly Products: 6 Examples of Daily Product.” B-CAP, 2018, b-cap.eu/environmentally-friendly-products-5-examples-of-daily-products/. Accessed Aug. 2023. ‌Faiz, Muhaiminah. “How to Make Paper (Easy Method of Making Recycled Paper).” The Craftaholic Witch, 30 May 2022, www.thecraftaholicwitch.com/how-to-make-paper/. Accessed Aug. 2023. ‌Babcock, May. “Here’s How to Make Handmade Paper from Recycled Materials.” Paperslurry, www.paperslurry.com/2014/05/19/how-to-make-handmade-paper-from-recycled-materials/. Accessed Aug. 2023. ‌ wikiHow. “How to Make Recycled Paper.” WikiHow, 30 May 2023, www.wikihow.com/Make-Recycled-Paper. Accessed Aug. 2023. ‌Talbot, Dean. “Impact of Book Publishing on Environment – WordsRated.” WordsRated, 22 Feb. 2023, wordsrated.com/impact-of-book-publishing-on-environment/#:~:text=For%20the%20US%20alone%2C%20the. Accessed July 2023. ‌Global Footprint Network. “How Many Planets Does It Take to Sustain Your Lifestyle?” Ecological Footprint Calculator, Global Footprint Network, www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en. Accessed July 2023. ‌Kilgore, Georgette. “How Many Trees Cut down Each Year or in 2023? The Deforestation Crisis Explained.” 8BillionTrees.com, 10 July 2023, 8billiontrees.com/trees/how-many-trees-cut-down-each-year/#:~:text=Paper%20Production. Accessed July 2023. ‌World Nuclear Association. “Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Electricity.” Www.world-Nuclear.org, Oct. 2022, www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/energy-and-the-environment/carbon-dioxide-emissions-from-electricity.aspx#:~:text=Worldwide%20emissions%20of%20carbon%20dioxide. Accessed Aug. 2023. To learn more about the author, check out @clay_crafts_art_ on instagram

by Smrithi Senthilnathan Issue IV: Song Of The Earth has garnered such a tremendous response that we wanted to offer you more content on the issue! To further this objective, we explored the stories behind each piece. We talked to the artists responsible for these wonderful creations, and sought the inspiration for each piece. This feature is a glimpse into the minds of these wonderful young artists, as they tell us what their piece meant to them. Let us know in the comments which creators' words resonated with you the most <3 Note: The instagram accounts of the creators are mentioned in brackets for you to check out more of their work. Please do give their work the love it deserves :) POETRY Elisabeth D - i wish i could heal you (@bethowdiewrites) I'd like to say this is an ecological poem. It is about wanting to give back to our common home, Earth, despite the hard times. I think it's a good fit for the magazine because everyone can relate to it, no matter the country, no matter the age. I'm personally a teenager and I'm hopeful we can heal Earth if we all work for it, and I hope other teens will too. Teresa M Medina - Soil and Soul It doesn't have a direct inspiration, but I'm sure everyone has ever put their feet on the grass, or walked through the woods, and wondered what would it be like to stay there forever, and grow roots somewhere in the wild. This poem tries to reflect that desire to merge with the trees and the sand and everything around us, because that would be more peaceful and just easier for us. I think it fits the theme because it talks about the way we connect with the earth and how we feel a part of it even if our lives don't take place there directly. I think that is something that never dies, and whenever we have the chance, we feel it, and that is what makes us love it and try to protect it. Kiran - Emerald Dreams (@folklxrei) I was inspired by the natural disasters, as morbid as it sounds. I wanted to draw attention toward how losing feels, even when it isn’t a person. A forest, in this poem, has the same sentimental value as a person to the narrator. The poem is also about rage, and how we blind ourselves to our future for a transitorily comfortable present. Arryn Liu - Earth Song & Good Intentions (@arrynnat_the_peculiar) For ‘Earth Song’, I thought about the beauty of the Earth and how people including myself have done things to harm it in spite of how much we claim to love our planet, which all contribute to global warming. Thus, I wrote down the feelings of remorse and guilt associated with this in the poem. Then for ‘Good Intentions’, as someone who really likes turtles, I have always felt like I needed to say something about the practice of ‘mercy releases’ by certain Buddhists who don’t know any better when they release invasive/ non-native species of animals into the wrong types of habitats for the sake of good karma, ironically causing ecological destruction and unnecessary suffering. As such, I wrote this piece from the perspective of a red-eared slider—a common freshwater turtle—who has been wrongly released into the sea and is thus in pain and angry about his treatment and the hypocrisy and ignorance of the humans who did this to him. To sum things up, both pieces are supposed to reflect how the complacency, ignorance and hypocrisy of humans have harmed the earth and its other animal inhabitants whatever their intentions may be. Tapasya Bhardwaj - Sorry (@laxmisharmabtp123) The poem seems to be simple but it contains a lots of things related to nature. Poets mainly write about human emotions by using nature as metaphor and that's why I have mentioned it in the first two lines of every para/stanza to drag more attention and make it more creative that it is mainly and only about nature and it's beauty. Every stanza symbolises different qualities of nature. It has a lot of elements from nature including sun, aurora, moon etc. etc. I kept it simple because I want the readers to focus on the beautiful things I have included. MG - Melody of Agony (@melifuousgelatoo.writes) Pondering over this issue, I suddenly remember that in the Islamic world creation story, the Earth cried hard and resisted when the Angel tried to take a piece of soil to make humans. That made me realise how cries can be another way you interpret Song of the Earth. Then I also remember how ridiculous it was when Earth day came and we would be told to make save earth; go green posters for school projects when all we did was nothing but wasting papers. I think most students have experienced wasting tons of papers throughout studying at school, which really, can be improved if only the teachers actually cared a bit about the Earth. Ava Palmer - Pondering (@avajanepalmer) This poem is inspired by my growing concern over the state of the world. I like to study astronomy, and so I am in constant reminder of just how brutal our universe is, and how lucky we are to live on a planet as hospitable as Earth. I think this is a problem that affects everyone, but it affects young people most of all, though we are not the ones who caused the problem in the first place. Though it may be easy to live in blissful ignorance of climate change, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. I think young people are worried. We are choking in a fire that we never started. This poem, like many others, is about the beauty and resilience of nature. Life on Earth has survived at least five mass extinctions, and so, there is hope. We live such busy lives, we fail to listen to the Earth, and take the time to experience nature. I wrote this poem as a reminder that life is both finite and resilient. We each possess our own power to change the world, for better or worse. Shamik Banerjee - To A Fountain (@where_tales_end) If I were to attribute this poem to a particular scene or name, the credit would fall short as I have been privileged to see many breathtaking fountains, especially in Northeast India. Not to mention the pristine beauty of the south and its wondrous hills, the short hills of Meghalaya and the sweet melodious streams falling from them had captivated me the most. Nethi - earth. (@venus.in.verse) I feel as if my poem represents the true power of nature and how much nature can mean to us. It is a driving force in all our lives and we should appreciate it for everything it gifts us with. Olajide Overcomer - You Can Not Hear The Earth Speak You can not hear the earth speak explored the disconnection between humans and nature. Humans tend to overlook the beauty in little things of the earth. I aim to emphasize on the significance of even the smallest details in our world, their origin and meaning or the mysteries behind them. A repetition device was used to emphasize on our ignorance. Elisabeth Flett - Callieach (@essaflett) Inspired by the windswept landscape of the Uists in Scotland, this piece of writing is a modern take on the Scottish tale of the Callieach, an ancient folkloric figure known for her power to alter landscapes, throw rocks and change the seasons. What better place for such a wild woman to retire, I thought, than one of the wildest places I know? The addition of a dog was inspired by one of my favourite fictional witches of all time, Tiffany’s Granny from Terry Pratchett’s Wee Free Men series. Elisabeth Flett - Aberdeen Beach (@essaflett) A few years ago I signed up to an online course in witchcraft, interested to know more about the esoteric and explore religious beliefs outside the institutionalised practises of Christianity, the religion with which I grew up. On the night of Halloween we were encouraged to do something which connected us to our ancestors, and as the descendent of Aberdeenshire fishing folk I went down to the beach near where I lived in Aberdeen to look out on the sea where they once worked so many decades previously. The weather was outrageous; a true storm, one that hurled icy rain in my face and stopped my steps with wild, furious wind. Battered and bruised by the elements, I never the less paid the disbelieving taxi driver, stepped into the darkness and screamed my pre-planned spell into the black, my words drowned by the sounds of sea and howling gale. The rest of the experience can only really be described as the unarguable fact that something definitely heard me, and something certainly replied; I even felt a very strong request for the hymn May Your Anchor Hold, which made sense since many of my family were apparently staunch members of the Salvation Army, but tricky for me as someone who had never been to a SA service in my life! The whole experience was otherworldly; afterwards, dripping and shivering in the Pizza Hut bathroom trying to wring saltwater out of my clothes, I wasn’t sure what I’d done or who I’d potentially just met, their ghosts reaching out to me in the dark. This poem is an attempt to describe that lifting of the veil that night, and I love performing it live as a sort of (much drier!) re-imagining of that magical experience. Cyrus Berry - he is my world. (@starchildcy) What inspired me to write this poem was the love me and my partner share. As a teen, I feel like we’re all desperately searching for someone to love us and for someone to love. I want to share my work so others know that it is possible, especially for queer youth. Maggie - Plants Get Tired, Too (@musingsofmaggie) I wrote this poem a year or so ago while prepping for college admissions—I was severely falling into a pit of unreasonable and unhealthy ambition. I rewrote it recently with a kinder narrative; I hope it can serve as a reminder to other teens in that pit that it’s okay and necessary to slow down. Vastriane - The River of Rue (@vastriane) Sophocles' play, "Antigone," was my favorite one out of the Oedipus Rex trilogy. This three-fold tragedy and the intricate manipulation of the Fates of the lives of Antigone, Ismene, and Creon inspired this poem, which originally followed the syntax of Louise Gluck's "The Triumph of Achilles," but with the incorporation of nature elements that symbolized the characters. "Antigone" stuck with me since I read it for the first time for an academic report in high school, mostly because, despite it being a tragedy, I enjoyed the way Aeschylus portrayed the interwoven lives of such differing characters. I believe that it has a certain brilliance, the showcasing of death and love side by side—both so beautiful and haunting—which is what I also want to echo for the young readers. Death is a part of nature, just as love is, as honor, as life, and as the patches of sunlight that shine through the leaves and branches of a tree. I hope that the aforementioned trilogy and my poem serve as reminders that just because death is terrifying doesn't mean it's unnatural. Just different. Finally, as part of the writing community, I also hope that we can write more about death as a part of nature and the many ways we react or reflect on it, so that it won't just be an idea only associated with fear. PROSE Sophia Wang - i want to see the stars one day (@fya.heathers_writes) "i want to see the stars one day" is a tale spun from a few of my deepest thoughts, wishes, and dreams. I have always loved nature, from the stars in the sky to the sparkling waters that reflect them. I love watching sunrises and going camping and walking in the forest. Yet, I have often received implied invalidation for my love of nature and desire to protect it. In my short story, this sentiment is reflected in Angelica's parents' ignoring her dream to travel to Iceland. Moreover, her resolve and courage to defy her parents' expectations embody my goal to free myself from others' critical ideas of my dreams and embrace my willingness to fight to preserve nature. As this piece empowered me, I hope it will also empower other teens to step forward to protect the Earth and all its beauty. Jake Malaya - the last words of the mud nymph (@jake_malaya) When I think of nature, the first thing that comes to my mind is how it's alive and beating, how it's constant and variable. In a way, the earth has its memories. And when you think about it, it's magical and ethereal. Even when we build cities and empires, we always commune with nature and its beauty. After all, we come from it and we also benefit from it. Regardless of where we are from, nature plays a crucial role in our history. This piece calls for us to reflect on the past that has shaped us and to take inspiration from the ground that we walk on. Grace - Symphony of Freedom (@snowflake12374) To me, nature means many different things, and displays many things. One thing it displays well is beauty. However, it crossed my mind that not many have sat down and thought about our relationship with the earth. Not many have appreciated it for what it is and was, at least not in the realm of writing. I tried to solve this in my own way, which inspired my story. I hope other teens can also come to appreciate the wonder of earth, too. CREATIVE NON-FICTION My Soul's Designs - One Breath (@mysoulsdesigns) This story was inspired by my own personal healing journey. From a young age I’ve always questioned society, my purpose, the purpose of life. I felt so constrained and restricted by society. It wasn’t until I began to recognize how we as humans have become so far replaced from nature that I began to come back to myself and heal. It’s my journey of coming back to myself and the Earth. Sunny Solaris - Mother Nature's Revenge (@sunnyyisawriter) This was inspired from one of my school assignments for economics last year from when we were learning about problems going around in the world and one of the topics we explored was the coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef. I'm not so sure about teens relating to it but for myself, helping the Earth is one of the things I fight for. I think that this piece is a good fit for this theme. Smrithi Senthilnathan - The Diminishing Influence of Nature in the Digital World (@theunwrittenstories101) There's no denying our world is becoming hyper-focused on technology and scientific advancement, pushing nature to the background. However this is backfiring on us tremendously. Everyday I wake up to a new climate disaster- either a wildfire or glaciers melting or toxic smoke emissions - the list goes on and on. In such a world, it is important to at least acknowledge what is happening to our country. We cannot take any action if we do not first acknowledge that we need action in the first place. I know this article does not contribute to actually improving the way in any possible. However my goal is to get people talking about the climate disaster. The more people that talk, the more likely people in power are to take proper action. The most useful action can be taken by those in power- and for them to do so we must pressurize them into it. Thus I hope everyone who reads this article continues to spread the word about climate change, and we create enough of a rebellion for actual change to occur.