Literary journal inspires students

Copies of the first edition of “Glacier Footprints,” a literary journal produced by creative writing students at Glacier High School, have gone fast.

The 62-page journal features short stories, poetry, photography and artwork by students. There were few restrictions on creativity other than length and school appropriateness.

The journal was a culminating activity of Jaime Bell’s creative writing classes for the 2012-13 school year. Bell thought the publication would be a motivator for her students, who were primarily juniors and seniors.

“I thought the classes would be a great springboard for a literary journal,” Bell said.

When Bell started teaching at Glacier last year, there weren’t any creative writing publications like it. With four years of experience supervising student literary journals in her previous teaching position, Bell thought a similar publication would be a great addition at Glacier.

Through a $746 Kalispell Education Foundation Great Opportunities grant she was able to put thought into action.

When she told her students about the project at the beginning of each semester, “Glacier Footprints” gave them incentive to write.

Submissions were requested from the student body throughout the year and creative writing students assembled 175 journals during the last week of school in May. The majority of journals have been distributed with only about eight left.

“They were pretty proud,” Bell said.

Besides submitting their own work, Bell’s students had a taste of the publishing process. Through Google Docs online document management software, students accessed submissions, read them and were tasked with selecting what they wanted to see published, along with any comments to Bell.

“I read them too, but this allows students to have a voice in what they want,” Bell said.

There were roughly 150 writing submissions. Students looked at between 10 and 11 submissions.

Writing for a particular audience with intent of publication is an invaluable learning experience Bell said.

“Being really aware of their audience — and to intrigue them — is a valuable skill,” Bell said.

Reading about what other teens value is also beneficial.

“I think teens have a difficulty seeing through others’ eyes,” Bell said. “That’s a difficult concept to teach.”

While the online world of self-publishing, blogging and social media has opened the doors for written and artistic expression, students such as Sydney Chamberlain and Catherine Mischke, both 15, considered the formal selection and editing process as being true publishing.

Both Chamberlain and Mischke had work published in “Glacier Footprints.”

Mischke submitted an anonymous piece to which she thought would other teens could relate.

“It gave me a feeling of accomplishment that someone actually liked what I wrote and would want to have other people read it too,” Mischke said.

Chamberlain said she liked the idea of writing for a student literary journal rather than only writing for her teacher or for a grade.

“I enjoyed having a change, to let other people see my ideas and visions,” Chamberlain said.

Chamberlain said it was important to publish artwork and photography also.

“All of it is an expression of yourself,” Chamberlain said.

“I thought the journals were a really good idea,” Mischke added. “It shows there’s a whole lot of talented kids in Glacier.”

Bell said she would like to work on another edition of “Glacier Footprints,” but that would require a fundraising commitment by students or finding more grant money.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.