Over the years, the Island Pacific Academy student literary magazine in the high school grades has gone through many iterations all of which have showcased student work but with different final products; the latest and current version is a digital publication titled Writers’ Block.
Island Pacific Academy’s student literary magazine is an online publication. (Screen shot from the 2014-2015 Writers’ Block edition shown above.)
Mark York (‘17), came up with the name Writers’ Block as a play on words. Writer’s block (singular possessive) is a condition that prevents a person from being able to begin or continue to write. Writers Block and the plural possessive version stand for just the opposite according to York.
Several poems are included in the student literary magazine. (Screen shot from the 2014-2015 Writers’ Block edition shown above.)
“Writers’ Block is an electronic student literary magazine created by students of Island Pacific Academy for the IPA community and beyond. We take short stories, poems, art, and other pieces of creativity and story-telling and display it so the world can enjoy the diversity of talent our school has to offer,” says York. “More importantly, the magazine serves as a celebration of art and perspective – and hopefully readers will find inspiration for their own artistic pursuits.”
Part of the 2014-2015 edition was a contest to write a story using only 55 words. The winning entry and many others are included in the publication. (Screen shot from the 2014-2015 Writers’ Block edition shown above.)
Aakash Shah, Secondary English Department Chair and student literary magazine group advisor, is proud of the their achievement. “All content in the magazine from cover to cover was done by students and then all of the organization of the materials, taking photos of the art pieces, creating the pages, uploading the edition to Issuu.com, even the name of the magazine and club are student work.” Shah says that “all spellings of ‘writers block’ are used within the publication because each is correct at some point.”
A sample of one of the short stories in the 2014-2015 Writers’ Block. (Screen shot from the 2014-2015 Writers’ Block edition shown above.)
Started in the fall of 2014, the Writers’ Block club is led by high school students York, Courtney Spencer-Tolentino (‘16), and Cara Pangelinan (‘16), all of whom hope to inspire other IPA students to share their creative endeavors.
Photography is one of the art forms represented in the student literary magazine. (Screen shot from the 2014-2015 Writers’ Block edition shown above.)
Click here to go to Writers’ Block 2014-2015 on issuu.com. You may download a copy from the site and even purchase a printed copy on demand (just create an issuu.com account). The compilation of the 2015-2016 edition of Writers’ Block is ongoing; students interested in contributing a piece for the magazine or joining the Writers’ Block group should contact advisor Aakash Shah at [email protected] or talk to one of the student leaders.
