All across America in the wake of COVID-19, schools are scrambling to figure out how to teach their students, and those students are lamenting the opportunities they’ve lost to the pandemic.

That is not, however, the story of this school year in the Writing and Publishing Department at Lincoln Park. In fact, not only have our students enjoyed a year of unprecedented opportunities and recognition, at the local, regional, and national levels — they’ve continued to take those opportunities and get that recognition, even after coronavirus shut down the country.

Every student in our department should be incredibly proud of what has been accomplished this year, in spite of the obstacles fate threw our way. We didn’t stop. We never gave up. Lots of people say those things. What follows is our proof!

Awards & Recognition

• Carnegie Mellon University Martin Luther King Jr. Writing Awards
  Honorable Mention: Juno Nascimento (W&P ’21)

• Roadrunner Review High School Writing Contest 2019
  Honorable Mention: Steviee Geagan (W&P ’20)

• 2019 Lake Effect National High School Poetry Competition
  Semi-finalist: Molly Green (W&P ’23)

• YSU Candace Gay Essay Award
  Winner: Melia Lenkner (W&P ’20)

Publication Successes

W&P students are encouraged to send their work out to journals, magazines, and small presses in the interest of being considered for publication. This year we saw an unprecedented number of students have their work published - some many times over, with more forthcoming. Some of these pieces can be found online; others can be read in print only.

Read Online:

• Balloons Lit Journal (Julia Aloi)

• Beaver County Times (Trinity Lule)

• Book Smuggler’s Den (Juno Nascimento)

• Blue Marble Review (Hailey Bartlett)

• Book Smuggler’s Den (Ceresa Morsaint)

• Book Smuggler’s Den (Mason Finamore)

• Brilliant Flash Fiction (Steviee Geagan)

• Dime Show Review (Erin Brody)

• Elan Literary Magazine (Jake Shafran)

• Hot Dish Magazine (Erin Brody)

• Hot Dish Magazine (Jake Shafran)

• Hot Dish Magazine (Julia Aloi)

• Hot Dish Magazine (Mason Finamore)

• Hunny Bee Lit (Ariana Ratliff)

• Jokes Literary Review (Julia Aloi)

• Landlocked Magazine (Julia Aloi)

• Persephone’s Daughters (Melia Lenkner)

• Silent Auctions Magazine (Hailey Bartlett)

• Sonder Midwest (Melia Lenkner)

• The Amistad (Trinity Lule)

• The Lindenwood Review (Melia Lenkner)

• The Scriblerus (Ceresa Morsaint)

• Variant Lit (Erin Brody)

• Variant Lit (Julia Aloi)

• Volney Road Review (Steviee Geagan)

Events & Media Coverage

The Writing and Publishing Department has always been ready to travel, and past students have gone cross-country to tell everyone about what’s happening at Lincoln Park. This year, though — both at home and abroad — we took our stories to the whole world, at a whole new level. The world noticed.

• In September 2019, we kicked the year off by attending Beaver County Bookfest in Beaver, PA.

• In October 2019, the staff of BatCat Press headed to the Ace Hotel in Pittsburgh to exhibit at the Pittsburgh Zine Fair.

• Also in October 2019, the student-led LAVA curation team held the first-ever Halloween LAVA, in Alumni Hall, with a dozen readers and plenty of spooky accessories.

• In November 2019, we had our first-ever student reading in Pittsburgh. The event, hosted by the White Whale Bookstore, celebrated the re-release of Far Out All My Life by local author Kevin Haworth, published by our own BatCat Press. Carnegie Mellon University also wrote about the re-release of Far Out All My Life; Mr. Haworth is a professor in CMU’s English Department.

• In December 2019, we returned to Handmade Arcade at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, where we sold BatCat Press goods and ran a typewriter activity in the Hands-On Handmade activity area.

• In January 2020, W&P senior Jake Shafran was featured in a write-up in Elan: An International Student Literary Magazine.

• In January 2020, W&P junior Juno Nascimento read at Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum, as a part of their Latinx & Proud! reading series. Juno was later featured in their sister publication, Sampsonia Way.

• In February 2020, W&P senior Trinity Lule was interviewed and featured in several local newspapers, including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Butler Eagle, and The Beaver County Times for her remarkable reporting on the KKK. She would go on to receive national attention for her journalism — a story that is still developing!

• Also in February 2020, the LAVA curation team debuted the first-ever Valentine’s-themed LAVA event, taking “LAVA in Love” on the road to the Cranberry Barnes and Noble.

• In March 2020, three W&P seniors traveled to San Antonio, TX, to attend the annual AWP Conference and Bookfair.

Had the school year gone on as planned, this list would be much longer - we had an unprecedentedly busy spring planned, and were looking forward to participating in events such as The YSU English Festival, Bookish in the Burgh, and the EQT Children’s Theater Festival, to name just a few. Another casualty of coronavirus was a departmental field trip to Washington D.C. Instead, we found ourselves facing a new and unexpected reality: moving our classes online and completing the school year from afar.

That could have been a disappointing end to a year filled with promise. Instead, our students have adapted. They continue to create. They continue to learn. They continue to take initiative, and seek new opportunities for themselves.

One of the best things about being a writer is that you learn how to tell your own story. The narrative Writing and Publishing students at Lincoln Park have created for themselves and their department is one of optimism, courage, and determination to succeed.

And is there a surprising twist at the end of it all? You’ll just have to keep reading our writers’ work to find out!