For many aspiring writers here at Arcadia High School (AHS), sharing their creativity and talents to a wide audience can be difficult without a platform for their voices. One invaluable resource that can help these writers is The Writer’s Den. This club, advised by AHS English teacher Ms. Nicole Zaidi, works to provide both a supportive community for young writers and a platform to share their voices–the Alias Magazine. For this semester’s issue, the Writer’s Den is interested in collecting stories centered around the theme “Shades of Meaning.”
“Shades of Meaning,” as Ms. Zaidi explained, “Just means there are many different colors of poetry, and [The Writer’s Den] wants that.” Discussing the theme, Ms. Zaidi gave several examples of potential stories to explain the creative freedom that comes with this topic. As she puts it, stories could range from “two narrators with one perspective versus another perspective” to “writing about nature through the eyes of a butterfly. It could be so creative.”
The focus on creative freedom has always been an important part of Alias Magazine’s themes. In the past, the magazine has focused on broad ideas such as “Nostalgia”, “Broad Strokes”, and “Cycles”–These all-encompassing themes encourage, rather than stifle, aspiring writers’ creativity. As Ms. Zaidi put it, “[The Writer’s Den tries] not to make [the topics] too small that it chases people away. We create a theme so it inspires people in a way that they can go several places with it.”
Because of these broad ideas, Ms. Zaidi believes that The Writer’s Den and the Alias Magazine has been “a really positive way for students to share their voices and share their personal ideas and thoughts” compared to the “stoic way [of expression] that sometimes you get in the classroom.”
The creative freedom The Writer’s Den gives has not only been important for aspiring writers, but for the growth of the club as a whole. Ms. Zaidi and her Creative Writing class wanted a place to “celebrate writing, practice writing, do things that involve writing, and inspire people to write.” By putting out broad themes such as “Shades of Meaning”, Ms. Zaidi hopes to further expand the awareness of The Writer’s Den and the Alias Magazine and “get more people school-wide involved [in writing] so they could know about [the organization] and know that they can publish their works in a safe space like a school literary magazine.”
Beyond literature and prose, The Writer’s Den and the Alias Magazine are also active in preserving and encouraging other forms of art. The Alias Magazine is searching for submissions of other forms of art such as painting and photography. Ms. Zaidi and her students are working to preserve the history of the AHS campus through actions such as “[cataloging] the murals throughout the years.”
The Writer’s Den and its Alias Magazine have shown that creative writing is more than just self-expression–it has become an integral tool for linking together various forms of art and recording the history of AHS. For all aspiring artists here at AHS, be sure to submit your work regarding “Shades of Meaning” to the Alias Magazine by Jan. 31!
Photo courtesy of The Writer’s Den
