Germantown Academy is home to various clubs, including Academy Monthly, which is the country’s oldest high school literary magazine. It is run by Carmela Jenckes ‘24, Anastasia Miller ‘26, Mel Shen ‘24, Lauren Kim ‘27 and faculty advisor Ms. McPhillips.
“It’s a pretty unique club because it’s based on creativity and trying to get people to tap into their creative side,” Jenckes said. “There’s a lot of art classes and a lot of really great writers at GA, and we are trying to encourage them to share that with their teachers and peers.”
Typically, literary magazines publish submissions of creative writing, but Academy Monthly is unique in its digital format and the wide range of creative work displayed.
“We host multimodal creative work, so that could be photography, that could be podcasting, or it could be music,” said Ms. McPhillips.
“It’s a collection of original written work, but we’re expanding that definition,” Shen said. “A literary magazine doesn’t really fit us anymore because we have photography, artwork, and podcasts from different affinity clubs.”
Academy Monthly’s open meetings can vary depending on the attendance and the members’ interests. Typically, they focus on creative writing activities.
“We’ll have things like writers workshops, or we can work on things for class and revise them,” Miller said.
Academy Monthly meetings can also be laid-back and focused on connection among the club members.
“Sometimes we’ll just sit and chat and have fun together, and other times we’ll do activities like popcorn poetry,” Miller said.
“[The leaders] want to have a joyful, creative time at the club meetings and promote more submissions,” said McPhillips.
As leaders of Academy Monthly, Shen and Miller have come to appreciate literature and the arts because they can express themselves through it.
“It’s very personal,” said Shen. “A big thing in writing is ‘write what you know.’ A lot of what I write, the motivations of the characters or the way they feel, comes from my personal experiences.”
Miller sees creative writing as an opportunity to express herself beyond the constraints of the classroom.
“When I was in lower school, I hated [poetry] because all I knew of it at the time was ‘here’s a rubric: you can be creative but this is the way we’re doing it,’” Miller said. “I never knew how meaningful it can be until I got to middle school and started exploring writing just for myself.”
As Shen and Miller find their voices through creative writing, they encourage creative students to amplify their voices through Academy Monthly alongside other students who are passionate about writing or other creative pursuits.
“You can find like-minded peers who also like to create and build your connections with them,” said McPhillips. “And it’s also a space where if you’re creatively inspired, you can generate more writing.”
They accept submissions through their website, academymonthly.com, and meet on day three during flex in Ms. McPhillips’ room. Follow their Instagram account @academymonthly_ga to stay updated on events.
Academy Monthly hosts such events throughout the school year to gain more publicity as well as celebrate its members’ love for writing. One of these events is happening at the end of April in hopes of encouraging students to join.
“We have an end-of-the-year party. There will be a poetry reading and creative work showcase. It’s also where we introduce our new leaders for the whole school,” Jenckes said.