Young Writers Society

Welcome to Squills, the official news bulletin of the Young Writers Society!

What will you find here? Tons of interesting news about YWS, including but not limited to: articles about writing, art, and the world of humanities; interviews with YWS members; shameless plugs; link round-ups; and opinionated columns.

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Well, that’s all I have for now. So, what are you waiting for? Enjoy!

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1. SPOTLIGHT HOME/SICK BY MORRIGAN
2. NEW ARRIVALS
3. YWS CALENDAR
4. REVMO RANKINGS
5. SHAMELESS PLUGS
6. SUBSCRIBERS

SPOTLIGHT
HOME/SICK BY MORRIGAN

written by marms < PM: >

Home/Sick is a poem written by @Morrigan that was posted on May 8th but was recently in the spotlight for a long time. It got 14 likes. I personally love this poem and really relate to it. I think Morrigan is an amazing poet and I’m so grateful to interview her and pick at her brain.



Morrigan: I don't like to say that my poetry just "comes out," because it brews for a while in my head. I do jot down phrases that come to mind beforehand, and often incorporate those into the poem I'm writing. That line about gunshot victims was a previously written line that fit the theme of the poem. Usually, I'm aiming at a theme, and I fill in some with lines I've come up with at a different time. So it half just "comes out," I guess.



M: Being able to connect to a poem is the responsibility of the reader. As a poet, my responsibility is to tell it how it is, so I don't really worry about whether it's relatable or not when I'm writing it. It's good to have it in a poem, but if it's the best thing in the poem, I hope that the poet does some serious rewriting, myself included. However, I am glad that you were able to connect to it, and I hope it serves as catharsis for you. That's what it did for me!



M: Oh, man. I wrote this particular one five months ago, and I'm not quite sure what the initial intention was behind it. I'm also not sure why it's in the spotlight now, of all times!



M: People tend to read homesick as just a longing for home, but I wanted people to realize that home was making me sick, just as I had been homesick before I returned home. So Home/sick becomes "home" and "sick" instead of "homesick," but retains the visual similarity with the word. So uh, yeah. Not sure if that made sense at all.



M: My favorite lines are:

The horizon I thought I longed for
flatlines like gunshot victims,

because they're very personal for me. I live in California now, where there are always mountains making the horizon beautiful and diverse, but in Nebraska, where I'm speaking of in the poem, the horizon is flat. I used to think this was beautiful, but in the poem, I'm trying to imply that it's killing me.



M: It's always the poems that we don't like the most that others like the most, isn't it? This poem needs a lot of work. It's whiny and self-centered, and needs more context in it. It's filled with un-anchored metaphors that sound pretty but really have no real meaning to the reader without another line or two of explanation. I'm sure I'll return to this. This was a first draft, so we'll see if I can salvage it.



M: Thanks for deciding to interview me!

And that’s it for this week’s Spotlight interview!

NEW ARRIVALSwritten by EternalRain < PM: >



Take a moment to welcome this week’s newest members to the site!

@Strident, although new to the site, has been pretty active in the forums! They currently have a total of 19 posts, which is pretty impressive!

@Ailurophile has a good start with 2 reviews (3 more until their first star!) and their username tells me that they’re a cat lover.

@Chitz is not only well on their way to their first review star, but also has published a poem titled Butterfly

YWS CALENDARwritten by Aley < PM: >

In order to keep up to date on all of the goings on this September, Squills will be giving you a rundown on all of the contests, their deadlines, and the workshops.

Contests

Poetry Writing Contest – Accepting Participants – Deadline Sept. 15

The deadline is fast approaching. It will actually be this Friday! If you have a poem you think is up to snuff, then post it in the forum to submit it for the contest. Right now there are two submissions, and three places, so submit your story today!

For more information contact @snowmonkey9 who is in charge of the competition.

Poetry Writing Contest

Review Contest – Accepting Participants – Deadline Sept. 30

There is still half a month until the deadline for the Review Contest, but the earlier you submit, the less time you have to worry about the review. It's best to review well and early than late or never. To submit, PM @Aley with the review of either the poem or short story in the contest thread.

Review Contest

Workshops

Kight School – Poetry Review Workshop – Over

The Poetry Workshop has come and gone, but you can still participate if you missed it! In an understanding gesture, Lizz has made the workshop available through the Knights of the Green Room club forum!

Kight School
KotGR Club Forum

Kight School – Chapter Review Workshop – Pending Release

The next workshop for Knight School will be reviewing Chapter Reviews. The date is still undecided as well as the time, so stay up to date by subscribing to the Knights of the Green Room Club, the thread for Knight School, and follow our fearless leader @LadyLizzLovelace

Kight School

Have an idea for a workshop or a contest? Go for it! Workshops and contests are for everyone to create and enjoy, so the more contests and workshops, the better.

Until next time!

REVMO RANKINGSwritten by Kays< PM: >

The first full week of RevMo is finally coming to a close and I'm here, Kays, your neighborhood Squills reporter to give the deets on the rankings. Of course this isn't a competition and RevMo is more based on personal goals than participating against others but I thought I'd take a look at the monthly leaderboards to see how everyone is doing.

In tenth place, I'm currently sitting at sixteen reviews where I make the attempt to catch up to the #1 spot over the weekend, although I don't think I'm going to even though I have Monday off for purposes around my area. We'll see how far ahead I'm able to jump in the time that I have! We'll see, friends.

In ninth, @rosette meanders her way into the mix with fifteen reviews out of fifty for the month! Goodness gracious, this woman's been doing her work. Rosette punches life in the face to get in these fifteen reviews LIKE A CHAMP. The same can be said for our resident slushie that I hope isn't made out of oil pastels, @PastelSlushie. At the number eight spot, she's already done eighteen reviews this month, almost two fifths of the way through and we're only ten days in!

Our next three contestants all clock in at eighteen reviews! These three are @TheSilverFox, @Sheyren and @Steggy, three of our pirates in the SB Crew who are in places seventh, sixth and fifth respectively! Even though our pirates are usually to be found in the Storybook section, they've gone out of their way to give us eighteen reviews this month so far and hopefully many more! Let's give them a round of applause the jolly and awesome pirates.

In fourth place, @MJTucker blows us all away with nineteen reviews whereas third and second place is held by @Aley and @BlueAfrica with twenty-one reviews and at first place, @Mea stands tall as twenty-three reviews. Let's tip our hats to these four reviewing queens because they've been doing amazing so far! Mea's even almost to the halfway mark. That being said, that's all we have for ya this week. We're grateful for all of our reviewers this far into the month even if they're not in the top ten on the leaderboards, because any amount of reviews is wonderful! Keep up the great work everyone and thanks to those participating for being super awesome.

SHAMELESS PLUGS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

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SUBSCRIBERS

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