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.
And where will all of this come from? Take a look at our fantastic creative staff!




Of course, our content can’t come only from our staff. We also depend on you to help keep Squills successful. You’re all a part of a writing community, after all. If you’re interested in submitting to Squills, pop on over to the Reader’s Corner to find out how you can get involved by contributing an article or participating in other Squills activities.

You can apply to become a Squillian Journalist by submitting a sample article to Squillsbot today!

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

1. GREEN ROOM GALLERY
2. QUEER VOICES: A JOURNEY TO STORIES WORTH TELLING - VOLUME TWO
3. POETRY PERSPECTIVE: THE SUSPICIOUS READER
4. WORD OF THE WEEK: SOLIVAGANT
5. SHAMELESS PLUGS
6. SUBSCRIBERS

GREEN ROOM GALLERYwritten by Horisun< PM: >


Hello, everyone! It’s time for- well, you read the title. I’m sure most of you have seen a Green Room Gallery before. I hope I live up to predecessors. I mean, you know this is going to be quality work when the writer spent ten minutes trying to figure out the codes and probably messed up anyway! I’m getting off track, let’s get started.
Currently, there are 102 works in the Green Room with Zero or One review. When I first saw that number I was first like, “Wait, what in the name of the great wide universe? 102? Will I have to go through them all? That’s a lot. I wonder how many are mine? Like, One, probably. Whelp, time to go through them all!” As of now, (5:43 Pm, February twentieth, twenty nineteen), the work that has been there the longest is BUM BUH DUH BUM! Summoning Persephone, by Dreamworx95. More on that later, let’s continue

Summoning Persephone – Chapter 27 , by @Dreamworx95
The twenty-seventh chapter in her completed series, Dreamworx95 is ready for some final touches so it can be ready for publishing. I, personally enjoyed it very much. The excitement and characters, (Specifically Persephone, herself) are what makes this story shine to me. I highly suggest you check it out.

Heroes Brother (17) , by @mellifera
The seventeenth chapter, very good, of course, you’d have to go back to read the rest of the chapters for it to make sense. But even on its own, it’s actually really good. The stories an interesting one, and the author paints a good picture in your mind. I implore you to rescue it, because at the moment, it has zero reviews!

Emperor’s Heir , by @shieldmaiden
A very good start to the series, some action right off the bat, and plenty of questions to keep us reading. I certainly suggest this to anyone and everyone!

The nature of us , by @TheMulticolorCyr
The first poem on this list is quite real, and something that happens all the time. The word choice is great, and I strongly recommend this one!

Quote , by @Meghaji
This is by one of our newer writers. It is a quote, so it’s short and sweet. But so true. Click the link to check it out!

To Kiss A Rainbow , by @Smuggg
A great poem with some great pieces of imagery. It’s been in the green room just under a month now, and needs rescuing! Get to it! Chop, chop.

What Is Music? By @secretrose29
Another great poem. It was very short, so there wasn’t much to comment on, other than it has good word choice, and is very beautiful.

The Return of the Living Cupcakes , by @Thecakesatruth
Took a very sudden 360 in the beginning, and went from dark, and a little depressing, to Oh My Macaroni, time travel, evil baker, and talking cupcakes! Like, what? I totally recommend it.

Mother – 7.2 , by @Zoom
Why is this in the Green Room? Let me tell you, Zoom’s Mother series is something that’s worth checking out! There is a new question, maybe a hundred, at the end of each chapter that keeps you reading, and amazing characters with troubled pasts, or relatable character flaws. I would not give this one a pass!

Asking the Time , by @Liminality
A very interesting read, with a very interesting story, with so very little reviews! Go, Knights, and rescue this damsel in distress from the Green Room!

A Million Times and A Trillion More , by @Katnes
A bittersweet poem that is very well written, and some great figurative language! It’s a great read, that you should totally see!

Of course, there are many more poems that are in need of rescuing, and these are just a few! While you’re reading and reviewing some of these other pieces, make sure you go and check out some other ones, too! I’ll see you all later, but for now, for now I’m done!

QUEER VOICES: A JOURNEY TO STORIES WORTH TELLING - VOLUME TWOwritten by Cloudkid< PM: >

Benjamin Alire Såenz is a poet, novelist and activist known for his LGBTQ fiction. One of his best known works is Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, a coming-of-age novel about two Mexican-American boys as they come to terms with their identities and their feelings for one another.

Set in El Paso, Texas, the book follows the lives of Aristotle and Dante over the course of two summers and a blossoming romance. In a way the two main characters are juxtaposed; their families are foils of one another, where Dante's parents are openly loving and emotional and Ari's parents are distant and heavy with emotional baggage. The two represent different types of masculinity as well; Dante is soft and gentle and Ari is more rugged and tough. This plays a part in how each comes to terms with his sexuality.

Among the romance we encounter other aspects, such as Ari dealing with the fact that his brother is in prison and his parents act like the brother never existed; Dante deals with a homophobic hate crime; Ari is badly injured and thus learns a lot about himself in his recovery. The two endure separation in which they grow as people and then reunite.

The book is a nuanced and in-depth look at how being queer affects your teen years, especially as a teen of color. It explores ideas about many different identities, from being gay to being a person of color (Mexican, specifically) to being a brother and beyond.

If you enjoy lgbtq coming of age fiction, this is the book for you. It does have a mild trigger warning on it for violence, homophobia and transphobia. However, it is a delightful and very sweet read and definitely a good starter book if you're looking to get into lgbtq fiction. I highly recommend it.

POETRY PERSPECTIVE: THE SUSPICIOUS READER

written by alliyah < PM: >

When I first joined YWS, I have to admit, the only poetry I had really read besides a few Shakespeare Sonnets were Robert Frost, good ol Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, and Brod Bagart. Many of these I hadn't even read, but had just heard recited by teachers in elementary school. So in my mind the definition of poetry was short prose, maybe with some rhyming thrown in.

Poetry was mysterious, there seemed to be a lot of formal rules to keep track of when my school teachers taught us about haikus and acrostics, and yet sometimes all of the rules changed and seemed to not apply. In the absence of a concrete book of poetry rules - I applied prose conventions to poetry initially. Reading back on some of those early reviews, I cringe to read time and time again, "don't forget to capitalize all of your "i's"" and "capitalize the first word of every line" and then of course, "you missed all the end-punctuation". While these may have been conventions of poetry from a different time, they certainly aren't of modern poetry. But the reason I say that I cringe in reading this past reviews, isn't because I was misunderstanding the "rules" but because I was assuming that I knew them better than all the poets did in their own work. I had a case of what I'll call being a "Suspicious Reader".

A "Suspicious Reader" is someone who assumes that any irregularity in a poet's language, formatting, or word choice, is not only harmful to the piece, but was an unintentional mistake. Rather than giving the author the benefit of the doubt, they tend to assume a poem is without meaning unless proven otherwise. (I've heard this concept applied to acadmemic articles in which the reader, possibly a student, reads thinking they are the expert, and assumes that anything they don't understand is a mistake in the author's argument rather than waiting a couple paragraphs for the author to fill them in, or checking out a footnote clarification). If you read my Squills article on "The Emperor's New Clothes Effect" - you might consider this the opposite. Rather than not believing in themselves, the Suspicious Reader doesn't believe in the author.

Now, while not every new reviewer out there is like this, or at least isn't like this in every aspect of their poetic interpretation - it still might be something useful for poets to consider in their writing. Although there are some poets who think that the best poets forget the audience so that they can portray a clearer authenticity to the author's own expression rather than something revised for consumption. Other poets argue that poetry like other forms of writing, ultimately have to pick an audience, and that shifting their poetic voice to speak more clearly to that audience is essential in communicating the message to them. It's up to you whether you think either of those methods is most effective, or whether you fall somewhere in the middle. Next week however we'll tackle ways in which an author can cater to the "Suspicious Reader" in their poetry.

Let me know over in my Author's Corner what you think so far. Have you been a "Suspicious Reader" have you experienced this in your own writing? I'd love to hear from you.

Link to Part 2, and Part 3

WORD OF THE WEEK: SOLIVAGANT
written by EternalRain < PM: >

Pronunciation: so-lih-vah-gant

Part of Speech: noun, adjective

Definition: n. a solitary wanderer, adj. rambling alone, marked by solitary wandering

Synonyms: soloist, wanderer, loner, lone wolf

Origin: From Latin “solivagus” which means to wander alone.

Used in a Sentence: The solivagant walked across the fields of grass, adventuring without anyone to disrupt or bother her.

SHAMELESS PLUGS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

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Our Building Permit for completing Challenge Four: Restoring the Library expires May 2019. The Commander is requesting all available Knights to head to the Green Room to help. To find out more, check out the Commander's post in the Great Hall .

- The Commander







The Knights of the Green Room are looking for some new recruits!

If you enjoy reviewing this may be the group for you!

For more information: KotGR Information
To declare you interest: Declare in the Great Hall .
If you have questions: Send a PM to Lieutenant Lizz (@LadyBird) or Knight Alliyah (@alliyah).


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SUBSCRIBERS

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