Young Writers Society

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1. FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: PHILLAUTHET
2. FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: TYPOWITHOUTCOFFEE
3. POETRY THROUGHOUT THE AGES: EMILY DICKINSON AND FLOWER SYMBOLISM
4. FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: TRINITYPOETING
5. FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: ALYTHEBOOKWORM
6. CHICKEN OR THE EGG: YWS HISTORY
7. SHAMELESS PLUGS

FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: PHILLAUTHETwritten by Liminality< PM: >

This member has been with us since September 2020, and on October 5th, she was selected as the Featured Member. If you’re around the People’s Tab or the Poetry tab, you’ll surely have encountered @Phillauthet. This year she made an impression, joining many RevMo events, including the Checklist Challenge and completing all 50 challenges.



Phillauthet: Sure! I'd be honoured :D:D


P : At first, I didn't believe it. It was so unexpected!! I thought I was still dreaming (it was 5 AM when I discovered I was FM "^_^)


P : I think it was the RevMo challenges. That month was the first time I reviewed with a goal, and I guess that was good for me!


P : RevMo is the only site-wide event I've participated in, as of now, and it was really exciting! It is my favourite, though NaPoWeek sounds really interesting.


P : Do your best, you'll get it someday!

(That's very general though "^_^)



If you missed out on congratulating her, feel free to do so on this thread or on her wall!

FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: TYPOWITHOUTCOFFEE
written by Liberty < PM: >

On October 22 of last year, @Typowithoutcoffee was honored with the FM title! You probably have seen her poetry around the site. You might have had a chat or two with her in the Randomosity forums. I bet you definitely noticed her overall kindness & amazingness. And guess what? I got to interview her about her experiences as featured member! <3


TypoWithoutCoffee: I was really surprised, I had thought I was a FM a long time ago when I first joined as either 269609 or MiniGem26; though when I checked it didn't seem so. I was still under the impression that it wouldn't happen, especially with the chance it may have happened once already.


T: I can't really say? I have no idea. I don't really think I do very much for the site, but I would probably say that it was the generosity of kind people on the site. They often give me undeserved attention.


T: Thank you you are too kind. I would say that I most love Napo; one of my biggest outlets is poetry and I have a passion for it. :>


T: It is really artistic you mold a picture with words or construct an emotion within your reader with emotive text. It is really beautiful, and I'm honoured to be one of the people in the world who respect it.


T: I think writing what you feel rather than what you think sounds nice, usually makes the most moving poems. If I could tell you poets one thing, young or otherwise It would be stay genuine. (Drink water. Always drink water.)


T: If you guys want to be featured, be kind to each other, review, write, make an impact, and overal just be yourself. It will happen eventually, overall stay creative, happy, healthy, and safe to the best of your ability. Definitely don't worry about it too much, because even though it is a great honour to be featured you are valid before and after you are featured. Just be yourself and be involved in the wonderful world of yewis. :>


T: I would just like to say, my beautiful friends know who they are. I won't try to shout out everyone who has had a large impact on me onsite because there are just too many names to call. Thank you for dealing with me, I know it isn't as easy as you pretend it is. I love and respect you all. Thank you. Much love, and please stay safe.

If you want to check out TypoWithoutCoffee’s FM announcement thread, then you can find that riiiight here !

POETRY THROUGHOUT THE AGES: EMILY DICKINSON AND FLOWER SYMBOLISMwritten by Liminality< PM: >

A four-leafed clover for luck, birds of Paradise for joy, a forget-me-not for true love – flower symbolism is all over the place, especially in poetry. In this edition of Poetry Throughout the Ages, we discuss the origins of some flower meanings in English and American literature. We will do this as a case study of one poet, Emily Dickinson, and her various influences.

Living between 1830-1886, [3] Dickinson would have been familiar with floriography: books that compiled flower meanings. These became popular in England and France in the early 19th century. [2] Some flower meanings could have originated much earlier than that, perhaps in the 16th century, or even in another country, whereas others could be quite new. For example, Henry Phillip’s book ‘Floral Emblems, or, A Guide to the language of flowers’ from 1825 referenced Shakespeare’s flower symbols. Phillip would also sometimes make up his own flower meanings, which was common for floriographers to do. [2] Because of this, flowers ended up having a wide range of different meanings, depending on whom you asked. In England, white roses could mean “innocence, silence, a Holy death or that someone was worthy of another person.”[2]

Dickinson herself is also likely to have read Shakespeare, since she lists English poets like Keats and the Barret-Brownings as some of her favourites and Shakespeare preceded all of them by tradition. [3] In Shakespeare’s work, flower meanings could originate from the physical attributes of the flower. For example, rue is bitter-tasting and thus can represent regret and sadness. Rue was one of the flowers handed out by Ophelia, a spurned lover in the play ‘Hamlet’. [4]

Like other Victorian poets, Dickinson used the rose as a symbol of beauty. The rose is the flower that appears most often in her poetry. [3] For example, the depiction of love in this poem uses roses as a metaphor for two lovers blushing.

THE Rose did caper on her cheek –
Her Bodice rose and fell –
Her pretty speech – like drunken men –
Did stagger pitiful –

However, Emily Dickinson was a gardener and so she tended to use her observations on the behaviour of flowers rather than just their physical qualities to inform the meanings and presentation she gave them in her poetry. She wrote a poem about the ‘heart’s ease’, a kind of wild pansy. She depicts the heart’s ease as a symbol of bravery, as it starts growing early in the year, able to survive the cold of late winter and early spring. [3] The poem is written partly from the perspective of the pansy and partly from a human speaker’s perspective. Here is one of the stanzas from the pansy:

If the Coward Bumble Bee
In his chimney corner stay,
I, must resoluter be!
Who’ll apologize for me?

Here are the lines of the human who praises her:

Dear, Old fashioned, little flower!
Eden is old fashioned, too!
Birds are antiquated fellows!
Heaven does not change her blue.

Dickinson alludes to Eden, which some of her contemporaries (including her favourite writer John Ruskin) also did in reference to wildflowers like the pansy. They believed that wildflowers were holier and closer to the flowers that grew in the garden of Eden, those untouched by human hand, unlike cross-bred and artificially cultivated varieites. [3]

Finally, the poem “The Dandelion’s pallid Tube” shows her liking of dandelion, another wildflower that is sometimes considered a weed because of how hard it is to remove from cultivated gardens. In this poem, rather than having this negative connotation, the dandelion symbolises good times to come. The meaning originates from the fact that they bloom at the end of winter and the start of spring, thus Dickinson takes her inspiration from nature as it is. Like many of her poems, [3] this one was written in a letter addressed to someone and came attached with a pressed dandelion.

The dandelion’s pallid tube
Astonishes the grass,
And winter instantly becomes
An infinite Alas.
The tube uplifts a signal bud,
And then a shouting flower;
The proclamation of the suns
That sepulture is o’er.

Overall, Dickinson wrote from the point of view of someone at one with nature. She was no irritable gardener – she welcomed weeds, because they were another of nature’s life forms. This shows in how she derived the meanings for her flowers, in contrast to others of her age, who viewed plants in a more human-centric context.

Do you have your own flower associations to share? Why not write a poem about it? If you don’t have an association in mind, you can use English Heritage’s website of flower sentiments for inspiration, or just make up your own based on the physical properties of the flower. Link it to me on my Author Page and I’ll send you 50 points.

If you’re itching for more Emily Dickinson after this, there is a Poetry Community Journal entry on a poem she wrote about mushrooms, which, like flowers, are commonplace in gardens. You could also give this flower poetry quiz on The Guardian a try and see if you can correctly guess which of the lines are Dickinson’s. A poem on YWS that features flower meanings in a more modern and experimental form is @Seirre’s [lover] and over , which centres around a sunflower.

References

FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: TRINITYPOETINGwritten by Liminality< PM: >

This YWS-er joined us this year in April and became the Featured Member on the 6th of November. Their friendliness in WFPs, encouragement and enthusiasm for seasonal avvies have not gone unnoticed! @TrinityPoeting belongs to the ranks of our FMs as a helpful and wonderful community member.


TrinityPoeting hello! thank you! sure! that I'd be glad too!


T: I was suprised and exited when i first heard. Just logging in and seeing all the people congratulating me was an honor i never thought I'd deserve.


T: I don't know, guess just being active in the community. Participating in event's, writing reviews.


T: I love all of yws. But i think my favorite part would be the reviews. Everyone is helpful and kind at the same time. All of the reviews i have gotten have helped me grow as a writer already.


T: Well, as i mentioned before, i think just participating in the community is a big part.
But, I think the biggest tip i'd say is to just be yourself. Be who you are, not who you think people want you to be.



If you missed out on congratulating them, feel free to do so on their FM thread or on their wall.

FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: ALYTHEBOOKWORM
written by Liberty < PM: >

November 23rd, 2021 marks the date one of our special YWS-ers became the featured member… @AlyTheBookworm. She’s been on the site since 2016 (hard to believe that was six years ago). She’s probably one of the most amazing artists I’ve met. Definitely go check out her art linked here ! And if you’re familiar with the Storybook section of the site, then you’ve probably heard of the Aether’s Heart, a storybook that Aly is a part of as well!


AlyTheBookworm: Hey Liberty! Yeah, I don't mind.


A: It was a happy surprise. I wasn't at all expecting it and I'd had been having a bad day at the time, but when I saw the post I couldn't stop smiling. YWS means a lot to me, so it touched me to think that I've been able to become a part of it and contribute to what makes YWS what it is over the six years I've been here.


A: Oh lol. Well, honestly, I was wondering that too when I got the notification. In hindsight, I think it was because I came back to YWS after a long break from it early September and started being a little more active and social here. I shared some new poems of my own, helped revive an old club and some forum topics, joined new clubs, and began writing for a storybook (Aether's Heart) again.

I've always loved how incredibly welcoming and inclusive YWS' community is to new members, so I made an effort to reach out more to our newly-joined members and leave some nice comments and encouragement on their walls. Small thing, but something I hadn't done much in previous years. I'm guessing that's it haha.


A: Aw thank-you so much! c:

My #1 favorite part of YWS is probably the Storybook Sanctuary. Storybooks were what first introduced me to collaborative writing and showed me that building a world and cast together with other writers is super fun. They've also challenged me to get creative and write stuff I probably wouldn't write otherwise.

I love roleplaying, but I feel that storybooks give you a greater opportunity to delve deeper into the story and be more intentional when planning out plot and character arcs. I think that's been one of my favorite things about YWS. :]


A: Admittedly, only through Aether's Heart with the other AH writers. I've attempted a few events in the past, but can't say I've completed any lol :')


A: Simply to be active, participate, and have fun with YWS. Reach out to offer advice and encouragement to other members- whether that be in the form of a review or a kind comment. That can really mean a lot to a new writer.


A: Nope. Not really. I'd just like to say 'thank you' to all of you in YWS. This community is so incredibly kind and I'm grateful to be a part of it. <3

So kind of Aly to say! c:

If you’re interested in her announcement thread, check it out here !

CHICKEN OR THE EGG: YWS HISTORY
written by alliyah < PM: >

Recently @Arcticus posted on the people tab,

The question “Did the Egg come first or the Chicken?” takes on an entirely different meaning in the context of YWS.

And it got me thinking of how eggs and chickens have now had quite a history on YWS, that wouldn't hurt to give explanation to again in case anyone's new or has lost track! So here's you YWS history for the day.

Timeline of Events
Jan 7, 2019 - @Meshugenah posted the first "#classified"
some seemed "in" on the conspiracy and also shared the ominous hashtag while others questioned what it was about for weeks.

Jan 24, 2019 - @fishsashimi posted the egg post asking if it was possible to get it to record for posts with the most likes. I posted an egg pun on it immediately, and have been an avid supporter of the egg since then.



Jan 25, 2019 - the "Unclassified" movement was born shortly after @Magebird posted a forum topic asking "what is classified" and a few of those who were concerned about the conspiracies surrounding it banded together to form the Unclassified Club - the feud between classified and unclassified was born that day.

Events unfolded quickly after that period of time, @Arcticus posted possibly the first? of many memes that would follow questioning if the egg was part of classified. Fishsashimi quickly clarified the egg was pro-unclassified. And soon @TheEgg actually got a YWS account and was of the first signers of the petition to stop classified. So from then on The Egg became our most loyal supporter. The Egg also gained a loyal following from people outside of the unclassified movement and was eventually voted "YWS Mascot" over the previous contenders monkey, dragon, and kangaroo, and pat buchanon.

Anyways, I source the first of my chicken poems to have occurred April 7, 2019 here - by the time April 2020 rolled around I did an entirely bird-themed NaPo and "Chicken Poetry" really had became it's own genre and @soundofmind, Arc, Mesh and I even did a chicken poetry collab!

In March 2020 The Egg finally got it's wish by gaining it's 100th "like" making it the most liked post of all time.

In July 2020 "LoonyMaroony" a blue-gold maccaw joined the site, and started causing ... mischief, one problem being that he claimed to be The Egg hatched. I reached out to some independent chicken experts @Seirre and @ChieRynn who said in their expert opinions the Egg was in fact a chicken egg. This really made the link between chickens and the Egg set in stone from this point going forward. Chickens continued to get attention, when half a dozen users changed their avvies to chickens in solidarity against classified's schemes marking the connection between chickens and unclassified.

This led to September 2020 called for users to review a work about chickens, and subsequently called users to write about chickens too 17 users answered the call to write a poem about chickens.

In Jan 2021 with @Rook as co-editor "COOP" (Chickens Of Our Poetry zine) launched, with the help of YWSers, firmly cementing my love for chickens forever. In May the Chicken Fan Club was born and in July 2021 I delivered 60 chicken doodles across the site for Christmas in July.

And YWS has been pretty chickeny ever since. But technically if asked did "The Egg" or "The Chicken" come first, I think in YWS terms it was the Egg, but they are very related.

SHAMELESS PLUGS

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