On June 3, Derby High’s Creative Arts Magazine, The Zephyr, released its 2018 edition. Students can access it by going to the Derby High School website and clicking on “Students,” then “Web Links.” Monica Swift’s creative writing class reviewed and edited the submissions included in the magazine.

Q&A with Natalie Knowles, editor-in-chief

How did you get involved in working on The Zephyr and become editor-in-chief?

“After Writing Club disbanded, Mrs. Swift wanted our Creative Writing Class to take on the magazine. I became the editor-in-chief by volunteering and my other classmates supporting this decision.”

How did The Zephyr go about collecting works for the 2018 edition?

“The Zephyr has an email address where students can submit works to get put into the magazine. Each student in our class also had to submit at least one work.”

What was your role as editor-in-chief?

“As editor-in-chief, I assigned tasks, picked the style and theme — with the help of my classmates — for the magazine and wrote the foreword and afterword.”

How did you decide on the theme this year?

“Our theme for this year was “Protest and Change”. This year, we have had two momentous protests: March for Our Lives and the nationwide teacher strike. We wanted our magazine to not only acknowledge these protests but allow students at Derby High to have a voice — to get their work out there and have their voice heard.”

What was the process of working with others to write and edit submissions like?

“During Creative Writing, we had many different writing assignments that challenged us on a new style or genre. So for students in the class, you’ll notice some submitted multiple pieces of work. We took time in class to review submissions from our email.”

I noticed there were more visuals than the last edition. How did you carry that out?

“For the students in our class, we all agreed to add some clipart to our work to make the magazine pop more. Many submissions came with artwork they wanted with their entry. The cover — I worked on for a whole class period through a free editing website. I tried to include everyone’s vision or ideas into the cover.”

What was your favorite part of this experience?

“My favorite part was working together with the rest of my class and reading all the submissions from talented Derby students.”