Lit Mag Wins Trophy Class Award

In what was a pleasant surprise for the FCHS Literary Magazine Club, FCHS recently received a Trophy class award from the Virginia High School League (VHSL) for their 2021 Literary Magazine. This was in addition to the magazine being rated in the “Superior” category several weeks prior.

Principal Margo Bruce presented the award to Journalism Advisor Elizabeth Pellicane on Nov. 12.

“We were one of 15 schools statewide to receive a Trophy class award for the Literary Magazine,” explained FCHS Journalism Advisor Elizabeth Pellicane. “This is the highest award possible for a high school student magazine,” she said, noting that the club has been producing a literary magazine for the past 19 years.

“I was shocked when I heard that the magazine had won a Trophy Class award because when I originally heard that we had received a ‘Superior’ rating. I assumed that that would be the end of the news,” said 2021 Literary Magazine Editor Mia Smith ‘22. 

She noted that “there were numerous challenges to editing the magazine during the pandemic, but the most challenging would have to be the inability to meet with the club in person.”

Fellow club member and 2020 Literary Magazine Editor Mia Martinez was happy to hear about the award as well. “I felt very proud of what we as a club had accomplished. It was especially hard making the magazine last year as we couldn’t meet in person and work as we would in a normal year. It was a totally new experience and I’m glad we were able to rise to the occasion.”

The process of making the magazine takes a good eight months. Members start meeting in September, reviewing and rating poetry, prose, and art submissions from the Creative Writing and Art classes. “We also start creating a cover and layout using Canva. The layout itself is generally done by a student in one of my Journalism classes. Then we match written submissions with artwork that complements it,” added Pellicane.  

Martinez said that the most challenging thing about creating a magazine during a pandemic was the beginning of the school year. “That was the hardest to navigate. We didn’t know when school would become in person again, or if clubs would even be offered, so figuring out how and when we were going to meet was confusing at first. Thankfully, we were able to set up meetings, but then came the challenge of how we were going to perform club duties as we were only used to being in one room with each other.” 

The following students worked on the winning publication:

Mia Smith ‘22, Mia Martinez ‘22, Kessler Potter ‘24, Hailey Leake ‘22, Riley Yowell ‘22, Maria McCormack (2021 graduate), Tyler Harris (2021 graduate), Edward Rackley (2021 graduate).