Driftwood Returns to RRHS

Driftwood, the Rocky River High School Literary Magazine, is back. It's an online publication, available to read by clicking here, or the link on the left navigation bar on the RRHS website.

The publication is the culmination of a school year's worth of writing club meetings. The club met approximately once a month, with a core group of about ten students attending and sometimes as many as thirty. Students took part in writing exercises and edited one another's work. Outside of the meetings, students often met in person or via Skype for one-on-one editorial check-ins.

This collection of poetry, prose, essays, and short stories is due in large part to the efforts of seniors Maggie Wagh and Emma Wagh. These twin sisters moved to Rocky River from Maryland last year. Maggie says, "I looked at a list of clubs at Rocky River High School and wanted to join Driftwood. I asked [English teacher] Mrs. Minotti 'is there a Driftwood?' and she said, 'no.' So I talked with Emma and we decided to start it up again." The girls started an informal writing club among their classmates last year and this year, the group revived the school's then-defunct literary magazine.

"We went with Lucidpress [an online platform] instead of a paper magazine because we just wanted to get the students' work out there without having to do a lot of fundraising," says Mrs. Ashley Morris, who, along with Mrs. Stephanie Minotti, agreed to act as advisors for Driftwood and the writing club.

Mrs. Minotti points out another advantage to using an online platform rather than a physical print issue; "space is not an issue," she says. "We can accept works from as many students as want to submit it."

Emma Wagh agrees, "someone could give us a ten, even a twenty-page document and we could include everything."

Emma and Maggie both enjoyed the editing process. "We always asked if we could edit someone’s writing first," Emma notes. "Seeing it in its raw state and going through editing is amazing," she says. "Reading someone else's creative writing lets you see a bigger side to them and draw connections about them."
Maggie agrees, "sifting through student work and finding these little gems helps me discover a new side to them and it's so exciting."

Mrs. Morris sees a similar value to working with students who are doing creating writing outside of a class assignment. "You can learn a lot about students' personalities and passions," she notes. "When you can write about anything in the world, what you choose to write about is what you're passionate about."

Both Mrs. Morris and Mrs. Minotti encouraged students in the writing club to use their writing skills in the classroom, too. "When you see a student writing something they're passionate about, their voice is so strong," says Mrs. Minotti. "It's great to see that come out naturally. I tell them, 'now put that powerful voice into an assignment. You can do it.'"

The Wagh sisters plan to use their powerful voices at Vassar, which Maggie will attend in the fall, and The University of Chicago, where Emma will attend with the Army ROTC. Their sister Clara will be a senior at Rocky River High School next year and their older brother, Connor, attends Bucknell. The four are the children of Gunner and Ginny Wagh.

Emma and Maggie both say that Dirftwood will be left in good hands next year. The junior and senior who will act as editors are a good pair, says Maggie. (Their names will be revealed at an upcoming writing club meeting.) "They're a good balance," Maggie continues, and smiles at her twin. "And it's probably not a bad thing that they don't live together."