Stable (oil) By Savannah Chun, 13 (Dallas, TX), published in Stone Soup April 2022 A note from Tayleigh Happy First-Day-of-Spring-Session-Writing-Workshops! Our first Writing Workshop of the spring session—William Rubel’s—begins this morning at 9 AM Pacific, to be followed by Conner Bassett’s at 11 AM Pacific. Today is especially exciting for me because for the first time, I will be joining William’s workshop as an assistant! I can’t wait to meet all who have signed up. But, even if you’ve missed the first class, it’s not too late. William and Conner discuss different elements of writing each week, and you’re welcome to join at any point during the season. You’re also welcome to write to me at tayleigh@stonesoup.com if you’d like to test out a class before purchasing tickets, or if you’d like to apply for a scholarship. You can sign up for both of these classes, as well as Book Club with Maya Mahony, using the blue button, below. A week from today, Maya will lead the first Book Club for Writers of the spring session and discuss A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat. This Book Club is a fantastic way to meet fellow bibliophiles. Today, I’d like to highlight a poem from our April issue: “Wild” by Rex Huang. “Welcome to our birdbath,” he writes. The following stanza meditatively focuses on the little world that exists inside the birdbath. To me, it’s a reminder to slow down, to focus on the beauty that is right in our backyards. Of course, panoramic vistas are breathtaking, but so is something as simple as a “crimson red leaf” floating, falling into a birdbath. “And it’s the little things, That make the world.” Savannah Chun’s The Stable similarly captures the beauty of the mundane. It is just a stable, and yet it is more. The way the light hits the tops of the eaves, the tree’s shadow that seems to almost dance in the wind. It is just a stable, but it is beautiful. For a moment, I’m not focused on a deadline or that item on my to-do list I haven’t yet crossed off; I am only focused on the serenity that exists inside that little world inside the painting, the poem, or in my own tiny apartment as the afternoon sun streams in and illuminates the wall. Until next time, From Stone Soup April 2022 Wild By Rex Huang, 11 (Lake Oswego, OR) What one may miss once Will never miss twice There’s always new New plant New wind New ant hole And it’s the little things That make the world Welcome to our birdbath A crimson red leaf Is shed from a tree Drifting slowly Slowly Slowly Into the crystal-clear reflection of the water Only disturbed by the ancient moss That lives there Spring is coming New is coming …/MORE Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498. Stone Soup’s advisors: Abby Austin, Mike Axelrod, Annabelle Baird, Jem Burch, Evelyn Chen, Juliet Fraser, Zoe Hall, Montanna Harling, Alicia & Joe Havilland, Lara Katz, Rebecca Kilroy, Christine Leishman, Julie Minnis, Jessica Opolko, Tara Prakash, Denise Prata, Logan Roberts, Emily Tarco, Rebecca Ramos Velasquez, Susan Wilky.
About
Saturday Newsletter: April 16, 2022
Colors (Panasonic Lumix ZS200) By Sage Millen, 13 (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), published in Stone Soup April 2022 A note from Caleb Good morning and happy Saturday! The last time I wrote the newsletter I led off by mentioning California’s need for April showers—well, the rain has started to fall, albeit in short bursts, and with it has come an abundance of flowers. (It’s not yet May, but the old adage can’t always be spot on.) In Santa Cruz, it is even scheduled to be raining right now, as this newsletter is being sent off, at 9 AM! And, scheduled for exactly a week from right now, at 9 AM Pacific, is our first Writing Workshop of the spring session—William Rubel’s—to be followed by Conner Bassett’s at 11 AM Pacific. You can sign up for both of these classes, as well as Book Club with Maya Mahony, using the blue button, below. I also spent my last newsletter giving rapturous praise to a poem from the April issue: “Roo’s Song” by Sevi Ann Stahl. This week, I turn my attention to another poem from the April issue—”Chocolate” by Autumn E. Weinreich—which, while substantially shorter, is no less brilliant than the former. The truth is that little can be said about “Chocolate” without detracting from the art itself—one simply has to read its four lines and let the absurdity wash over them like a mid-April rain. But I will say that in writing “Chocolate,” Autumn, just six years old, has perfectly encapsulated the creative and poetic potential of the youthful mind. Her poem reminds me of something my colleague, Conner Bassett, once said in a workshop on writing nonsense: “The purpose of art is not to make sense, but to excite the senses.” Conner’s words also ring true for Sage Millen’s photograph Colors. When viewing Colors, a logical mind might ask such questions as Why is the subject lying on newspapers? or Why are they upside-down? or Why is their hand on their face? or, perhaps most importantly, Why is their hand painted in colorful splotches? Of course, none of the questions surrounding these seemingly nonsensical elements matter for the simple reason that Sage has combined them to create art that, as Conner said, “excites the senses.” For this weekend project, I’d like you to try and eliminate all urges to make sense and instead wield the primeval, preternatural power of nonsense in the creation of art. Forget purpose. Forget logic. Create for the mere sake of creation! Bask in your freedom from the restraints of reason! Excite the senses! As always, if you like what you have made and would like to share it, please submit it to us via the pink button, below. Flying green ostriches, Congratulations to our most recent Flash Contest winners! Our April Flash Contest was based on Prompt #198 (provided by intern Sim Ling Thee), which challenged participants to write a story in which the protagonist failed at everything and ultimately didn’t succeed in the end. Unsurprisingly, this subverting prompt led to some the most inspired writing we’ve seen yet! Submissions ranged from a violin recital from the perspective of a snooty child to an unreliable narrator’s laundry list of past failures to an old woman’s battle with growing tomatoes. In one story, the unlikeable protagonist even smeared butter on their nemesis’ lawn! As always, thank you to all who submitted, and please submit again next month! Congratulations to our Winners and Honorable Mentions, listed below. You can read the winning entries for this contest (and previous ones), here. Winners “Curses!” by Lui Lung, 12 (Danville, CA) “Beatrice” by Olivia Owens, 13 (Jacksonville, FL) “A Failing Success” by Emily Tang, 13 (Winterville, NC) “Cypress Woman” by Ellis Yang, 12 (Los Altos, CA) “You Win Some, You Lose Some” by Savarna Yang, 13 (Outram, New Zealand) Honorable Mentions “Dangly Necklaces” by Victoria Gong, 10 (Scarsdale, NY) “Learning to Fly” by Marin Hamory, 10 (Wellesley, MA) “The Last Leaf” by Kimberly Hu, 9 (Lake Oswego, OR) “The Performance” by Elizabeth Sabaev, 11 (Forest Hills, NY) “Gray” by Alex Zigoneanu, 11 (Portland, OR) From Stone Soup April 2022 Chocolate By Autumn E. Weinreich, 6 (Wilmette, IL) Oh, I got a new snail. Wait! Wait! He is dead. To read more from the April issue, including another one of Autumn’s poems, click here! Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498. Stone Soup’s advisors: Abby Austin, Mike Axelrod, Annabelle Baird, Jem Burch, Evelyn Chen, Juliet Fraser, Zoe Hall, Montanna Harling, Alicia & Joe Havilland, Lara Katz, Rebecca Kilroy, Christine Leishman, Julie Minnis, Jessica Opolko, Tara Prakash, Denise Prata, Logan Roberts, Emily Tarco, Rebecca Ramos Velasquez, Susan Wilky.
Saturday Newsletter: April 9, 2022
A note from William Friends! It is happening! The featured image is one of half a dozen educator pages that our web developers are promising will go live on Monday, April 24. The beautiful photograph is by the fabulous Stone Soup contributor and photographer, Sage Millen. Now that the educator pages we have been developing since October are actually going to go live, we need teachers who will beta test this new material. I had hoped to have had more time before school ends, but, we are where we are. Two or three weeks of testing will itself be a huge help. We currently have twelve beta testers. I’d like to have another twelve. What we need is feedback. If you are a teacher grades 4-8, please write to us at education@stonesoup.com and ask to be a beta tester. If you are a child in school and are reading this, and if you think your teacher might be interested, then please talk to one of your parents about asking your teacher to become a beta tester. For everyone else, please reach out to the teachers in your life. This beta testing program is hugely important to us. Long term, Stone Soup needs site licenses in schools in order to thrive Writing Workshops EventBrite registration is still open for the spring session of writing workshops by Conner Bassett and by me, William Rubel. The dates are April 23 to June 4. My class is 9 AM Pacific. Conner’s class is 11 AM Pacific. Yes, you can try a class for free. Write to Tayleigh@stonesoup.com. We want any and all students who want to take the classes, so please get in touch if you need a scholarship. We used to publish book reviews in Stone Soup Magazine. Then, we realized that there was much more demand for writing reviews than we had space, and that many reviewers had a lot of insightful things to say about the books they read. This review by Anirudh Parthasarathy of the classic science fiction book, Fahrenheit 451, is an example of the best of the best of Stone Soup reviews. Thank you, Anirudh. This is a brilliant insightful analysis of the book. You show why Fahrenheit 451—published when I was one-year-old (1953)—remains an important book. Please, all of you, read this review. If you like reading and if you would like to review a book (or books) for Stone Soup, please follow in Anirudh’s footsteps and submit a review to our Book Review & Blog editor, Caleb Berg. You do that by clicking on the link, below, “Submit to the Stone Soup Blog.” Until next week, From the Stone Soup Blog April 2022 The Relevance of Fahrenheit 451 By Anirudh Parthasarathy, 13 (San Jose, CA) Fahrenheit 451 has never been more relevant than it is today. The parlor walls that Ray Bradbury envisioned in his iconic story are similar to the large wall-mounted TV screens with continuous streaming content available for binge-watching. Video games have become immersive with Oculus and Metaverse. Many people (especially children) are addicted to video games, and some play them for a living. City planning often bolsters car culture, with the assumption that everyone has a car, which, majoritively, they do. People either rush to shops in cars through freeways to make good time or order in through Amazon, Instacart, and/or Doordash. A pedestrian walking to a grocery store is a rare sight indeed! As more and more books are made into movies, people prefer to consume the movie version rather than read the same book, which requires a lot more work and time. Movies lack richness, detail, and the nuances of a book, and there’s less power of imagination involved when everything is shown exactly as it is. Beatty summarizes this well when he says “Books cut shorter. Condensations. Digests. Tabloids. Everything boils down to the gag, the snap ending. Classics cut to fit fifteen-minute radio shows, then cut again to fill a two-minute book column, winding up at last as a ten- or twelve-line dictionary resume” (26). In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury demonstrates how mindless consumption of entertainment over the pure joy and fulfillment of reading and existing as one with nature leads to addiction to technology. …/MORE Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498. Stone Soup’s advisors: Abby Austin, Mike Axelrod, Annabelle Baird, Jem Burch, Evelyn Chen, Juliet Fraser, Zoe Hall, Montanna Harling, Alicia & Joe Havilland, Lara Katz, Rebecca Kilroy, Christine Leishman, Julie Minnis, Jessica Opolko, Tara Prakash, Denise Prata, Logan Roberts, Emily Tarco, Rebecca Ramos Velasquez, Susan Wilky.
