Look at this painting: Promenade des Enfants (Children’s Walk) by Timoléon Lobrichon (1831-1914). Write a poem about it, in a style that reflects your initial response when you first saw it.
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
How Stories Work-Writing Workshop #1: And
An update from our first Writing Workshop with new teacher, Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday, April 17, plus some of the output published below In his first class under the official title of Stone Soup Creative Writing Instructor, Conner Bassett “called an audible,” and delivered a scintillating lecture on the use of “and” in literature as well as visual art. As he reminded us, although this was our first official workshop together, all of us, students and staff alike, are in the midst of our writing journeys, making this Writing Workshop less of a beginning, and more of an “and.” Over the course of the workshop, we learned about the uniquely conjoining, relational, and aggregational nature of the swiss army knife contraction, noting specifically its different uses within the titles Crime and Punishment and Being and Nothingness. We also looked at Marcel Duchamp’s conversion of a urinal into a “fountain” in his famous museum exhibition, noticing how this subversion of meaning connoted the effect of the word “and.” Moving through the expression of “and” in works by Magritte, Warhol, the general nature of Islamic art, and in the effect of the comic panel, we read an excerpt from Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses in order to see the “speed” of and. Finally, we considered “and’s” ability to transcend time and conjoin the present with the past in Ezra Pound’s poetic masterwork The Cantos, and Dylan Thomas’ poem “And Death Shall Have No Dominion.” And, of course, at the end of the workshop we wrote! The Challenge: In 30 minutes, write one of three types of pieces; one, write a story or poem where you replace every period with the word “and”; two, write a story or poem that begins “in the middle,” beginning with the word “and”; or, three, start a new story or poem at the end of an old one, beginning with the word “and.” The Participants: Emma, Harine, Georgia, Helen, Aditi, Olivia, Simran, Liam, Svitra, Noa, Anya, Audrey, Isolde, Alice, Samantha, Maddy, Sena, Sasha, Sinan, Emizzi, Jackson, Sophia. Anya Geist, 14Worcester, MA The House That Didn’t Fit In Anya Geist, 14 And the whole house seemed to not quite fit in, always a bit out-of-place. The floors were old and scuffed but regal nevertheless, so whenever I saw them I was reminded of the days when a creaky old house with rusty nails leaching through the peeling white paint was fresh and new, not a relic of a bygone era by the side of a road where motorcycles revved their engines late into the night. The windows, too, gave off this odd sense, with their dust-caked panes and sagging sashes and musty curtains. Not so much windows they were, as rippled, dirty pieces of glass shoved into the wall. And there was one window I recalled, in the living room above the stiff old couch with a stained glass drawing, again so hopelessly out of place—both out of place in this out-of-time mass of a house and out of place at the junction of two rural New Hampshire highways—where the sun would stream in, alighting the whole place, the rugs, the armchairs, the old wedding photos decaying on side tables in little ornate frames with a glow that perhaps belonged more in a cathedral; not, like I said, at a rural highway junction, nor in a house with a tiny first-floor bathroom painted with peeling wallpaper and smothered by this old, rundown smell, maybe which had something to do with the horrible squeaks that came out of the faucets—two faucets, one hot, one cold; that’s how old it was!—and washed your hands with slimy soap. Yes, even the soap didn’t fit in—or maybe it did, since it was all weird and felt gross on your hands when you thrust them under the frigid iron-filled water—but it didn’t really fit with the whole modern world; it didn’t leave you feeling clean. And then up the stairs—the stairs were steep, sharp, and one could imagine them in an old colonial town, and I do believe the house was from the 1800s—you would find the bedrooms. The bedrooms above the kitchen with the terribly old stove that I don’t believe could be used anymore and instead took up space and held different jars of jam which I always thought could be sold at the local farmer’s market, and we’d use the jam to make sandwiches with bread from that same farmer’s market on that little fold-out table that always seemed as if it might fall apart. At any rate, the bedrooms were stuffed with pillows and such because no one ever really used them except for the master bedroom, stuffed with Cabbage Patch dolls and little plastic toys from when we were toddlers—how out of place, 21st century manufacturing was in this house! Truly most things were out of place. This house, old and falling apart only ten feet from the highway—quite literally ten feet—and so near to that corner store which also was a gas station, and doesn’t even have heating for the winter. But then—when I walked around the side of the house—it didn’t even have a back door, except in the basement, and I daren’t go down to the basement—I saw the backyard, which was unkempt and wild and disturbed by those pesky motorcycles screeching down the road at ten at night, and maybe the house wasn’t so out of place after all. Emma Hoff, 9Bronx, NY Sensibility Emma Hoff, 9 And when she was picked, she had long hair. Long, flowing hair, dark as the night sky, which never seemed to be blue, and dark as the colors of the witches cloaks, which were always pulled so tightly around themselves, like how tight the buns on top of their heads were. We had a visit from the most important witches recently, they were here to choose. I had always been a promising child. “Lots of potential, just needs to speak up more.”
Saturday Newsletter: April 24, 2021
Dream Bedroom (colored pencil) by Rohan Jayakrishnan, 12 (Downingtown, PA) and published in the April 2021 Issue of Stone Soup A note from Jane We are absolutely thrilled to announce that the winner of our 2019 Book Contest, Three Days till EOC: a Novella by Abhimanyu Sukhdial, has been named the sole Honor Award Winner for the 2021 Green Earth Book Award in the Young Adult Fiction category! Congratulations, Abhi. We are so, so proud of you. It’s an exceptional achievement for any author to win an award for their book—even more so when it is your first one! But Abhi’s achievement is greater still. There were 74 books in the competition, and 73 of them were written by adults. This absolutely sums up what Stone Soup is all about. We know that young people’s creative abilities are extraordinary and often far exceed those of adults. We see this every week in our writing workshops, in the comments and discussions that take place in our book club, and as we read the submissions to the Stone Soup magazine and blog. All our Stone Soup authors can celebrate and take encouragement from the silver glow of this badge of honor, awarded by an independent panel of distinguished judges who were expecting to read works only by adult authors. Well done, Abhi, and thank you for trusting us with your work. It goes without saying that if you haven’t read Abhi’s book yet—you should! You can buy it in hardcover and ebook versions in the Stone Soup online bookstore, and all booksellers. This week’s featured story is a classic redemption tale. Tom Green, a horrible, spoiled, lazy young man loses all his money and privilege, and through a series of misfortunes and hard work over several years becomes a better person. In the end, he finds happiness not in the material things that were all he cared about in the beginning but in a simpler, more compassionate life spent helping others. What makes this story extra special is the writer’s style: Zahra Batteh tells the story of Tom in a natural, almost conversational voice, but without wasting a word. Every short sentence moves the action forward and paints a picture of Tom’s life and character. In just four pages, Zahra manages to make the reader feel as though they know everything about Tom and how he has spent four whole years of his life. I think she achieves this feat partly though the spareness of her language. She doesn’t hint, or judge, or indulge in long, flowery descriptions; she lays out the facts plainly and simply, showing us who Tom was and who he becomes without ever telling us what she thinks he is like. It’s a great example of the power of “show, don’t tell.” This weekend, read the tale of “Tom Green.” Invent your own flawed character and think about what might lead them to redemption. Then, try to write their story as simply as you can. Show us, don’t tell us, who your main character is. As always, if you love what you’ve written, share it with us. And, before I go, it has to be said just one more time: yea Abhi!! Until next week, Writing Classes and Book Club Are you looking for classes to inspire, improve, and practice your writing with great teachers and a group of like-minded young writers and readers? Join us! We do charge fees for our clubs and workshops, but we try to keep them as low as possible, and we offer discounts to subscribers and scholarships to students who need them. Contact us at education@stonesoup.com with any questions. Writing Workshop: we have two new writing groups for spring/summer, starting April 17, that will meet via Zoom every Saturday except for the last Saturday of the month. Come write with us and share your work with your peers. Find out more and register for a workshop at Eventbrite. To see some of the great work produced by current workshop members, read contributions published at Stonesoup.com, or join us at one of our free public readings! Book Club: a book club for writers that meets via Zoom on the last Saturday of every month, with a new season starting on April 24! Find out more and register for book club at Eventbrite. Check out which books we are reading on our website. Young Author’s Studio Summer Camps: we are offering a wide range of classes through the summer jointly with the Society of Young Inklings. Each camp runs for two hours per day, Monday through Thursday. All details and bookings via Society of Young Inklings. Book Contest 2021 For information on submitting to the Stone Soup Book Contest 2021, please click here. To submit your manuscript, please visit our submittable site. Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Young Blogger Gia Porwal published a riveting travelogue of her family trip through Saudi Arabia! Lila, 11, wrote an observational poem, “Spring in Central Park,” as part of our April Flash Contest. Arjun, 9, wrote a poem, “Life Inside a Staircase,” as part of our March Flash Contest. A writeup of the Winter/Spring Writing Workshop Showcase is on the website. Check it out for information on who read and links to their terrific work. From Stone Soup April 2021 Tom Green By Zahra Batteh, 10 (Washington, DC) Illustrated with Dream Bedroom by Rohan Jayakrishnan, 12 (Downingtown, PA) Tom Green was very proud to say that he had the best life any human could wish for. He would wake up in his cushiony white bed and then head down his marble staircase, where a delicious breakfast was waiting for him, prepared earlier that morning by his personal chef. If he were to have something involving chocolate, the chocolate would be from Switzerland, where, he believed, the best chocolate came from. If he were to eat something involving berries, the berries would have been freshly picked that morning. Everything had to taste amazing in Tom’s house. If there was ever something that didn’t meet his taste buds’ expectations,
