Arriving in Kakuma by Bus (mixed media, paper, straw, and card) by group of young teenagers in Kakuma Refugee Camp originally from DRC, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Burundi, South Sudan, and Somalia; published on the Stone Soup Refugee Project portal. A note from Laura Moran Dear Stone Soup community, I am thrilled to share that we, through the Stone Soup Refugee Project, are now able to extend the opportunity to participate in our writing workshops to young people living in refugee camps in many parts of the world. This week marks the first of a four-part series of creative writing workshops offered to young refugees living in Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda. Nakivale is one of the world’s largest refugee settlements and currently hosts approximately 120,000 refugees, mainly from Northeastern and Central Africa. In our first session, thirteen young people gathered around a laptop in a church hall at Nakivale, from 5:00 to 7:00 in the evening. I ran the session over Zoom with the help of our co-facilitator and founder of Humanitarian Service Team, our partner organization based in Nakivale. Though we had to be creative to overcome various technological challenges (using the video function on Zoom, the audio function on WhatsApp, and the chat function on both!), the session was productive and, according to student feedback, invigorating for all. This workshop is based on the Anthropology of the Everyday summer course Stone Soup offered over the summer in collaboration with Society of Young Inklings. We will eventually facilitate creative writing exchange opportunities for those who participated through our summer programs and participating refugee youth. The material produced in the workshop will also feature on our Refugee Project web portal. Our deepest thanks to all of those who have contributed to make this and other Stone Soup Refugee Project initiatives possible. I humbly ask for your continued support. If you are able to donate, please click here. In addition to Stone Soup operating costs, a portion of your funds will go directly to Nakivale Refugee Settlement in order to help with the data costs to run the workshop via Zoom and to provide tea and snacks to participants. In gratitude, Visit the Refugee Project 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.
Newsletter
Saturday Newsletter: October 14, 2023
An Archeology of the Future by Emma Catherine Hoff. Cover art by Rebecca Wu, 9. A note from Emma Wood Hello, Stone Soup readers & writers, Earlier this month, we announced that Archeology of the Future by Emma Catherine Hoff, the poetry winner of Stone Soup’s 2022 Book Contest, was released and is available for purchase! Please support Stone Soup and Emma by buying her book today. If you have participated in one of our writing workshops recently, you have likely met Emma! Likewise, if you have been reading Stone Soup for the past couple of years, you will have encountered many of her poems (and maybe one of her photographs!) on our pages. I wish Stone Soup could take credit for making Emma into the poet she is today—and surely we have played some small role—but she came to our classes and our submission pool already a very mature poet with a strong voice and sense of style. I remember being astonished when I first encountered “The Ambassador” in our submission pool—it was dark, surreal, moving, strange. (To me, “strange” is the highest compliment any poem can receive—denoting both originality but also complexity and mystery; a “strange” poem always demands rereading.) Emma was eight years old when she wrote it, and it was the first poem of hers that we published. We are so proud, three years later, to be publishing her collection of poems, which has garnered the advance praise it deserves. Read on for a taste of what others are saying about her collection and further, to read a poem from the collection. Like the Surrealists before her, Hoff can see into the emotional lives of the things we use every day, things we toss around carelessly… If one of my friends had written this beautifully when I was starting out, I would have probably quit, and doffed my cap to her and said “you go on ahead” or more likely, “you’re already there.” — Matthew Rohrer, author of The Others Emma Hoff is a rare poet. And one of my favorites.I am tempted to use the words visionary, otherworldly, untimely, genius. I am tempted to say she flies above the earth. When I read Emma Hoff for the first time years ago, I thought: She’s not from this planet. I thought: She does not remind me of other poets; she makes me forget them. — Conner Bassett, author of Gad’s Book This collection is a garden of eurekas, a cavalcade of astonishments as, stanza by stanza, Hoff delivers the musings of a subtle intellect fed by a deep and abiding empathy for this world. The deftness of the prosody is only matched by its variety. Open it, and read for yourself. — Carlos Hernandez, NY Times bestselling author of Sal and Gabi Break the Universe The delights to be uncovered in An Archeology of the Future strike me with awe, urgency, solace, and compassion. How daring, how beautiful, how extraordinary it is, in this moment of the world when our world feels so broken, that Mt. Parnassas is still at work, and Hoff is a voice so richly sowed. — Jenny Boully, author of Betwixt and Between: Essays on the Writing Life From An Archeology of the Future The Lamp by Emma Catherine Hoff, 1o The light shines innocently, but it blinds me, my eyes become red. I shy from it and still it follows me with its intense gaze boring into me as I walk around the room. I feel the hot bulb, sense the lamp melting and perspiring under its own fever, its own light. The business is done, I think, but my dreams that night are of that still figure creeping up on me, and the next day, I find the lamp standing again. It glares at me and whispers in my ear, burning it, telling me that the sun’s light is not enough. I ask it how it knows, but the sun dies and the lamp is still glowing and I am grateful for it now. We make our way through the darkness until it parts with me, saying it must go, its filament cannot take the strain anymore and that the darkness isn’t as bad as people think. Click here to purchase An Archeology of the Future. 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.
Saturday Newsletter: September 30, 2023
Raindrops, or Sharpie Doodles? (Canon Rebel) by Madeline Male, 14; published in the September/October issue of Stone Soup A note from Tayleigh Greene Hello, and happy Saturday! This week, I’ve been reflecting on my creative process, and creative processes in general. I never know exactly when I’ll get paid a visit by the muses. I find myself doing a lot of creative work that doesn’t, well, work. I can draw or paint or write or design for hours without finishing a single thing that I like, and then suddenly, things will click. I’m discovering that creating the “bad” art is an integral step in my process of creating something “good.” Sometimes, this can be frustrating—like when I’m on deadline. Other times, it can be really liberating to simply enjoy the process on the way to the product. This week, I hope you consider taking some time to create for the simple sake of creating. Engage in any art form—writing, painting, knitting, dancing, the list goes on and on! Try not to think about how it looks, but how it feels. (Of course, if you do like what you make, we welcome you to submit your work to Stone Soup.) Now for Stone Soup news: today is the very last day of our back-to-school sale. Use code BACK2SCHOOL30 at checkout for 30% off an annual print + digital subscription. Today is also the last day to subscribe and still receive the September/October issue. From Leticia Cheng’s gorgeous Set Sail by Moonlight that graces the cover, to Madeline Male’s Raindrops, or Sharpie Doodles? featured above, to Naaman Garcia’s hilarious short story “The Cheese Tree,” this issue is not to be missed. Until next time, From Stone Soup September/October 2023 The Cheese Tree by Naaman Garcia, 8 One day, there was a guy named Bob. He was a farmer. He thought he made decent money, until the bills hit him real good in the face. While walking on Dry Creek, which was his favorite place to go, he stumbled upon a seed. It looked strange. It was riddled with holes. He looked at the seed long and hard. It looked like cheese. He said to himself, “I am going to study this.” Bob boosted out like a rocket back to his farm. He rushed to his computer, his shoes squeaking like a mouse. Looking online, the farmer found no data on the seed. He decided to use his farmer instincts. He rushed to the kitchen, opened the cabinet door, and pulled out his music box and a cup. Bob wound up the music box, and out played the familiar tune: Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down . . . He poured himself a cup of coffee and drank it silently while he listened to the music box. When the song ended, he grabbed the seed and barged through the door. Bob planted the seed. Click here to find out what happens next… 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.
