By LAURA BROOKHART / Community Columnist

The 2016 edition of the HHS Literary Magazine is titled Subterranean and now can be purchased from Lit-Mag students at $10 per copy.

“When Mrs. Culver appointed me editor,” Sara Grace El-Feraly said, “I was very excited and knew I wanted to bring more diversity to our lit mag—make it bigger and show off the amazing talent we have here.”

The magazine (more like a book, actually) grew from 40 pages in 2015 to 72 this year.

“The name Subterranean refers to hidden parts, for example, of a tree,” El-Feraly explains in her editor introduction.

“We see the leaves, the trunks, but we don’t see the roots concealed in the earth. As humans, we also conceal our thoughts and feelings in the back of our minds. When we lift our subterranean minds and take up paper and pencil or paint, we pour our clandestine souls into a work of art. There is much beauty in what is hidden.”

Jennifer Culver, Lit Mag sponsor, noted, “This group, many of whom were on the staff last year, are a mix of creative and very business-like, very objective. Not everyone who works on the lit mag are writers or poets, but they appreciate it.

“They can step back and give an opinion and they go with their gut. Often their opinion is the same as mine.”

“I am amazed at the quality of writing and the quality of the art and photography. When our students do things, they do them big. I’m glad to be able to help them, because every school doesn’t have a lit mag.”

Hannah Crow shared, “I found it a learning experience to read all the submissions. Before, I was always very personal in my writings; being on the lit staff expanded my ideas.”

Jasmine Morgan says she, too, liked the group discussions that ensued and that staff members came to intuit what the others would like or not like.

“By the end, we all had a grasp of what our strengths were with in the group. I was the one who read all the short stories, because, even if the first paragraph didn’t pull me in, I would read to the end.”

The staff was pleased to have many more submissions this year, as last year “we had to beg and plead.”

Subterranean may also be ordered online from Blurb (plus shipping).

On April 28, Lit Mag students will hold a night of readings at The Coal Yard from 6-8 p.m.