The Arras Periodical is a new literary and art magazine run by the Literary Magazine Club at Milpitas High School, founder and junior Trinh Tran said in a Zoom interview. Tran and a group of juniors founded the organization last semester to elevate the works of student writers and artists.
The Arras Periodical released their first issue on Jan. 15, 2021 with fifteen literary pieces and twelve art pieces, according to their website. These submissions vary widely, containing short-form poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction in the literary section and photography, painting, digital art, and drawing for the art section, all of which go through an intensive judging process, the website said.
Rishita Rokariya, an art director for the Arras Periodical, found the art judging process to be difficult at times, she said in a Zoom interview. “All the pieces that we get are really good and worthy of being portrayed to others, so figuring out what pieces to accept and reject is difficult. A lot of [the judging] is based on what [the artist] is trying to convey by submitting this piece and [their] technique,” she said.
On the literary side, in-house editors collaborate with writers to edit and improve their pieces if they are accepted, secretary and in-house editor Vyoma Bhanap said in a Zoom interview. Before these are accepted, readers must go through and determine which pieces they liked the most before they get chosen by in-house editors, Bhanap added.
Composing the magazine did not always go as planned, Tran said. “I remember that we kept having a ton of technical difficulties. For example, this one poem, the web page wouldn’t format it correctly, so then we had to contact the author and ask them if we could change the formatting, like really close to the deadline. We did manage to publish on time, so it was a bit hectic but went well overall,” she said.
The magazine is working on changes for the magazine for the spring semester, Tran said. The magazine will start to give content submitters raffle tickets for a chance at free boba prizes, Tran said. The art department will start to provide detailed feedback on their submissions, similar to the literary department, Tran added. In addition, the club hopes to close the gaps between art club members and literary club members.
“At first, the magazine started from a literary club, but we want to give greater prominence to the art side of the magazine in the future,” Tran said. “For this semester, we’re going to have new officer elections with a new co-vice president role, which someone from the art side will occupy. We want to share that representation on our team,” she said.
Overall, the experience of creating and finishing the first edition of the Arras Periodical was quite satisfying, Bhanap said. It was inspiring to see so many peers show their creativity through writing and art throughout the submission process, Bhanap added.
“Honestly, this club has been the most important experience of my year,” Tran said. “As a writer, a lot of times writing is done in a sort of solitary environment, but through founding the club, you get to have this community. I get the opportunity to talk to authors about their thought process and just discuss writing with them. It’s an amazing experience to find other people who understand the same things I go through when I’m writing and share that information,” she said.