Hot Dish Magazine is a website that takes poems and short story submissions from high schoolers all across the midwest. Their website reads “We hear you, we have been there, and we want to give you a chance to be heard as a writer, rather than just a high school student.” Over the years, AHS students have taken the opportunity to submit their work. This year, four students were accepted. 

Freshman Eleanor McCalla is one of the four students who submitted their work and got accepted. Writing is a hobby for McCalla, as she mostly does research-based essays for her AP classes. “I don’t usually do creative writing,” McCalla said. She decided to switch it up because she thought it would be “fun” and a “good opportunity.” She was encouraged to submit her work by English teacher Allison Berryhill, and three of the four poems she submitted were accepted. McCalla’s main inspiration for writing is to express the way she feels about certain subjects. “I like to write about things that I think are wrong in the world,” she said. Her three pieces accepted are titled “Conscription,” “Bright and Sunny Day,” and “Interminable Education in Seventeen Syllables.”

Another submitter was senior Ana Muell. She spends a lot of her free time writing. “I write everything down,” Muell said. Her main inspiration comes from her everyday life. “If I see something interesting, I’ll write about it,” she said. Of the four poems she submitted, one was accepted and one was conditionally accepted. When a piece of writing is conditionally accepted, they send it back with edits so the writer can re-submit it. Like McCalla, Muell was encouraged to submit her work by Berryhill. Muell’s piece in Hot Dish magazine is titled “She Will Be Queen” and is featured in the poetry section.

Senior Aly Brockob has submitted her poems to Hot Dish Magazine three times and has been accepted three times. Brockob has been in honors English, journalism, and creative writing throughout high school. Besides penning away in class, Brockob writes a lot in her down time. “I try to write every day,” Brockob said. The amount she writes varies from day to day, and her inspiration comes from the people around her, “like friends or random people.” Like the other writers, Brockob was encouraged by Berryhill the first time she sent in her writing. “Ever since then, I’ve been continuing doing that,” she said. Brockob’s published piece is titled “My Sister.”

The final writer published in Hot Dish Magazine was junior Steven Whittle. While all of the other Atlantic writers had poetry accepted, Whittle’s piece was a short fiction story, titled “The Old House.” In the story, which is ominous and spooky, the narrator recounts their trip to a run-down dwelling. On the site, Whittle said, “I think my biggest focus was to make it scary without explaining every little thing.” 

To read what these students wrote and submitted, you can find them on http://www.hotdishmagazine.com/.