By Natalie Swanson ’13 Arts & Entertainment Editor

Twice a year, Newark Academy students file out of morning meeting and are greeted at the doors with the newest publication of Prisms, the school’s literary and art magazine. The book is comprised of short stories, poems, and artwork, all submitted by Newark Academy students. The magazine is a creative outlet for students to showcase their favorite works, from poems created in an English class to a photograph taken on a recent vacation.

The process of creating the fall Prisms book is currently underway. The staff hopes to have it ready before winter break. The Editors-in-Chief, Zoe Huber-Weiss ’13 and Sabrina Merold ’13, chose a theme to get submitters inspired. The theme this fall, “myth,” is represented by the painting that adorns the front cover of the latest edition. The painting, a white unicorn, is by Michelle Peng ’14, a junior IB artist.

While any Newark Academy student can submit a piece of writing or artwork to Prisms, the staff must carefully choose which pieces to publish. For artwork, thirty photographs and six non-photographs were submitted this fall, and there was not enough room in the book to incorporate each image. Meetings are held in which artwork is projected on a screen, each artist anonymous, and the Prisms staff votes on which works should be included in the magazine. Katie Charney ’13, one of the Arts Editors, shared what she looks for in an art submission. “I really like black and white drawings, because they always look really good when they are printed in the book.” Though the staff expressed that they get excited when a painting or a sculpture is submitted, Katie commented that she also likes to incorporate many photographs. “I favor photography of nature rather than posed pictures of friends in submissions.”

Prisms is printed in black and white, with the exception of a color centerfold with four to five color submissions. The Prisms staff must choose which art pieces to print in color, and which to put in black and white. The upcoming issue will feature a photograph by Anna Tyshkov called “Aging in Orange” in the centerfold. The photograph is of a woman sitting near a pile of clothes wearing an orange head scarf, taken during Anna’s trip to Nepal. Jeffrey Frankel ’13, the Head of Arts and Design, commented that he was drawn to Anna’s photograph. “I fought for this photograph to be in the color centerfold because I thought that it was very well composed technically. The use of light and the photographer’s choices are all things we consider in meetings,” he said.

Submissions are often creative and outside of the box. Jeff Frankel spoke about an interesting submission found in the Prisms archives dating back to many years ago, when the magazine was headed by Susan Karlin ’81. “We found a submission that was a musical composition. The staffs ran from page to page.” The Arts Editors of Prisms encourage all submitters to take risks and try new things, like the musical composition submitted years ago. They are always willing to publish an unusual or different type of art.

To submit, e-mail your written work to prisms@newarka.edu and your artwork to prismsart@newarka.edu.