In January, English teacher Ted Fabiano asked his classes to submit poems to be considered for publication in Elementia Magazine, a teen literary arts magazine run through the Johnson County Library. Twenty one students’ poems were selected to be published in the March issue.

“I couldn’t believe so many of our students got published, and the editor at the [Johnson County Library] said that our school submitted the best poems of all the different schools that entered,” Fabiano said. “I think that says a lot about the strength of the students in our school…it’s really cool for our school to be so well represented.”

Senior Priya Jain, one of the published poets, said the activity did not require any extra work in class, but at the same time brought something new into the curriculum.

“It was kind of interesting because it opened us up to something new that I wouldn’t have found by myself,” Jain said. “I wouldn’t even think that my poem would have made it, but [it] ended up making it. That’s been cool.”

Fabiano said publishing grants writing a new life, and it can influence students to look at writing from another perspective.

“I think it’s important that writers have a real audience,” Fabiano said. “They feel that…they’re not just doing it for the teacher, that they’re doing it because someone else might read it.”

Fabiano said he got this idea for students to compete from his visit earlier this year to “Louder Than A Bomb,” which is a poetry slam event in the Kansas City area. He met the editors of Elementia Magazine at the event. They also informed him that the poet Naomi Shihab Nye would be visiting Kansas City in March.

“I’ve been a huge fan of her poetry for a long time, so I was pretty excited when I heard her name,” Fabiano said. “I wanted to jump in and do whatever we could to become a part of that.”

Fabiano based the poetry assignment around Nye’s work because the publication is meant to be unveiled during her visit to BVNW on March 2 and 3. Jain elaborated on the topics given by Fabiano.

“First, [Fabiano] just gave us a topic, and it had to be related to a place or memory,” Jain said. “Then we did three types of poems and one of them is that he showed us three pictures, and so I made mine kind of based on that picture.”

Jain said a picture of war memorial graveyard presented by Fabiano inspired her to write her selected poem.

“My poem is about uniformity, and how even though we try to make everything uniform, we know that in the end the world really is not perfect and it never will be,” Jain said. “When I saw the picture, it was all perfect straight lines and that just got me think of uniformity.”

Jain said the activity gave her something interesting to talk about in her college interviews. She also said the activity made her attempt something she has never attempted.

However, Fabiano said he noticed the downside of a contest that people might view the activity as winning or losing.

“Writing should never be about winning and losing,” Fabiano said. “Any student that didn’t get selected, it really isn’t necessarily reflection of the quality of their writing…It maybe gives you more motivation to do it again. It may motivate you to really go the extra mile, and makes it worth it even more when you get published the next time then.”

However, because of the great outcome and positive responses from students, Fabiano said he would look for more publishing opportunities for his students.