3 The Norse Code
Hatch Who?
Bigfork High School’s Hatch Literary Magazine exemplifies
importance of student-led publication and design
Hatch Senior Editor Kyle Cumming shows his love for
Hatch Magazine. The student-led magazine publishes
student work and is a catalyst for the arts.
BY ASHLEY MILLER
S chool teaches students
to read books and obtain
knowledge from the works
of remarkable authors.
However, simply reading
books is insufficient for
our education. Because of
this, students are taught
to express their own ideas
through writing. Simi-
larly, some educators have
stressed the importance of
student publication because
young, creative talent finds
its first exposure through
this medium.
At Bigfork High School,
there are multiple classes
that provide opportunities
for students to publish their
work. Charlie Appleby leads
the journalism class and just
across the hall is Lou Jes-
sop’s creative writing class.
“[Creative writing works]
not only to publish the
exceptional creative writ-
ing pieces, but also to show
original art pieces from
students of Bigfork High
School and give the maga-
zine staff an experience with
publication and design,”
said Jessop. Every piece
-- including poetry, draw-
ings, paintings, short stories,
and more -- goes through
the editing process, and the
benchmarks for quality are
determined by the staff.
The creative writing class
is primarily responsible for
writing, creating, editing,
and publishing the annual
literary magazine, Hatch.
Creating an award-winning
magazine brings many
challenges, including, “time
management, deadlines,
lack of motivation from
burnt-out seniors, and
the turnover of staff when
people graduate, which
requires us to start over and
reteach,” said Jessop.
He said, “The magazine’s
readers are more limited
than I would like, because
primarily friends and fam-
ily are who read it. Often,
outside readers misjudge
the student creators, when
many are just writing about
personal conflict. As writers,
they like seeing their pieces
be published in a profes-
sional way.”
Over the years, Hatch has
received many impressive
awards, including the NCTE
Highest Award for the
past three years, the CSPA
Gold Crown in 2014, the
CSPA Silver Crown for the
past two years, and, most
recently, the Gold Medalist
Award in 2016.
Although Hatch has
received these remark-
able awards, this part of
the school often comes in
second. Arts tend to take
the backseat of public
education, where athlet-
ics take the main focus.
Besides readers of the Hatch
magazine, many are not
aware of the awards they
have received. In order to
cultivate a community that
appreciates both arts and
athletics, it is necessary to
discuss why artistic awards
are not on display or are not
seen beside trophy cases full
of athletic achievements.
Senior editor of Hatch,
Kyle Cumming, has been a
December 2017
part of the creative writing
class for all four years of
high school. He says that the
biggest challenges he faced
were, “focusing on [his]
own work, and not goofing
around.”
“I’ve loved everything
about this class, and the
complete process and
environment of it. The most
important thing Jessop has
taught me is to accept other
people’s forms of art work
and not dwell on your per-
sonal writing opinions. I’ve
learned no matter how long
you’ve worked on some-
thing, there’s always room
for edits and improvements
to be made,” said Cumming.
Cumming plans to pursue
a career in writing to be on a
storyboard or plot line for a
video game company.
“I believe that Kyle has
become much more respon-
sible over the years and as a
writer...his poetry has come
a tremendous distance,”
said Jessop.
Hatch will continue to give
students the opportunity
to express themselves and
further their experience
as writers and creators for
many years to come.