TOWAMENCIN — When it comes to talent, the most satisfying part is when your hard work pays off. For athletes, it could be winning the state title. For scientists, it could be placing first in a local science fair. But for writers and artists, it could be getting published. And for creative minds at North Penn High School, one of the many opportunities to get your work published is now available: submitting to The Troubadour.

The Troubadour is North Penn’s arts and literary magazine. It is a collection of all the creative efforts of North Penn student writers and artists. 

“It was originally a printed publication for 50 years or so, and then it went away. And as a creative writing teacher, I had these students that were always writing great things, and we wanted a place where they could be read. About four years ago, we brought it back as an online magazine,” Mr. Gillespie, adviser of The Troubador, said. “We get things from Creative Writing students in Creative Writing 1 or 2, but we also get things from students that like to write in their own free time. Students can write stories or poems or lyrics, or they take pictures, draw, or paint.”

The Troubadour is also a club that students from grades 10, 11, and 12 can be a part of and they meet every Wednesday after school in A107. They currently follow the same meeting schedule but virtually. 

Prior to releasing an issue, club members brainstorm and discuss a list of theme ideas. They vote on them and then narrow it down until they have a winner. Issues come out twice a year during the winter and spring.

“We want it to be broad enough to appeal to both writers and visual artists, so they can be inspired by it,” Gillespie said.

Once they announce the theme to the rest of the school and have submissions come in, the editors, who are a select group of students, will determine the pieces to be published. Selected writing pieces will undergo slight editing for grammar.

Submissions are open to everyone, whether you’re a writer or artist, and the number of submissions is unlimited. They could also be submitted anonymously if students prefer to do so. 

The theme for the winter 2020 issue will be (Mis)Perceptions. Submissions for this issue will be due December 7th, and in January, the issue will be released.

“As editors and moderators of what goes in the online magazine, we’ll be searching for pieces or works that stretch the boundaries of the prompt. We intentionally made sure that the theme for this year can be interpreted in various ways,” said Ananya Venkatachalam, a member of The Troubadour.

The type of submissions can range from but are not limited to short stories, poetry, scripts, character sketches, photography, drawings, paintings, graphic art, illustrations, essays, non-fiction, videos, and lyrics.

There is no word limit for writing pieces. However, they do consider readability, so if your work is beyond 1000 words, it might be broken into installments if they choose to include it in the issue.

Selected submissions will be based on what the staff believes is appealing to the average student reader. Students whose submissions have been selected will be notified.

“We encourage everybody who’s got something to submit it,” said Gillespie. “If you are a writer or an artist, this is a showcase for you. If you want to be with like-minded people that are creative and interesting, come join our club. We’re always looking for more people to be a part of it.”

“Submit something. It never hurts to try. We take time and care in reading and looking over our submissions and no work goes unnoticed especially art. We get so many writers but only a few artists and photographers that it makes us want to feature more of it,” said a member of The Troubadour, Barrinique Green.

Google Classroom Code:

3ka5p32

Website Link:

https://sites.google.com/npenn.org/troubadour