Welcome to Chrysalis

Perhaps the name of this project also dooms it. Perhaps it is meant to remain in the gestative limbo. I prefer to have faith that it will emerge as a beautiful, sparkling reality.

Welcome to Chrysalis, a magazine for young authors, but also a magazine for young people interested in the publishing process. Let me know if this idea inspires you, or if you have suggestions. The magazine should end up in actual print, a physical book, a thing that the writers and editors could bring with them to college and job interviews. It will be a literary journal that culls the best of the works of young writers, a showcase for alert minds with precocious talents.

The magazine would collect submissions for a full year, and teens would apply to become staff members – editing, designing, advertising, and ultimately publishing the magazine. During a summer camp, this staff would attend classes with professionals in these fields, who would then act as advisors as the staff creates the magazine.

I want the professionals involved to be young, themselves. I want people who brim with enthusiasm and the feeling that there are too many possibilities for such a project. I want a staff of people who see teens for who they are as individuals, as people themselves.

For my teen staff, I want people who have never done anything like this before, or people who have done it over and over and have grown bored with the constraints of their High School litmag. I want teens who think that they don't have an artistic bone in their bodies, or teens who don't want to have anything to do with proofreading and editing. I want every kind of person who is at all interested.

Are you interested?