Gallery • 5 Photos

Expressions Cover made by Una Blagojevic and Diana Li

Are you passionate about writing? Do you often have creative ideas? If so, you should check out the expressive writing club. It helps writers promote their pieces in a literary magazine that becomes published at the end of the year. In addition, it provides students with an outlet to express their emotions through art.

“It has been around since before I arrived at Niles West, which was 28 years ago,” sponsor and English teacher Michele Lewis said.

Since then, the club had a goal to publish a literary magazine by the end of the year.

“The literary magazine is an actual little book we make at the end of the year. In it we publish poems, short stories, some essay-type writing, and artwork that students produce,” Lewis said.

Although some magazines follow a specific theme, this one allows for more creativity to fall through. However every year, there seems to be a trend.

“I’ve noticed that the writing this year is a bit more upbeat than the previous years which is really nice. This could be because of all the bad news we’ve heard around us, and kids are just looking for a way to release some joy. This being said, the previous years followed a trend of sadness and not recognizing one’s self-worth,” Lewis said.

Now with every club, you always find yourself in need of changing or adjusting something.

“One thing I’d really like to do is have more students involved in laying out the pages of the magazine, doing the graphic design, and submitting more artwork. In all, I just really hope we can get more graphic designers next year,” Lewis explained.

But the club isn’t just a place to write.

“Expressions is a club, but also a safe space to, well, express yourself! It’s definitely creative writing centered, with most submissions being poems or short stories, but original artwork is welcome too. I’ve written a few poems and a short story myself, and I also design posts for the Expressions Instagram (@nwhs.expressions),” freshman Abbey Du Bois said.

Freshman Andrew Thompson agreed, describing the welcoming environment that the club offers.

“[It] is a great space for us to exercise our creativity and see all sorts of our works put together. I write short stories that will be included in the magazine. We also, throughout the year, come to the fun club meetings where we discuss things like new submissions and creative ideas and just hang out and relax. At the end of the year, the club helps our sponsor, Ms. Lewis, to put together the annually printed magazine with the year’s works—the short stories, poetry, and art,” Thompson said.

If you are interested in arts and literature, Expressions Club would be the perfect club for you.

“We are always looking for some more voices. Even if you can’t attend our weekly after-school Friday meetings, you can always submit your work to me through email or your English teachers. At our meetings, we usually write or just look at submissions made to me,” Lewis said.