GSSM Senior to be Published in Young Emrys Journal

Hartsville, SC - GSSM Senior Kaylin Mahal Smith’s flash nonfiction essay "A Stormwater Pond" will appear in the debut issue of Young Emrys Journal, a literary magazine for 3rd-12th graders in Upstate South Carolina.

“Kaylin Mahal was one of my talented creative nonfiction writing students in the fall,” said GSSM English Instructor Jessica Pitchford. “‘A Stormwater Pond’ came out of an October writing the green world exercise, where I asked students -- who'd been stuck on Zoom all semester -- to find their own nature space, and with notebook and pen in hand, go on a solitary writer's walk and record their observations. Kaylin observed a stormwater pond in her neighborhood. Only she took it a step further and wrote from the perspective of the pond itself, resulting in a lovely exercise in empathy, a prompt that she would go on to workshop and edit and take the initiative to send out for publication. I'm delighted that it's found a home with Young Emrys Journal.”

The printed anthology will be published in late Spring 2021. They will be hosting a virtual launch event on May 27, where Smith will be reading “A Stormwater Pond.”

The Young Emrys journal will highlight young voices in Upstate South Carolina. You can read more about the magazine and the Emrys Foundation here.