By Mary Catherine Karcich, Contributing Writer
HUDSON – Two of Hudson High School’s students were published this year in Teen Ink magazine with help from their teacher, Carol Hobbs.
As part of her Creative Writing course, Hobbs includes a unit on publication to give students insight into the business and to learn what it takes to get published. She supports and encourages them every step of the way, emphasizing the importance of their voices.
“I say this is not just for your teacher. This is not just for your journal; it is an important idea, thought, or feeling that other humans in the world feel or think or want to know about,” Hobbs said in a recent interview. “If you can publish this, you’ve just added to the global conversation around whatever it is that you’re writing about.”
Two of Hobbs’ students, freshman Amelia Dufour and sophomore Dylon Medeiros, recently found that publishing success they sought through Teen Ink, a monthly, national publication focused on elevating and spotlighting the voices of young writers.
Exploring emotions and creativity
Writing served as a coping mechanism for Dufour in the midst of a messy year of COVID-19 restrictions and precautions.
Her poem, “Go Back,” tells her personal experience as a student during the pandemic. From feelings of isolation to the disappointment of producing a theater show with her peers that nobody got to see, adjusting to the coronavirus shutdown was far from easy.
“I didn’t know that I wouldn’t be talking with my friends in the hallways until a year later, and I was like ‘I’ve missed this so much,’” she said.
While poetry wasn’t an interest for Dufour in the past, being published was “surreal,” she said.
She’s now open to exploring more creative writing and even publishing. She also hopes her poem will help others feel less alone.
“Writing has helped me feel a little less helpless when everything in the world is chaos,” she said.
For Medeiros, being in the fully remote learning model at the start of the pandemic allowed him to write often. With interest in sci-fi and fantasy, his short story titled “The One In The Spire” speaks to the idea that we’re all in control of our own lives.
Medeiros writes with an element of power or magic in mind, drawing inspiration from books, movies and music. Since he has a knack for writing and an interest in publication, being published in Teen Ink was a big deal.
“I feel glad that people read my story even if they take their own message from it,” he said. “Stories have room to have multiple messages.”
A proud community
Hobbs shared how proud everyone at Hudson High was and that she couldn’t help but brag about the success of her students.
As a writer herself, she believes there’s value in young adults using writing as an outlet for self-exploration.
“Writing is a way of discovering some pretty great ideas about yourself,” she said. “I find creative writing gets to the heart of that exploration of what it is that makes me a human in the world.”
Visit https://www.teenink.com/fiction/sci_fi_fantasy/article/1127113/The-One-In-The-Spire to read Dylon’s short story and https://www.teenink.com/poetry/all/article/1126935/Go-Back to read Amelia’s poem.
Hudson Education – Community Advocate
