The morning announcements: girls basketball game, Model UN meeting, “there was a rabbit with a croissant...” Pegasus, a student-run art and literary magazine, aims to “breathe some life into the artistic community of the high school,” said senior Lizzy Pierson, editor-in-chief. Those signature announcements, which consisted of Pierson reading off an intentionally putrid short story, were designed to spur people to submit short stories to Pegasus’s short story contest.

Pegasus provides many outlets for artistic expression, from poetry nights in the S-room to short story and photo contests. The last poetry night was on February 28.

Anna Olson, sophomore member, enjoys the poetry nights: “[We] have snacks and stuff and sometimes we get tea. It’s really fun. It’s basically a quiet social gathering,” Olsen said.

Pierson said, “I’m a little bit disappointed that people don’t seem to show a lot of interest…I think there’s this perception that poetry nights are just for Pegasus [members]. A poetry night is when we want all of our friends and classmates to come and enjoy poetry with us. Last year, when people came who have never been before, they were surprised at how much fun it actually was.”

Judging for the short story contest, which ended on February 22, finished last week with the announcement that freshman Emmy Tisdel had won, and senior Bess Cooley had taken second place. The morning announcements must have worked, because more short stories were submitted than last year.

“It’s really good as a group to experience and to read very talented writers’ work,” said Olson.

Pegasus has a lot more up its sleeve: “April is national poetry month. We’ve talked about having poets come and speak,” Pierson said. The group is also considering other activities, including a walk to Carl Sandburg’s house to read poetry, a few blocks from the high school.

Of course, Pegasus members are also still working on creating the magazine: “We’re down to about seven or eight [members] looking into submissions that are slowly coming in,” Pierson said.

“They live for submissions,” said Mike Halloran, Pegasus advisor.

The magazine is expected to come out the first week of May. The deadline for most submissions was this Monday, March 17.

Pegasus meets Tuesdays at lunch in Room 216. “We have a good core group of members and then a bunch come and go, so we’re never left with an empty room,” said Halloran. “The other half dozen are in and out… They don’t really suffer for attendance at all.”

Olson has some ideas for the future of the magazine: “More contests would be nice, maybe an art contest or something. That way we would get more submissions,” Olson said. She added, “A common misconception is that the people in Pegasus submit everything – but no, we need lots of input and appreciate other input.”  

The deadline for art submissions, and Creative Writing students’ writing pieces, has been extended to this Friday. After spring break, the group will begin putting the magazine together.

“I’ve always liked the idea of a literary magazine’s contribution to school culture,” Halloran said. “That is a really valuable thing, I think.”