Élan’s community engagement is an extremely important part of what this student magazine does because of the outreach. As a small class, we are always looking for ways to connect with our audience, and interact with them in ways that produce a positive outcome. These events that Élan has participated over the past year (Yellow House, Color Me Kona, LaVilla workshop) have boosted our image to the local literary community. Élan shouldn’t be an invisible face to the public. To me, engagement and outreach to our audience is something that makes me proud to be on the staff; when explaining what we do to a crowd, I know that we are making an impact in the literary world, even if it’s just a small one. This year, as a junior, I have had the honour of being on the Color Me Kona team. Before the day of the event I was building with anticipation and excitement at the thought of putting Élan out there; during the event I was proven right. Several people came up to our booth to look through our magazine, and ask questions. Élan was showing itself to others in a way it has never done before. Being on a field with other artists’ work felt like we belonged there. My role felt completed; my hard work helping the team paid off in a wonderful, successful way. The process of building a mural, making bookmarks, and coming up with ideas for audience engagement took a lot of team effort, but the results were more than I would’ve expected. It made me excited for more events (soon, they are coming soon). I want Élan to be at every local literary event there is because without engaging, and participating with our audience (and the people we have not reached yet), Élan will never grow farther. As a member of the staff, I want this magazine to succeed in bigger, better ways, and I truly think that doing community events will help with that goal. As a writer, I felt encouraged seeing other artists so deeply involved in their art. Color Me Kona was truly the place Élan needed to be. - Luz Mañunga, Junior Digital Media Editor

Onto of being a large publication which posts a student produced book every year, and two online editions to be read by anyone on the internet, Élan tries to be a part of the local community more than any literary magazine I’ve seen do. We try to reach outside our four walls and spread out throughout the community. My experience working with the staff to connect and engage our audiences has taken me outside of the editorial room and into middle schools, libraries, art museums, and even skateparks (I know what you’re thinking). What we call “community engagement” in Élan is truly one of our biggest tasks where we sit down almost every day to discuss why we want to get out and what our main goals are with each project. Being on the Élan staff has taught me more about enriching the lives of people around us and people who are interested in our work than I ever thought possible. Like I said, we’ve visited middle schools to have discussions on literature and have held events in art museums that let us personally capture an audience that is truly interested in the work Élan is publishing. One of the most impactful events we held was one that I personally was the personal in charge. Kona Skatepark, the nation’s oldest running skatepark, holds an event every year in which artist in the community come together for one day and celebrate what makes them inspired. The event is called Color Me Kona and artists of all mediums – singing, dancing, writing, drawing, photography, etc. – join for this special event to inspire the youth in Jacksonville Florida and this year Élan was proud to be a part of it. With our booth and stack of books prepared, the staff stood outside in the blazing sun (and even a little rain in the morning) and talked to dozens of people who we are. Not only did we sell our books, a very important part of any international literary magazine, but we also were able to bring a deeper understanding to why what the Élan staff does is important. I felt like my role in the event helped not only open the minds of children, teens, and adults, but also open my mind to the possibility of connecting with people on a broader scale. Leaving that event after roughly ten hours reminded me of how much I deeply care about Élan Literary Magazine. It is more than just how many books we sell and if anyone from the event wants to now submit to Élan. I became truly excited about all the growing the staff had done in those ten hours. Everyone’s faces were eager to talk to complete strangers (mind I remind you, we are a staff of writers who can tend to be on the introvert side of things) about not only Élan but writing and why it matters to them. We all felt accomplished when people began to gather around and listen to what we had to say about our trustee staff. When I came into the editorial room the next week, I was ecstatic to share how amazing community events, like Color Me Kona, matter in our society and to me. - Valerie Busto, Senior Fiction/CNF Editor

Despite only being a part of the staff for one semester, being on Élan has shown me how much work goes into the events I took for granted in the past. For instance, at Douglas Anderson’s Coffeehouse event, I have been both on the stage and in the audience, but never behind the scenes. When the first discussion of Coffeehouse took place months before its fruition, I was forced into a completely new role as a key organizer for the event. The onlooker, upon hearing that the event took such a tremendous effort over a long period of time to create, might think that Coffeehouse’s final night would be disappointing after so much hard work. I had the same fear. As artists, we are radically afraid of things getting “stale;” we hate tedium because, ideally, our work is never tedious but always spontaneous and exciting. The work for Coffeehouse was not always spontaneous or necessarily exciting in the moment. Instead, Coffeehouse demanded a different type of thinking; we needed problem-solving and logistical mindsets, careful calculation and foresight. It slowly developed a different type of thrill: as point A, the first discussion of what Coffeehouse should be this year, receded, point B approached. In the end, the pleasure wasn’t entirely in the final performance—of which I was a part of—but also in the entire plan’s realization, coming together like a well-kneaded dough. Coffeehouse was my first taste of community planning in Élan. Indeed, I had never really been a part of planning events ever. It felt like I had a real impact on my community because I did important things for Coffeehouse; my absence would have changed the final product. It was not necessarily glorious work but it put a sliver of my own identity into 2018’s Coffeehouse. Of course, that may be a narcissistic way of looking at an event that was planned by many people, but I think being a writer and performer is a little selfish by itself. I also performed in Coffeehouse with my fellow Élan member, Shelby Woods. The event changed me as an artist because this performance was my most ambitious yet, and I was performing alongside some incredibly skilled artists (because I was both a performer and a staff member, I worked with the rest of the cast more than perhaps most of my peers). The pressure was on to make this Coffeehouse the best I could realistically produce. I pushed myself, that much is true. The performance rapidly closed in on us, but the décor was planned, the lineup established, the backdrop painted, the performers rehearsed. The final night may not have been as exciting as my first time on that stage last year; I had performed once before and it had singlehandedly changed my perspective on sharing my work. But with this wide-eyed glamour stripped away, I was ready for next year’s Coffeehouse, which—if everything comes up roses and perfume—will be better than ever before. - Noland Blain, Junior Managing Editor

As a self-proclaimed writer, I want others to be just as passionate for the written word as I am. Being a part of Elan has allowed me to voice my own passion for the work that is done within the confines of Elan. We aren’t just a literary magazine. Elan has solidified who I am as an artist. In my first two years at Douglas Anderson, I didn’t truly consider myself an artist. I as a person who wrote. I wasn’t a writer. Yes, my work was meaningful to me and affected me, but I didn’t think it had a large impact on anyone else. I didn’t even let my parents read my work. As I became a member of Elan, I realized that I had to take myself seriously. If I didn’t think I was a writer, then I had no right to be reading other writers’ work. My third year at Douglas Anderson was when I wholly and entirely considered myself not only a writer, but an artist. In the Spring of my junior year, Elan was given the opportunity to curate an entire gallery. This was one of the most defining moments for me. It was recognition from my own local art community. Hope McMath is well-established and was giving a staff of high school students the chance to showcase other high school students’ work. It was a point of realization that what we were doing in Elan was so important. I was asked to read at the opening of Yellow House and I think that opened another door for me as an artist. A group of people I didn’t know gave me their time and attention to listen to a poem that I had written. There was no caveat. Everyone at this event was there because they wanted to be there. It was people coming together to enjoy art and take it all in and I had a role in making this happen. Being able to walk through the gallery and seeing adults two or three times my age appreciate work or to see children half my age looking at a piece of art was absolutely heart-warming. What I was doing with my time on Elan impacted people and I could see them interact with the gallery and publication that the staff and myself put so much energy into affected them. It is hard to get a sense of recognition, I think, because Elan publishes online and then a final print book. Doing these community events allows the staff the chance to see our impact in person and to truly take in what we are doing. We put together a book. A staff of high school students that have to balance everything that it takes to be a teenager make a book, which is amazing. I forget the magnitude of what I am doing sometimes. I forget how much this affects other people and not just myself. - Winnie Blay, Senior Managing Editor

I’ve never been good at keeping things short and sweet. As a person who rambles in their writing, who takes a long time to say what they need to say, I deeply appreciate poets who master brevity. I immediately felt this admiration towards Gwyneth Atkinson after reading “Sleepwalking” in our Fall 2018 edition. Her piece has inspired me tremendously. From a structural perspective, the poem is only comprised of twelve lines--each line no longer than ten words in length. Yet the content of the piece is so intimate and emotionally charged that the word count becomes irrelevant. In fact, it is strengthened by the fact that it takes up so few words on the page. My favorite line is the poem’s first line: “I woke up this morning having dreamt of my mother.” There is so much implication! We don’t have to be explicitly told whether the dream was bad, or whether the dream was good. Or what even happened in the dream at all. We, as readers, can just tell that it was haunting enough to wake her up. And the rest of the poem parallels this structure of implying and not telling so beautifully…it greatly matches the piece. For me, writing about my mother falls into a steady rhythm of sameness. I write about the same couple of events, the same couple of feelings, draw the same conclusions in the end. Reading this poem was a realization for me. You don’t have to tell the reader everything! In fact, Gwyneth says the word “maybe” three times in her piece. When writing a poem, you, the poet, don’t even have to know what you’re writing about! Allow the reader space to read, to think about what you’re saying…you don’t have to force-feed a message. I’ve been trying to find other lines of the poem to quote, but I find myself wanting to excerpt the entire latter half: “Maybe, last night I crossed fields/ Of black grass and cow shit to step/ Into her room, to sit with her, my eyes moving/ Under my eyelids like animals./ Maybe she woke up having dreamt of me.” There is so much longing here. I was left thinking about my own mother: how parts of me still want to be with her, and how much I wish she wanted to be with me. This is the haunting “Sleepwalking” embodies. We don’t know the speaker’s relationship with her mother. We know she is hurt. Her words sound like the most private confession; an almost guilty admittance. It doesn’t take a ton of words to be honest-- it takes guts. In this piece, we know what the deepest and most subconscious part of she wants. And that is truly the most meaningful thing I can ask of a poet. - Olivia Meiller, Junior Editor in Chief

(Photo credit to artist: Anasha Barnes) I’m hoping to gain a lot of experience from Elan, especially since it requires a lot from a person (in a good way) and is such a big part of both Douglas Anderson and the Creative Writing department. Experience is the key to what allows people to grow and shape into who they are meant to be. I’m hoping to gain at least a little bit of that from Elan because high-school is the prime time to be growing as a person and I know Elan will help me with sharing my thoughts and leading when I need to. Being a confident leader has been a huge struggle of mine for a while. I know Elan will change that. My position is Junior Digital Media Editor and the biggest thing I’m looking forward to is learning how to grow and expand in the digital world. I’ve never really been a big person to use media as a way to connect to others, so it’ll be very interesting to see how being a part of the Digital Media team will teach me that. Another thing I’m definitely excited about with being on the Digital Media team is having a huge part in how Elan is seen as a whole. That sounds like a huge responsibility, but for me it’s also fun. As someone who runs two of the media pages, I get to choose the art and what to say. I was very hesitant about taking this job at first because I was like, “Really? Is this for me?” Now I’m beginning to get used to everything I have to do it and not stress as much about what I’m doing. The main thing that motivated me to join Elan was new experience. I’ve been telling myself that I’ll always put myself out there and do things I don’t feel comfortable with, and being on Elan, I believe, will challenge that. I’ve always had great experiences in Creative Writing, but I also needed something that would be a long-term challenge. Even though I said I’m feeling better right now with what I am doing, not everything is going to be like that all the time. I realize that sometimes it’s going to get stressful or I might be put on the spot for something and I’m willing to accept that because of the experience it will give me. I see Elan helping me grow a lot. I’ve never really been a person who shares my ideas that much or someone who feel comfortable with leading all the time. I’m always very quiet and shy about sharing my thoughts and feelings. To be on Elan you do have to share sometimes so not everything is building up and you go into a spiral of things you don’t want to do. Being a part of Elan is giving me that chance to grow as a person and fill that role of being comfortable with my ideas and sharing them. - Catriona Keel, Junior Digital Media Editor

When deciding whether or not I wanted to be a part of Elan I truly took into consideration what I could bring to the publication. For the last five years, I have been writing constantly for my assignments in my creative writing classes. It’s hard to remember a time when I wasn’t in a writing program. It’s become such a normal part of my life and I thought I would continue with the classes I have been taking these past few years. My expectations were I would gradually continue my way through my creative writing courses, adding to the knowledge I already have until I graduate, to possibly take more creative writing courses in college.  And I certainly have been, but Elan brought something different to the table. Elan gives me a space where I am able to interact with other people’s work, which is extremely beneficial to me. When reading Elan all the work is so professional and well put together, I knew I wanted to be a part of that. To be able to collect all this work from my peers and students internationally and compile it into something that I will be able to keep forever is such a special opportunity. It was something I couldn’t pass up. I knew I had to try to play a role in this publication. Throughout my time going to an arts middle school and high school, I have always found myself drawn to fiction. It’s something that has always come naturally to me: the ability to create a well-rounded story. Fiction is what I grew up with and found myself forming a liking to through elementary school. Writing has stayed present in my life mostly through fiction, so I knew that being the Fiction editor would be a good position for me. I only began writing creative nonfiction in my first year at Douglas Anderson, so in the long run it is fairly knew to me, and I found myself having trouble with it. It was like I had made a barrier between how much I can reveal and how much I can keep to myself. Fiction gave me an opportunity to hide behind a character. Last year, when I began reading more creative nonfiction my appreciation for it grew but I still found myself unable to truly reveal moments of my life in a convincing and relatable way. This is why I think being the creative nonfiction editor for Elan can help me. Reading more creative nonfiction that people like me have written will give me an opportunity to strengthen my skills with the genre. Since I do not have a class that I am writing or reading creative nonfiction in this year, I think this is a good opportunity for me to continue to learn more about it and try to improve my ability to write it. My position in Elan comes with something I am comfortable with: fiction, and something I am uncomfortable with: creative nonfiction. I believe that through my time in Elan I will be able to come to understand both better, and hopefully improve my own. - Anna Howse, Junior Fiction/CNF Editor

One of the biggest treasures given to me by being on the Elan staff is a complete submission of the art community in my own city. Outside the walls on an art school, where often times it feels like I’m being smothered by teachers telling me the importance of art, Elan has shown me the community it directly aids. I’m no longer a student in a school for creative writing, taking classes to deepen my craft. I’m an artist whose work and dedication is folded into a binding book. Elan has drawn me out of the comfort zone of my school and placed me in middle schools advocating for literature and art galleries presenting amazing art to people who want to see it. I look at local artists differently, at Jacksonville differently, and myself different. Invaluable as precious stones, Elan has demonstrated to me the absolute need I have for art and the need the world has for it too. Unlike a math or even an English class, the skills I’ve gained in Elan have shown me more about myself than anything else. For example, I can become a leader but I can also be a supported and follower. The many, many, many ups and downs we have had a staff (sometimes we can’t always work as solely friends) has enabled us to meet a professional level of respect. I don’t feel like my voice is snuffed out, and it empowers me just as much when I see my friends succeeded in Elan too. Often times we forget that compromise sometimes can only be reached during discussion, and I think the Elan staff has grown in professional ways along with compassionate ways. We’ve been able to brainstorm together, compile resources together, and create beautiful events (and obviously a beautiful book!) together. When my time comes to walk away from Elan and let a new year continue without me, I hope to have gained a deeper involvement in my community. I want the artists at my school to be recognized and for the books we produce in Elan to be stretched all over Jacksonville. I hope to gain more knowledge on how to engage with our audiences, to understand the mechanics of marketing a product people in this day and age don’t seem to notice much, and to develop a bigger voice for young artists than the four walls of the Elan room. We already know our voice is loud and our material is powerful, we just need to get it out there. Along with all the regular responsibilities us Elan staff members have, the seniors have gained junior counterparts to be there for the entire process this year. Last year, some editorial roles had juniors – like the Layout and Design Editor and the Editor in Chief – but this year I, Fiction and Creative Nonfiction Editor, have my own! She’s already proven herself to me that she wants this position to grow just as much as I do, and that she’s ready to take our important editorial role by the horn. I want this mentorship to be a place for her to examine what I do and how I do it so she can soon fire back with her own understandings of the role. I can already tell she’s strong-minded and dedicated, and I’m aware that she won’t need as much help as I would’ve wanted desperately last year when I was a lone editor. It’s going to be a learning process for both of us, me learning how to actually be a mentor to someone and Anna learning to become an editor, but I have no doubt she’ll be successful and give great points and ideas to each discussion as she’s already beginning to do. I plan to never leave her in the dust confused, and I expect her involvement will be just as important as mine in each project we tackle together! - Valerie Busto, Senior Fiction/CNF Editor

My name is Reece Braswell, and I am the Junior Art Editor on the Elan staff at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. It is here where Kathryn (the Senior Art Editor) and I reach out to art schools here in the United States and even in other countries to get submissions from young visual artists who want their creative voices to be heard. When I first heard about Elan and its thirty-year legacy, I knew instantly I wanted to be a part of its message regarding the view of artists in today’s society. Then I saw the visual art in Elan’s most recent edition and I thought, “How do I get that job?” And sure enough, now it is! In my position as the Junior Art Editor, it is my responsibility to choose pieces of visual art from students that best connect to the writing that gets accepted. This further brings out the creativity in both art forms, and makes Elan visually-appealing. I am really excited about this position because I connect to visual art as much as I do with writing; to combine them is going to be awesome! I also can’t wait for the learning experience I am going to get out of all of this; to be in such a professional publication at my age is going to equip me with skills I know I’m going to take with me into the working world, like team-work, communication, and organization. As our world continues to move forward, we risk becoming distant from each other and disregarding other’s experiences. Art brings out universality by showing another’s view on life through the lens of their own experience; with art, we bridge that gap between the ones around us by bringing out what is the most personal. If we constantly move through our society without seeing what is wrong or what we take for granted, we become ignorant. That is why Elan is so important; we must keep art alive, and encourage future generations to be proud of their art. Everyone connects to art in some way, be it roaming through an art gallery, reading a good book, or even going to see a concert. Creativity is a gate-way to our humanity, our flaws, our differences. This is a student-driven literature magazine; it is organized by students, and we only accept student submissions. Before being on the Elan staff, I myself submitted numerous writing pieces to this magazine, hoping they would be published; and a few were! The amount of pride I had as a writer and an artist in those moments of receiving those emails is an indescribable feeling. Our goal on the Elan staff is to kindle what can be done to the future of art; to show writers and visual artists that there is a place for their voice, their expression, no matter how chaotic the world is. I often wonder if society and our views towards each other would be different if we all embraced art as a necessity; if we would connect to each other by just opening up to the idea of understanding. - Reece Braswell, Junior Art Editor

Entering my second year as the art editor for Elan, I realize I have learned a lot in my experiences thus far. As a writer, I have been exposed to so many different forms of creativity, opening my eyes to the many individuals who express themselves through their art and the ways in which they do. The expansion of my experiences with art has given me many methods and ideas to work with in my own writing. As a person, I have learned to be more open minded in facing everyday tasks and more responsible for my actions, as what I do or fail to do in Elan can reflect directly into the production of any book or event. I also learned to be more organized in general. I can quickly find ways to make tasks more effective in their methods of execution. Teamwork has been the most useful skill I have acquired overall, however. I have learned how to reach compromises in disagreements and how to rely on others while they rely on me. In the future, I believe Elan will allow me to become a fully developed leader. Whether I join another literary magazine staff or a debate club, I feel that I will be able to possess a sense of responsibility and leadership that others may not have had experience with yet. What I hope to further gain from this experience is the ability to push. I find that my personality does not allow me to take the place of a more dominant figure that can take charge in any situation. I can lead those who may not know where to go, but I am not yet certain on my ability to take charge of a situation that requires I reach out to people who may not want my input, no matter whether or not it is needed. I would like to change that this year, as the ability to assert insightful dominance into a situation is a skill that I can use in any area of my life to increase the ease in which objectives are accomplished. Seeing as I am a senior this year, I also have a junior art editor that I am mentoring to fit my role next year. So far, we have gone over the basics of the position and I believe she already knows a lot about all the participation the position calls for. However, I’d also like to guide her to learn as much as I have in Elan as an artist and an individual. Over the course of the year, I want to teach her how to take leadership of the role on her own and how to confidently make the right decisions in the movement of the magazine. In addition, I can only hope that the exposure to new art that Elan poses will also inspire her to  create all kinds of new things that she might not have ever been able to consider otherwise. - Kathryn Wallis, Senior Art Editor

Elan has always been somewhat of an aspiration for me. The first time I heard about the magazine was at a booster meeting my mom had dragged me along to my freshman year. It had only been a few weeks into school and I was still feeling nervous and unsure of where I’d fit in. Douglas Anderson, though exciting and compelling, was still a place I didn’t feel comfortable with. I wanted to find somewhere I could stand out, or at least something I could strive for. I had an ambitious desire and nowhere to fuel it. When I expressed these feelings to one of my teachers, she told me I belonged on the Elan staff. I was told that if I continued to work hard into my junior year, I’d fit in perfectly with the publication. As my freshman year went on, I became aware of just how special this magazine was. I purchased one of the print editions at an event and read it cover to cover within a few days. I was amazed at the level of depth my peers were able to reach and how important it was that they were able to be represented in such a professional manner. I continued to devour the books as they came out every year and only felt more pride seeing the names of my friends and eventually myself printed on the pages. Though classes became harder and my writing life became more of a challenge, the goal of Elan was always on the forefront of my mind. I looked up to the upperclassmen on the staff and tried my best to maintain a solid work ethic. When I was accepted onto the publication this year, I was relieved and terrified. It was the result I’d worked so hard to achieve, but I was immediately skeptical. I wondered if there would actually be a place for me on this staff. The more I learned about the positions and roles, the more I felt like none of them suited me. When our faculty advisor suggested the role of junior layout and design editor to me, I was surprised. I had no experience with design or the program used to create the magazine. I felt like the most unqualified person for the job. After a week in my position however, my doubt turned into excitement. Learning the obligations of my role, going on creative poster endeavors, and getting to know the finnicky yet endearing software program has been much more enjoyable than I ever could have expected. This year I hope to learn life skills I wouldn’t be able to without this opportunity. In this class I will be able to put myself into an environment similar to what I will experience as an adult in the workplace. I am looking forward to figuring out what applications my natural aptitudes and talents have in a creative and rigorous atmosphere like Elan. - Shelby Woods, Junior Layout and Design Editor

As I enter my second year on the Élan staff, I’m both proud of what we’ve accomplished so far and eager to see what we have the chance to do this year. Élan has given me the chance to work with my classmates to make a real impact. I love writing a lot, but it can be a very insular practice. It’s easy to forget about your writing community. As a staff member, however, I am always surrounded by fellow student writers. I get the chance to read new writing from talented students. I’m able to help plan events which showcase writing and art from young people. These things help my writing immensely—I’m always inspired by reading submissions—but they also help me as a person. Working with my fellow staff members has really shown me how much we can accomplish together. Last year, we put on a homecoming dance and Coffeehouse, an event in the fall where student perform original works of writing and other artistic forms. We also put on a beautiful gallery in Yellow House, a local venue, and featured a lot of important voices. At the beginning of last year, I never would’ve expected to be a part of any of those things, but Élan gave me opportunities I didn’t even know I wanted. This year, as a senior, I’m excited to work with and guide the juniors as they discover what Élan has to offer. Everyone has fresh and interesting ideas, and I know that Élan is going to grow a lot in the upcoming year. I’m excited to train my junior counterpart and share ideas about what we want the book to look like and be. It’s always exciting to get a new pair of eyes. Although I’m not exactly sure what I want to do when I grow older, I know that the skills I’m gaining on the Élan staff are going to help me. Aside from the technical skills I’ve gained as Layout and Design Editor, I’ve also learned so much about how much goes on behind the scenes of a publication like this. In my first few years of high school, I read literary magazines, but before being on the staff of one I never could’ve guessed how much effort went into the creation/ There are a lot of elements that have to be tied together to come out with a cohesive product. I’m leaning towards working somewhere in the publishing or media industries, so it’s been amazing to have an experience like this in high school. Many of my skills from Élan will help me no matter where I go in life. I’ve learned how to work with a variety of different people to accomplish a common goal. I’ve learned how to manage and plan large events. I’ve learned how to keep an eye out for exceptional art and writing, wherever it may be. While I am graduating this year, Élan will always be important to me. -Meredith Abdelnour, Senior Layout and Design Editor