The Piedmont Highlander

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The Piedmont Highlander

The Piedmont Highlander

Students give new life to ‘The Highland Piper’

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In 1930, no more than a decade out from the founding of PHS, “The Highland Piper” published its first issue.

It was the school’s first official literary magazine, catering to what would have been an audience of more than one thousand students, according to the PHS website. At some point over the years, though, the Piper discontinued publication. It remained out of commission until 2006, when students decided they wanted to bring it back. They published the revival issue (which they referred to as Volume I, Issue I) in April 2007, according to the letter from the editors published in that volume.

“We know that you don’t have to be in creative writing class to be a writer at heart,” the letter reads. “By tacking flyers around campus and advertising on the morning announcements, we’ve found some of those secret writer types.”

By 2009, students had hit Volume III. They had launched a Google site, created an email address for submissions, and were publishing issues twice annually. In 2013, after a brief hiatus—the students, as well as then-adviser and librarian Susan Stutzman, were invested but needed a break, said Jack Barney in the article “Literary magazine ‘The Highland Piper’ returns”— the Piper returned once again.img_4236

Victoria Hou, a senior and the Piper’s editor-in-chief, said she has been working since the start of the school year with the Piper’s editorial board to promote interest in the magazine, gain submissions, and also to make sure people know that the magazine exists.

“This year, we’re trying to take a different approach,” Hou said. “The art prospects are very prevalent at this school. There is a body of students who are willing to write, who want to write and who want to have their art be showcased.”

Hou and her fellow staff designed a revamped website, opened up monthly themed writing competitions and joined Instagram. They have been putting up signs, advertising at Club Day, writing emails and getting students to follow their social media accounts, Hou said.

“I think what needs to be worked on for this literary magazine isn’t necessarily the students’ work—the biggest problem for the literary magazine is trying to get the word out, because a lot of people don’t know that we exist,” Hou said.

“A long time ago, when I taught creative writing before this, there was one year I had my students do a literary magazine. I didn’t know about ‘The Highland Piper’, that the school had this literary magazine before, so we just did our own thing,” Hill said.

Hou said that Hill reached out at the beginning of the year and has taken initiative in Stutzman’s absence, and the magazine will publish its next annual volume this coming May.

“We created a website, started a contest, got stuff in the bulletin, and put posters up, all in the matter of, like, two or three weeks,” Hou said. “So I’m pretty excited for what is to come.”

Specific goals for the year include cultivating and gathering submissions year-round instead of receiving the majority of them in the final stretch of the school year, encouraging more underclassmen to submit to and get involved with the magazine, and incorporating student body feedback, Hou said.

Some of the outreach, at least, is working: Sophomore Mia Gilford has plans to submit to the issue, and possibly to the writing contests, she said. Not only does she want to get her work out there, but she also thinks the literary magazine has a greater importance.

“I like learning about people through their writing,” Gilford said. “You can learn a lot about your community.”

“The Highland Piper” accepts submissions year-round, both to its monthly contests and to its annual magazine. All submissions to the contests are automatically considered for publication in the issue. For more information, visit the Piper’s website:

phshighlandpiper.weebly.com.

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