Young writers journey to being published authors

By: Rylee Palmer, Contributing Writer

Mrs. Lacey Erbschloe’s creative writing class. Back row left to right, Izaak Moss, Coulten Baker, Faith Mills, Khloey Mathews, Lea Whisler and Emma Lutz. Front row left to right, Kaitlyn Sexton, Isaac McCann, Sydney Mistkowski and Caitlyn Maenner.

​Centralia High School(CHS) offers a Creative Writing course led by Mrs. Lacey Erbschloe. This class does a variety of writing projects.

 They are encouraged to explore different themes and genres for their writing. 

The Creative Writing class, along with select students from Mrs. Anita Lumley’s Language III class, participated in a nationwide contest with Young Writers USA titled, ‘SOS Sagas: Hunted 2023’. 

Erbschloe introduced her students to this contest in the fall. She shared, “The contest was to write a 100 word story based around the theme of "hunted", which was perfect for the Halloween season. I also invited Mrs. Lumley to join the contest as I know she encourages her students to write Halloween themed stories as well. Encouraging students to enter writing contests allows students to see how their writing can influence or inspire other writers as well as themselves. I hope to encourage students in my future classes to publish their work for multiple contests, and to not limit themselves to the contests they submit pieces to in class.”

Some students chose a direct storyline with the prompt. Junior Khloey Mathews shared, “I took the ‘hunted’ factor in a literal sense, as the point of view is a deer being hunted by the Greek goddess Diana.”

Other students chose more abstract storylines. Junior Izaak Moss shared, “My short story was about a doctor hunting for a cure to give to his daughter but in the end it is too late. Titled ‘Panacea’, the first half has him hunting down a cure and the other half has him hunting down his daughter.”

Keep an eye out for the book, titled “Hunted”, featuring some of our very own CHS students writing. This book will include short stories from Caitlyn Maenner, Camille Moser, Coulten Baker, Elle Elliott, Emma Lutz, Faith Mills, Isaac McCann, Josh Russell, Khloey Mathews, Makayla Sprock, Samantha Scheeler and Sydney Mistkowski, as well as many other students. from middle and high schools in America. The book is scheduled to be published this March. 

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