Nectar for Withering Flowers, the Spring edition of the OHS Literature Club’s Literary Journal, recently won the rank of “Excellent” in the REALM program. The REALM Program, which stands for “Recognizing Excellence in Art and Literary Magazines,”, is a nationally-based award for literature and art magazines from elementary school all the way to college. There are four different ranks a magazine can receive: First Class (93-100 points), “REALM First Class (93-100 points)”, “Superior (86-92 points),”, “Excellent (71-85 points), ”, and “Merit (70 or fewer points).”. Magazine results are published on the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) website.

The journal, Nectar for Withering Flowers, was submitted to the competition around June of 2020. Around mid-March of 2021, the Literature Club was emailed by the National Council of Teachers in English about their win.

The current and past teams of managing editors for the journal were “truly delighted” to find out about their win, according to Kee Olandesca ‘21, a Literature Club leader. And though the Literature club was surprised by their win, they felt confident about the quality of the writing submissions they had received.

“We were pleasantly surprised because it was the journal’s first time to take part in the NCTE’s REALM  (Recognizing Excellence in Art and Literary Magazines) program and still, we earned a notable rank,” said Olandesca. “On the other hand, we were also confident we would rank highly in the program even if we were completely non-selective when it came to publishing submissions because the literary and creative caliber of OHSers is so high and truly impressive.”

How and when did you figure out the rank you had won?

The Lit Club received an email from the National Council of Teachers in English (NCTE) around mid-March of 2021, which informed us that we had won the rank of “Excellent” for the Nectar for Withering Flowers issue. This was a much-awaited announcement since we submitted the issue around June 2020 and the announcement of winners was delayed due to the pandemic.

What was your initial reaction?

The previous managing editors – myself, Emma Dreispiel, and Alex Cheng – and the current ones – us three in addition to Sophie Mansoor, Dhru Goud, and Natalie Wang – were truly delighted! On one hand, we were pleasantly surprised because it was the journal’s first time to take part in the NCTE’s REALM (Recognizing Excellence in Art and Literary Magazines) program and still, we earned a notable rank. On the other hand, we were also confident we would rank highly in the program even if we were completely non-selective when it came to publishing submissions because the literary and creative caliber of OHSers is so high and truly impressive. 

What outcome were you anticipating when you first submitted it?

As I mentioned earlier, we were not expecting much, but we were also confident that we had a chance at ranking highly because all the submissions we received were excellent. 

What do you hope future editions of the lit journal will be like or strive to achieve?

Personally for me, as someone who worked on the Lit Journal since 2018, I would love to see the journal continue to maintain its welcoming, inclusive, and non-selective policy – –I believe these values reflect those of both think that it reflects upon the values of the Lit Club, which runs the journal, and even the OHS community as a whole. While staying true to those values, I would love to see it evolve to encourage and nurture creativity among an even greater number of OHSers.