Every year the members of Saugus’ Literary Magazine work year round to produce works of art and literature such as poems and paintings  that are published in a magazine towards the end of the school year. However, due to the combination of the pandemic and online schooling the program has struggled to raise the funds necessary to produce the magazine. Despite the challenges of working from home, students can still support Lit Mag to keep production going. 

Because of online school many of the usual fundraisers, such as Valen-tunes and the annual Bowl-A-Thon were not able to be held this year. According to Brant Botton, Saugus English teacher and advisor for Lit Mag, these fundraisers bring in a majority of  the funding needed to produce the magazine. Botton stated, “the magazine cost of production is $9,000+ annually and we are far from this mark.”

Along with struggling to gain funding for the magazine, the program has also seen a large decrease in the amount of artwork being submitted. Botton told The Scroll, “every year, ironically, we are in “desperate” need of submissions from a wider audience within the student body at Saugus High.” Because of online schooling less and less students have been turning in art work.

 Students can submit any type of artwork from paintings to photographs, and 2D and 3D art, as well as writing such as poetry , short stories or scripts. Students must complete a submission form that includes up to five entries at a time. Students can submit the form and pictures of their work via email to [email protected]. Lit Mag is taking submissions up until March 29.

Most if not all of the art work and advertising Lit Mag has done this year is online. Head of Stage Production, Helena Matrai, noted that, “unfortunately Lit Mag is not as hands on as previous years.” Stage production is the section of Lit Mag which designs props and posters for the Festival of the Arts hosted by Lit Mag. The annual festival usually features performances from Choir and Theatre as well as displays of artwork from the art and ceramics classes in addition to art from  Lit Mag itself. The festival is tentatively scheduled for sometime in May but according to Danyale Schlender, a junior in stage production for Lit Mag, there is a high chance that the festival may be cancelled due to the pandemic.

With the changes Lit Mag has gone through with COVID-19, The Scroll asked several members as to how students could support Lit Mag. Botton told The Scroll that as well as submitting artwork, students could donate to the program and donations are being requested to be sent to either the Centurion Foundation or to ASB. 

When asked Matrai mentioned that students can also share and repost online posters. These posters can be found on the Lit Mag Instagram account.