A note from Ryan

A Little Bit About Me
Since this is my first newsletter as the editorial intern for Stone Soup’s Editor-in-Chief Emma Wood, I wanted to take a moment to briefly introduce myself. I’m a rising junior at the University of Richmond, where I’m double-majoring in Journalism and Leadership Studies. I currently reside in my hometown of Chicago, a few blocks away from the mailbox where I submitted my first Stone Soup story, which appeared on the “Honor Roll” of the September/October 2016 issue. Aside from being a passionate writer and avid reader, I enjoy running in my neighborhood, playing soccer, and going on walks with my friends and parents.

Writing Activity
Now that the Fourth of July has come and gone, we find ourselves immersed in the middle of the summer. Characterized by its longer days and warmer nights, this stretch of the year is effectively captured by Cyrus Kummer’s pastel drawing Ember Cube—its vibrant orange tones evoke the sweltering heat of summer. There is something comforting about the heat, enveloping you in a warm hug the second you step out your front door.

As you head out, I urge you to grab the latest edition of Stone Soup and flip the pages to the first few chapters of The Other Realm by Tristan Hui, the 2020 winner of the Book Contest. The novel, which chronicles two friends battling familial conflict and discovering the meaning of home, engages readers from the beginning with descriptive details of the rooms within their respective homes. This week, I invite you to write about your favorite place, whether it be a room in your home, a store in your town, or a family-favorite vacation spot, and capture the small details in the environment. Think about the sounds in the location—can you hear a whisper of voices nearby or the cars rumbling past? Notice if there are any specific aspects within the place that you wouldn’t find elsewhere—is there paint missing on the walls from hanging photographs or are there rings on the coffee table left behind by mugs filled with warm beverages? Write down everything you observe there. You can use your written description to fill in the setting for a longer story or novel, or it can stand  on its own as a brief vignette or poem.

Till next time,

A note from Laura Moran

Dear Readers,

I hope this message finds you well and that you’re settling into the rhythm of the new year with renewed energy and focus for the year ahead. In that vein, I have some exciting Refugee Project news to share.

Firstly, I’m so excited to share that Caroline Gao, a member of the Stone Soup community and frequent participant in Refugee Project initiatives, won first place in the San Jose Library Fall into Fiction contest (10-12 age group) for her short story, titled "To My Penpal." As Caroline explains, her story was inspired by her participation in the Stone Soup Refugee Project pen pal exchange and Half-Baked Art Collaboration. Drawing inspiration from the handwritten letters she received from young people in Kakuma Refugee camp, and the subsequent independent research she conducted on the UNESCO website, Caroline constructed a fictionalized narrative of a refugee family’s life in Kakuma Camp, seeking to represent the unique writing style of the young people with whom she corresponded. Read Caroline’s story and share in our heartfelt congratulations on this fantastic achievement!

In other news, the Refugee Project is the recipient of the 2023 ruth weiss foundation School Poetry Award grant. In the words of the funding body:

“The poet ruth weiss was a child survivor of World War II and dedicated her entire life to raising awareness of the ramifications of war on children. Her poetry often expresses a child’s war trauma and the joy of being safe and free to grow as a child. This year’s poetry prompt focuses on the effects of war on children and what is good for children. We feel the work that your organization is doing is incredibly important and wish to support it.”

We are so honored to receive this award! To see some new Refugee Project writing, please check out the web page for our new Refugee Project collaborators, Humanitarian Service Team.

Thank you for your continued support of the Stone Soup Refugee Project—without it, collaborations such as those featured here would not be possible—and happy winter writing!

Yours sincerely,

The Stone Soup Refugee Project

A note from Emma Wood

Happy New Year, all!

Every year, I complain about New Year’s and yet every year, I enjoy the opportunity to reflect on the past year and resolve to be better, in some small ways, in the next.

Every year, I also think about what I can do to improve Stone Soup! As many of you know, like many magazines, Stone Soup has struggled to find its footing in the digital era. This year, the Stone Soup board and I are continuing to work hard, re-examining the budget and exploring partnership opportunities, to ensure that Stone Soup can live on and thrive. We are extremely grateful to all of you who donated in 2023; thank you so much for helping support our mission!

My high school had a weekly, student-run newspaper I was extremely involved in, as a writer and an editor. Over the break, a friend sent me an old article from that paper, reminding me just how incredible it was to feel like we were doing the work of actual journalists, just on a smaller scale. I learned so much from my time there, and it is where I first began to see myself as a writer. For some reason, I had never connected that experience with Stone Soup! But I see now how similar they are—and realizing this makes me feel even more connected to, and passionate about, what we do.

This year, we will continue to run our weekly writing workshops, starting January 27, and we encourage you to sign up for Conner Bassett’s Fiction Writing class, “Six Beginnings, Three Middles, and An End,” while there is still room—we currently have six spaces left! Conner was so blown away by the novels his students wrote in the fall, and is excited to write more fiction with many of you this winter.

Yours from our last day in Las Vegas, where we have been visiting family and friends the past couple of weeks,

Purchase a Gift Subscription

Register for Writing Workshops

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A note from Tayleigh Greene

Dear readers,

As a kid, I remember spending entire days of winter break curled up reading by the light of a lamp not unlike the one so beautifully drawn by Leticia Cheng, 10, pictured above. These days, it’s rare that I have the opportunity to devote several hours in a row to reading; the many to-do’s of adulthood keep me busy. By the time you read this newsletter, I will have flown from my current home in Houston to my childhood home in California, to spend time with my mom, dad, and three brothers. I am so looking forward to being there with them, and I’m also looking forward to the “getting there.” I love flying because I have the rare chance to read without distractions, no chores to take care of, no internet. This holiday break, I hope you, no matter what age you are, devote some time to the simple pleasures that we tend to neglect, like curling up with a good book—or the latest issue of Stone Soup.

If you’re not yet subscribed to Stone Soup, I am so excited to announce that we’re offering 50% off print + digital annual subscriptions for a limited time only. Enter the code happyholidays! at checkout to save on the magazine 100% written and illustrated by kids. This is an incredible deal; a sale of this scale won’t be offered again for a while. So, if you’re in need of some last minute gifts for the kids or educators in your life, there’s no better present, and no better time than the present.

Looking ahead to 2024, I’m pleased to share that we’re offering an all new fiction writing workshop with long-time Stone Soup instructor Conner Bassett. Fiction Writing: Six Beginnings, Three Middles, and an End will meet Saturdays, January 27 through April 6, 2024 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Pacific time. Tickets are selling quickly, and space is limited, so I encourage you to register as soon as possible to secure your spot.

Warmest wishes,

P.S. As 2023 comes to a close, so does our Annual Drive. If you’re able to, please donate today using the button below and help us empower kids to be the authors of their own stories.

Purchase a Gift Subscription

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A note from Emma Wood

Dear readers,

As I’ve gotten older, and as the holidays have grown in significance (as they do when you have young children for whom they are magical and new and thrilling!), they have also seemed to grow even closer in time: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas—with multiple family birthdays thrown in! And there is so much to do for each: plan travel, prepare meals for large groups that fit all the dietary needs, buy and wrap meaningful presents, coordinate holiday parties and school events, somehow make time to slow down and reflect on the past year, and, of course, give to causes that matter to me. So I am grateful that you are taking the time to read this letter now, whether you are standing in line at the post office reading this on your phone, or sitting down on a sofa at home.

Right now, the causes that are dear to me, as a teacher and educator with two young children, involve both education and children (not counting Stone Soup!). I like participating in coordinated efforts to buy gifts for families who can’t afford to—to help perpetuate both the magic of Christmas and the spirit of generosity that animates it.

In her memoir “Halloween Guilt” from our November/December issue, Yanling Lin explores what it feels like to do the “right” thing versus the “wrong” thing. While her story discusses trick-or-treating, and specifically whether to take more candy than is allowed, the lesson applies to life. As she watches a boy dump an entire bowl of candy into his bag, Lin writes, “I wished I’d had the nerve to do so without any mental quandaries. At the same time, I liked that my morals were strong enough to keep me from doing the same.” I love the reminder, wrapped in a metaphor, that this memoir gives us: not to take more than our share and to leave resources for others who are yet to come—another way of giving.

As you reflect on your year and on the causes you plan to support, I hope you will consider including Stone Soup among them. It has been a tumultuous year for the organization but I am proud of all we have accomplished in our fiftieth year and very grateful to be a part of it all. Thank you for supporting us as readers, writers, artists, and more!

Warmly,

Support Stone Soup

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From Stone Soup
November/December 2023

Halloween Guilt

by Yanling Lin, 11

Every year on Halloween night, I spot something bewildering. I spot something that makes me audibly gasp, guffaw, or simply gawk. This year was no exception. The moment took place long into the night, catching me more off guard than usual.

*          *          *

Rewinding back to earlier during Halloween evening, I sat by the window watching the sun set. I had scarfed down dinner and pulled on my costume, only to wait for my mom to finish as well.

“The candy will still be there in fifteen minutes,” my mom told me. That was easy for her to say. She was only a bystander in the game of gathering sweet treats from neighbors. I was a player. After enough pleas and other people going outside, we finally joined the parade. The golden glow of the sun waving “goodnight” kept my breathing even. In my mind, I had all night to collect sweets from around the neighborhood. I sauntered along the sidewalk, letting the giddy five- and six-year-olds sprint past, knowing they had to be in bed by nine o’clock. As darkness descended, I became those giddy kids running from door to door. The night was growing, and so was my desire for candy. I passed numerous empty houses as I traipsed down the unlit sidewalks. With each step I heard my boots scratching against the ground, creating a rhythmic thump-thump. The bag handles sank into my flesh, slowing me down. That didn’t stop me from going on. I half-skipped between doorsteps, my “Trick or treat!” bouncing as I spoke it. I powered through the night because within those dark alleys were the treasure troves of Halloween.

Many of these dark houses were accompanied by bowls of candy. Attached to these bowls were signs saying “Please Take 1” (or “2,” if I was lucky). These directions posed a moral dilemma. As I dug through the bowls, I wondered, Do I follow my own goals, or obediently do as told?

Click here to find out what happens next.

A note from Diane Landolf

Dear readers,

I hope those of you in the U.S. had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Now let’s all get ready for another kind of celebration! It’s our annual student reading, and everyone’s invited!

On Saturday, December 2, at 11:00 am Pacific/2:00 pm Eastern, Stone Soup is hosting a virtual reading by students in our Stone Soup Writing Workshops. Join our student authors—along with their friends, family, teachers, and the workshop instructors—as they read their favorite pieces aloud. The online event is free, but a reservation is required. To reserve your spot and find out more about the reading, click here.

If you participated in one of our workshops in 2023, we’d love to have you participate in the reading. Please submit the piece you'd like to read via Submittable under the category "Annual Writing Workshop Reading" by November 30. The maximum reading time per author is five minutes. We can’t wait to hear your work!

Registration for our 2024 workshops will open soon, so check back for information about course offerings and how to sign up.

With an open heart and a very full stomach,

Register for our Annual Reading

Submit your work to our Annual Reading

From Stone Soup
November/December 2023

Within the Stars

by Mia Atkinson, 11

Olive didn’t know how long she’d sat on her bed staring at the stars. They were so bright that night, shining like thousands of little suns in the sky. It brightened up the window next to her bed, its paper-white curtain fully open.

Olive sighed, a sound like a balloon deflating. She felt like that. Ten years ago, Olive had sat on this very bed, holding her breath and silently praying to the stars as her husband took his last breaths from a fever. They were too poor to pay for a doctor to come to their house, and going there would just take too long.

That was when she lost her husband.

That was when she became no one.

That was when she became just an old woman with frail hands.

Just.

Olive wiped away a tear, staring at the full sky. The wind through the open window tickled her cheek as she stared out at the stars. She imagined that they were reaching out to her, glowing brightly. Her husband was up there too, waving at her and telling her that she would be all right, even though they both knew she wouldn’t. Not without him...

Click here to find out what happens next.

A note from Emma Wood

Dear readers,

It is that time of year again: when more leaves fall from the trees with each gust of wind or heavy rain, and when we announce the winners of our annual book contest.

The 2023 winner is His Tower of the Night: A Nathalia Kitzmiller Mystery by Siri Nelson, 12, of Illinois. His Tower of the Night is a murder mystery set in the fictional Maine town of Little Rose; its heroine is the spunky Nathalia Kitzmiller, who, as one of eight kids, seizes every opportunity she gets to sneak away from the chaos and responsibilities of family life. Nelson’s novel manages to be simultaneously suspenseful and playful, realistic and also fantastical, silly and sweet. We can’t wait to share it with you soon!

While I am excited to announce our winner, I always do so with a heavy heart, as I know a win for one means a loss for many others. Writing a book is a difficult task, and putting it out into the world can be even harder. We thank all of you who wrote this year and who dared to submit. Please know that we read your work carefully and that we are sorry we don’t have better news to share. Below, you can find our full list of finalists.

And, as a reminder, if you have not yet purchased our 2022 winner, the truly visionary poetry collection, An Archeology of the Future, by Emma Catherine Hoff—please consider doing so today! The authors and everyone at Stone Soup put so much time, effort, and love into each book, and we want nothing more than to share the work with all of you readers—young and young-at-heart alike.

Yours from Cincinnati which recently turned to winter overnight—

Buy An Archeology of the Future

2023 Stone Soup Book Contest
Winner (Fiction)

His Tower of the Night: A Nathalia Kitzmiller Mystery

Siri Nelson, 12

We did not select a poetry winner this year.

Finalists

Fiction

Secrets and Blueberry Pie by Oola Breen-Ryan, 12

Waterfall Rocks by Anika Burst, 11

The Exchange by Yutia Li, 14

Cherry Knots by Chloe Ruan, 14

The Groundworld Heroes by Adrian So, 13

Traten by Alexandra Steyn, 14

Kingdoms of Glass by Isabella Washer, 14

Glimpse of Another World—a Collection of Short Stories by Samantha Wu, 14

Poetry

Poet in 5 by Madeline Cleveland, 13

Tree Alone by Amity Doyle, 13

rainbow dreams by Xi Huang, 10

Little Bay Soup by Marilena Korahais, 13 and Petros Korahais, 10

A note from Laura Moran

Dear Stone Soup community,

I am thrilled to share that we, through the Stone Soup Refugee Project, are now able to extend the opportunity to participate in our writing workshops to young people living in refugee camps in many parts of the world. This week marks the first of a four-part series of creative writing workshops offered to young refugees living in Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda. Nakivale is one of the world’s largest refugee settlements and currently hosts approximately 120,000 refugees, mainly from Northeastern and Central Africa.

In our first session, thirteen young people gathered around a laptop in a church hall at Nakivale, from 5:00 to 7:00 in the evening. I ran the session over Zoom with the help of our co-facilitator and founder of Humanitarian Service Team, our partner organization based in Nakivale. Though we had to be creative to overcome various technological challenges (using the video function on Zoom, the audio function on WhatsApp, and the chat function on both!), the session was productive and, according to student feedback, invigorating for all. This workshop is based on the Anthropology of the Everyday summer course Stone Soup offered over the summer in collaboration with Society of Young Inklings. We will eventually facilitate creative writing exchange opportunities for those who participated through our summer programs and participating refugee youth. The material produced in the workshop will also feature on our Refugee Project web portal.

Our deepest thanks to all of those who have contributed to make this and other Stone Soup Refugee Project initiatives possible. I humbly ask for your continued support. If you are able to donate, please click here. In addition to Stone Soup operating costs, a portion of your funds will go directly to Nakivale Refugee Settlement in order to help with the data costs to run the workshop via Zoom and to provide tea and snacks to participants.

In gratitude,

Visit the Refugee Project

A note from Emma Wood

Hello, Stone Soup readers & writers,

Earlier this month, we announced that Archeology of the Future by Emma Catherine Hoff, the poetry winner of Stone Soup’s 2022 Book Contest, was released and is available for purchase! Please support Stone Soup and Emma by buying her book today.

If you have participated in one of our writing workshops recently, you have likely met Emma! Likewise, if you have been reading Stone Soup for the past couple of years, you will have encountered many of her poems (and maybe one of her photographs!) on our pages.

I wish Stone Soup could take credit for making Emma into the poet she is today—and surely we have played some small role—but she came to our classes and our submission pool already a very mature poet with a strong voice and sense of style. I remember being astonished when I first encountered “The Ambassador” in our submission pool—it was dark, surreal, moving, strange. (To me, “strange” is the highest compliment any poem can receive—denoting both originality but also complexity and mystery; a “strange” poem always demands rereading.) Emma was eight years old when she wrote it, and it was the first poem of hers that we published.

We are so proud, three years later, to be publishing her collection of poems, which has garnered the advance praise it deserves. Read on for a taste of what others are saying about her collection and further, to read a poem from the collection.

Like the Surrealists before her, Hoff can see into the emotional lives of the things we use every day, things we toss around carelessly… If one of my friends had written this beautifully when I was starting out, I would have probably quit, and doffed my cap to her and said “you go on ahead” or more likely, “you’re already there.”

From An Archeology of the Future

The Lamp

by Emma Catherine Hoff, 1o

The light shines innocently,

but it blinds me,

my eyes become red.

I shy from it

and still it follows me

with its intense gaze

boring into me as I walk around the room.

I feel the hot bulb,

sense the lamp melting

and perspiring under its own fever,

its own light.

The business is done,

I think,

but my dreams that night are of

that still figure creeping up on me,

and the next day, I find the lamp

standing again.

It glares at me

and whispers in my ear,

burning it, telling me

that the sun’s light is not enough.

I ask it how it knows,

but the sun dies

and the lamp is still glowing

and I am grateful for it now.

We make our way through the darkness

until it parts with me,

saying it must go,

its filament cannot take

the strain anymore

and that the darkness isn’t as bad

as people think.

Click here to purchase An Archeology of the Future.

A note from Tayleigh Greene

Hello, and happy Saturday!

This week, I've been reflecting on my creative process, and creative processes in general. I never know exactly when I'll get paid a visit by the muses. I find myself doing a lot of creative work that doesn't, well, work. I can draw or paint or write or design for hours without finishing a single thing that I like, and then suddenly, things will click. I'm discovering that creating the "bad" art is an integral step in my process of creating something "good." Sometimes, this can be frustrating—like when I'm on deadline. Other times, it can be really liberating to simply enjoy the process on the way to the product. This week, I hope you consider taking some time to create for the simple sake of creating. Engage in any art form—writing, painting, knitting, dancing, the list goes on and on! Try not to think about how it looks, but how it feels. (Of course, if you do like what you make, we welcome you to submit your work to Stone Soup.)

Now for Stone Soup news: today is the very last day of our back-to-school sale. Use code BACK2SCHOOL30 at checkout for 30% off an annual print + digital subscription.

Today is also the last day to subscribe and still receive the September/October issue. From Leticia Cheng's gorgeous Set Sail by Moonlight that graces the cover, to Madeline Male's Raindrops, or Sharpie Doodles? featured above, to Naaman Garcia's hilarious short story "The Cheese Tree," this issue is not to be missed.

Until next time,

From Stone Soup
September/October 2023

The Cheese Tree

by Naaman Garcia, 8

One day, there was a guy named Bob. He was a farmer. He thought he made decent money, until the bills hit him real good in the face. While walking on Dry Creek, which was his favorite place to go, he stumbled upon a seed. It looked strange. It was riddled with holes.

He looked at the seed long and hard. It looked like cheese. He said to himself, “I am going to study this.”

Bob boosted out like a rocket back to his farm. He rushed to his computer, his shoes squeaking like a mouse. Looking online, the farmer found no data on the seed. He decided to use his farmer instincts. He rushed to the kitchen, opened the cabinet door, and pulled out his music box and a cup. Bob wound up the music box, and out played the familiar tune: Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down . . . He poured himself a cup of coffee and drank it silently while he listened to the music box.

When the song ended, he grabbed the seed and barged through the door. Bob planted the seed.

Click here to find out what happens next...

A note from Emma Wood

Hello, friends!

As many of you know, my family and I recently moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. I was surprised to realize that, even though Chicago is a mere four-hour drive away, Ohio is on Eastern time—and in fact, Indiana, the state directly to the west of us, is on Eastern time too! This means the mornings are shorter and evenings are later. When it’s evening, I love that it’s still light. But every morning, I wish the sun were already up; it’s hard to wake up in the dark, and it’s only September—which means we have many more months of dark mornings ahead.

The tension between my mandated time zone and what feels like the actual time has prompted me to think more about time—and especially about the way I’ve adapted to this new relationship to daytime hours and sunlight. In the September issue, there are a few poems about time: you can read two by Madeline Male, 14, here and here, and one by Sonia Kamnitzer, 10, here. Over the coming weeks, I encourage you to reflect on your relationship to time and to explore it through writing or visual art (or both!). As always, consider submitting your work to us after—we’d love to consider it for publication!

Otherwise, I hope everyone is settling into a calmer back-to-school routine. My daughter started her first year of preschool this week, and we are all still adjusting! If you don’t already subscribe to the magazine, we are currently running a promotion for 30% off our annual print and digital subscription with the code BACK2SCHOOL30 for the month of September. Please consider signing up this fall, or urging your friends or your child’s school to do so. As always, we appreciate your support of Stone Soup!

Yours from in front of an open window with perfectly cool air wafting in–