Open World Literature is a showcase of the writing of OWL’s AP Literature and Composition students, and this is its first volume. AP Literature asks a lot of students, from close reading dense passages of literature and poetry to writing three essays in two hours on exam day. One of the best ways to understand elements like style and narrative voice, though, is to experiment with them yourself, and this magazine collects what students wrote when they did.

In the fall, students studied narrative voice through The Odyssey, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and Kiss of the Fur Queen, then wrote about their own lives in the voice of one of those works. In the winter, after a quarter of studying poetry from Old English sonnets to contemporary American verse, they built portfolios of original poems. Once the AP exam was done, they wrote short fiction that plays with point of view, inner monologue, and perspective.

Violet spent her interim gathering the writing, finding artwork, and designing the magazine.

Read the full magazine below.