This past Tuesday, Jun 7, 2022, Hanging Lantern Review, SLOCA High School’s literary magazine, officially released and celebrated its 9th print issue. While you may have never heard of Hanging Lantern, it’s been a vital part of the SLOCAHS culture since 2013, when it was started by a handful of students under the guidance of Sarah Shotwell (then the sole History and Literature high school teacher).
Hanging Lantern exists to publish student writing and enrich literary culture within SLO Classical Academy and the Central Coast of California. The journal consists of student work from Middle and High Schoolers and is curated by a student staff. A print journal is published and a corresponding reading and release party is thrown annually.
After two years without a release party and a year without a print journal, it felt so nice to get back to our annual party tradition! Our student writers presented their work to a crowd of friends, faculty, and families—over 85 people in attendance! Afterward, we enjoyed a lovely charcuterie spread and baked goods and basked in the glory of the written word of our high school community.
Editor-in-chief, Georgia Bischoff, reading her editor spotlight piece, “Ice” 
Senior Matthias Leonard reads his prose piece entitled “Serial Killer Killer” 
Middle schooler Lilah Nichols reader her poem, “Mysteries” 
85 people were in attendance! 
Audience members follow along in their print journals 
A stupendous charcuterie spread!
Everything about this journal and party was student-led. We couldn’t have done it without a few key players. For starters, Karena Talley, a graduating senior at SLOCAHS, organized and executed the whole event. Without a reading to look back to in the past couple years, it was no easy task, but with her army of day-of volunteers, bakers, and chair-movers, she handled everything with poise and grace. Speaking of grace, the entire magazine was designed by another graduating senior, Grace Cheney. Over the past year, she learned Adobe programs, arranged visual and written pieces into something beautiful and cohesive, and was so dedicated that she even worked on the cover of the magazine on Prom night. Isobel Ridley and Lucy Lister were our social media and web coordinators respectively, we had additional design help from Emily Hill and Jael Cohn, and Sadie Richert was our copyeditor. Lastly but not leastly, Georgia Bischoff was our faithful and passionate editor-in-chief. Without her leadership and initiative, Hanging Lantern Review could very well have faded into nonexistence after the last couple of years. Thankfully, she stepped in and stepped up and led us through a successful year!
The writers and artists featured in this year’s edition of Hanging Lantern are Isobel Ridley, Lily Cheney, Sadie Richert, Annette Bradley, Jade Harkins, Grace Cheney, Keithan Olson, Lilah Nichols, Weston Richert, Lyla Dillon, Ben Jackson, Benjamin Hamill, Wyatt Stapp, Keithan Olson, Grant Dillon, Emily Hill, Elijah Ecret, Matthias Leonard, and Georgia Bischoff.
You can read and view all of these artists’ work by purchasing this year’s print journal through the Den—and all purchases go toward funding next year’s edition and party. This is a great way to show your support for our High School community and for the arts on the Central Coast. We appreciate your support!
We are always looking for more submissions of poetry, prose, visual art, and photography from our middle schoolers and high schoolers! If you know any students who live on the Central Coast (whether from SLOCA or not), we’d appreciate passing on our information and website. You can also follow along with us on instagram! We have some extra special things planned for our big 10 year edition anniversary next year—STAY TUNED!
