The Pennington School was one of only five schools in New Jersey to receive a “Superior” rating by the National Council of Teachers of English’s Recognizing Excellence in Art and Literary Magazines Award for Pennington’s 2018 literary magazine, Pennyroyal.
English teacher Jon Lemay served as the advisor for the magazine, which was edited by students Caleigh Calhoun of Stockton, Shae Calhoun of Stockton, Corrine Coakley of Pennington, Megan Eckerson of Pennington, Ayanna Johnson of Ewing, Emily Moini of Princeton, and Julia Peters of Pennington.
Work on the literary magazine occurred during the 2017-18 school year. Although the magazine does not have any thematic requirements, there are often commonalities among the pieces each year.
“We find that much of the work we accept for publication tends to deal with issues of identity; we are drawn to explorations of what it means to search for and find one’s place in the world — which makes sense given the age range of the folks creating these works of art,” Lemay said in a statement.
Lemay added that the magazine also features work that is “generated from the impulse to question the world around oneself and shine a light on society as it pertains to issues of race, gender, war and sexual assault.”
“There are not enough words to describe how wonderful it feels [for the magazine to be rated Superior],” Megan Eckerson, editor-in-chief of Pennyroyal, said in a statement. “I remember stepping into my role as editor-in-chief and feeling scared that I was not the right person for the job. This just proves I had nothing to be afraid of. Our incredible staff put so much work into this edition and I could not be more proud of all of us.”
