 |
| Paper Lanterns logo was created by Eleanor Brayden |
I had the chance to interview the creators of Paper Lanterns - Grace Kelly, Ruth Ennis, and Amy O'Sullivan, and ask them questions about their inspiration behind the literary journal and what they do!
Hello! We are Paper Lanterns, a new teen and YA literary journal. We are based in Dublin, Ireland and we publish in print four times a year. There are three of us behind the journal: Grace Kelly, Ruth Ennis, and Amy O’Sullivan.
Acting as a platform to promote the voices of young people in Ireland and across the world, this journal provides new and exciting content for a teen and young adult audience. It is also perfect for enthusiasts of teen and YA literature; from teachers and librarians, to parents and youth workers.
This is a YA journal for writers, artists, dreamers, and doers. This is a space for the underrepresented voices and a platform for publishing and promoting young writers and artists.
We also make space for those who were once young adults to submit their work! Those who proudly and loudly represent young voices in today’s world.
If you would like to get to know us more and keep up
to date on our projects, you can follow us online:
The journal is divided into three sections. Our Creative Writing section showcases work from talented teens, as well as work from adult writers of teen and YA literature, tied in with beautiful artwork and photography. The Features section includes essays on trends in the YA literary scene and inspiring observations from our younger contributors on the world around them. You can also expect some exciting interviews from authors and literature enthusiasts. Our Reviews section offers insight to the latest books for teens and young adults, from readers younger and older. You will also find details of our seasonal book club, where we discuss a book for older teens and a book for younger teens on our social media and on Goodreads.
We have two issues out now. They are available on our
website and we ship worldwide!
 |
| Paper Lanterns Vol. 1 - la gente es colorida by Allie Rafferty, designed by Fiachra Johnston |
It all started last year. Grace, Amy and I met during our master’s degree in Children’s Literature at Trinity College Dublin. Grace noticed that there was a gap in the Irish market for a journal dedicated to teen and YA literature. While the literary journal scene is vibrant in Ireland, most are aimed towards an adult audience. There are some that focus on children’s literature, such as the Children’s Book Ireland Inis Magazine and The Caterpillar, and while they included some teen and YA literature, they focus largely on content for a younger audience.
Grace approached Amy and I with her idea and of course we were eager to be involved. So, on New Year’s Day 2020, we launched our website and announced we were open for submissions. The primary goal of Paper Lanterns is to project the voices of young creatives and to highlight topics that are important to them.
We want to see it grow. We have many goals that we are going to be focusing on over the next few years. We want to secure grants and funding. We want to expand our outreach programme and really engage with teen writers and readers and work with their schools. We want to have a presence at different literary festivals. We want to make the journal longer. Though we already provide a small fee, we want to pay our contributors more. We want to share our work with an international audience. We are lucky to have such a rich literary scene in Ireland, specifically with journals, so there are numerous organizations we can look up to.
 |
| Paper Lanterns Vol. 2 - No Pandemic Holidays by Agata Tryhubczak, designed by Fiachra Johnston |
We are open to submissions for issue three! As mentioned, we accept works from anyone over the age of thirteen years and are happy to consider international submissions. We accept pretty much everything: poetry, flash fiction, short stories, artwork, photography, essays (though you would be better off sending a proposal rather than a completed essay). Other than the word counts, the only criteria we have is that the content is suitable and of interest to a teenage audience.
If you would like to submit your work, visit our website for more information:
This is a really good question, and a very important one.
So, previously our submission process involved a blind reading. We didn’t know the name of or any information about the writers when reading their submissions, in an attempt to make it a fair reading. However, we recognise that does not directly support the projection of marginalised voices. We are eager to find ways to further promote “own voices” stories in what we decide to publish, and to encourage POC creators to submit to the journal.
A small change we have decided to implement with
issue three is the inclusion of a new question in our submission process.
Writers and artists will be given the option to identify themselves as a
marginalised group, be it as a POC, member of the LGBTQ+ community, etc. There
is no requirement to answer if they do not wish to, but the option is there. We
will take these factors into consideration when deciding what pieces get
published, as we aim to make the journal more inclusive. We also aim to
dedicate more space to books written by POC for our seasonal book club. We can
certainly do better, and we intend to going forward.
Ruth: I’m a big fan of verse novels.
I adored The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta and Run Rebel by Manjeet
Mann. They are both incredibly honest and vulnerable stories, it’s hard to
believe they are debut novels! I also really liked Solo by Kwame
Alexander (and Mary Rand Hess) and am looking forward to reading his other
books.
Amy: Ghost by Jason Reynolds and Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie are two good ones! (note from Ruth: I’m SO excited to read Ghost, it sounds like it has everything I love in a book!).
Grace: The Colour Purple by Alice Walker has stuck with me over the years. She's just such an excellent writer. Another book that has stuck with me since undergrad is Sally Morgan's My Place. Not as well known, but a heavyweight in Aboriginal and Australian literature. I recently read Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams, a young British writer. Definitely worth picking up!
I'm really grateful to have had the chance to interview the editors of Paper Lanterns! It was incredibly important to them for me to credit the designers of their logo and their issues, and I appreciated the thought they put behind their answers. I wish them all of the success in the future, and I hope you all check them out!
I'll see you all Saturday with a new post!
~ Nox
Comments
Post a Comment