Volume 70, Number 2 (2021) Summer 2021 Student Writing Edition

Letter from the Editors

Welcome!

After a most challenging year, we hope you find this issue a satisfying companion to a summer that felt like it would never come. The history-making of the past year has come with hardship and stress . . . but, we believe, greater measures of resilience, empowerment, and hope.

It’s important to remember that students personify the greatest reminders of hope, so it is an appropriate moment to celebrate the joy, potential, and possibility of student writing. Even as the pandemic started, the Kentucky English Bulletin received rich entries for the student writing contest at the college and high school levels. We encourage you to settle in for a treat as you read a variety of essays, short stories, and poems. Not only will these pieces provide you to different perspectives and experiences; you will also discover mentor texts to use in your own classrooms.

In addition to celebrating the student award winners from 2020, we are also excited to share work from the honors theses of two recent English education graduates. We are certain you will find their work on the reading of memes and an interdisciplinary unit connecting argument writing, crime scene investigation, and the writing of Edgar Allan Poe to provide rigorous and engaging ideas for practice in the coming year.

As an editorial team, we continue to work on establishing a regular publication schedule. There will be another digital edition published in the fall of 2021 that will feature articles centering on topics related to antiracist teaching. The 2022 year will bring the opportunity for three issues – the student writing edition in the spring followed by digital editions in summer and fall.

In this current work, we want you to share your voice, your experiences, your insight, and your teaching. The sharing of practice is like a pebble cast into the waters – the ripples are instantaneous, long-reaching, and beyond number. Whether you are interested in sharing your literary work or teaching practice, you are needed. Take time to read through our next call, “Emerging,” which will close December 1, 2021. If you are not interested in sharing your writing at this time, perhaps you would be interested in serving as a reviewer; if neither appeals to you, we still invite you share your thoughts and encourage you to get in touch.

We hope your summer is filled with opportunities to relax, to rejuvenate, to read, and to write. This edition will be a great start to the season. To our student writers, thank you for sharing yourself by sharing your writing – what inspiration and joy you have sparked.

Enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Warmly,

The Kentucky English Bulletin Editorial Board

Mary Ann Cahill, Ed.D.

Caitlin Murphy, Ph.D.

Winn Crenshaw Wheeler, Ph.D.

Bellarmine University