Epitome, Portsmouth High School’s literary magazine, came out with its 35th edition on June 1st. 

Epitome has been publishing its magazine once a year since 1998. This magazine includes collections of student poetry, short stories, art, and more. Members meet together weekly to talk about submitted pieces. Anyone can join the club and anyone can submit their work. 

Patrick Ganz, a PHS teacher and the Epitome advisor, says that “Epitome is truly about the students.” 

Ganz says that Ava Schlosser and Amelia Tabit, both juniors at PHS and members of Epitome, have “taken this to a whole new level in terms of the quality of this magazine.” They and other members of Epitome are responsible for talking about, reviewing, editing, rating, and publishing submitted pieces. Both Schlosser and Amelia recommend that students of PHS should join Epitome.

This year Epitome changed things up. Not only did they publish pieces from both this year and last, but they held PHS’s first open mic in 25 years. It was held in the Little Theater on Thursday, June 1st during flex. Students read their poetry, and short stories, sang, and talked about their art. “This year I am most excited about the open mic,” says Ganz.

Ever since Epitome published their first magazine they have always printed hard copies. Epitome has put into consideration making their magazine digital. They have talked about making digital copies of the magazine or creating a website with poems of the week/month. Since they held the open mic this year they hope to make it digital next year. “One thing at a time,” says Ganz.