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AN ANNOUNCEMENT FROM SURROUNDED

Dear Surrounded Community,

During the past nine years, we have had the great honor of working with some of the top teenage writers in the world to provide an outlet for the kind of bold, exceptional creative high school writing we knew was out there. We have published writers from virtually every corner of the United States and from four continents. Due to the overwhelming challenges, however, of the changing landscape of publishing and of reaching a wide teenage readership, we have come to the painful but also exciting decision to close Surrounded and direct our limited budget and passionate attention toward promising new projects. Please continue to check this page, our website, and our blog for updates and news in the coming months. We are honored to have worked with so many of you, and regret that we will miss the opportunity to work with more of you in the future. Thank you for your interest in us, and best of luck with all your writing. Keep us posted! Sincerely, The Surrounded Staff

Okay, writers.

I know it says Surrounded on our t-shirt. But this is actually your conscience calling. The part of you that knows you owe it to yourself to take a shot at getting your magnificent work out in the world. The part that vaguely acknowledges that your eyes seem drawn, repeatedly, to these goofy posts. Because you want to submit. You want to submit. You want to submit. Allow us humbly to point out that it's almost Thanksgiving. Then, in three weeks, it will be winter break. Two weeks after that, the 2014 Surrounded submission window--like the walls in that garbage crusher thing with the eel in it in Star Wars--will slam shut. Then it will be too late. We want your work. This is us, holding out our hands. We've got some great stuff. But we don't have YOUR stuff. And we wants it. We're not proud. At least, not until we've got your work. Then we'll be proud. Tell your friends. Submit...

#creative writing #literature #writing #poem #inspiration

It's a once-in-76,000-year Po-Vember,

you know, with Thanksgivikkah right around the corner. So today's poetry starter is meant to get you in that turkey-stuffed-with-latkes mood: Pick two items in your place of dwelling that a stranger would be surprised to find in the same abode. Then--simply in the way you describe the items and their use--write a poem that gives us a window into the flavor of life where you live. Abstract? Sure. Adventurous? Well, hey, we're Surrounded, and that's how we wind our clocks. We hope we've...uh... wound yours? Anyway, submit, please. We'll be waiting?

#creative writing #literature #hanakkah #thanksgiving #poem #writing prompts

Po-vember goes personal

with today's detail-driven poetry starter. Ready? There's someone you've been thinking about--or brooding on--every time you zone out lately. You know who I mean. This could be an attraction thing. It could be a scared-of-that thing. Could be a he-really-does-look-like-an-armadillo, how-does-that-happen thing. It's time to put that brooding/dreaming/zoning to good use: With no introduction, no specifics about who this is...do your zoning on the page. What, specifically, are you meditating on? Is it hands? Or teeth? What about them. Be as detailed as you can possibly be. Get lost in your own lostness. Take your time coming back. Then send us what you've returned with. Two months and one day left to submit, peoples. That's 2 and 1. Get on it. Please. We want your stuff.

#writing prompts #creative writing #literature #poems #love

Po-vember (it's like poetry, in November, get it?)

continues here at Surrounded HQ. But it's also barely 36 hours since Din Tai Fung finally opened in nearby Glendale, and we're pretty sure we will not be stopping the consuming of Shanghai Soup Dumplings before the holidays. And maybe not then either. So. In honor of poetry...and bao...we offer you the following tasty starter treat: Out of the drawer where your family keeps such things, take out the Take Out menu from your favorite...you know...Take Out place. The words on that menu are your word bank for this poem. you can use no words that aren't on the menu. And your poem should have nothing to do with food. Using only the above ingredients, write us the most powerful, surprising, dazzling piece of poetry you can. Then send that to us. 'Cause we like to dine in...

#writing prompts #creative writing #literature #Din Tai Fung #food

O Yes It's October is over,

which brings us to...O No, Not November? How about we at least get off the spooky and get to some poetry? Blank verse, free verse, hey, you can even even send us rhyming verse, but only if your rhymes ring. We just want to see you bring the language. Today's starter? On your iPod, or Spotify, or wherever you keep your tunes, hit Shuffle. Then again. And again. And again. And again. And again. There. You now have six song titles' worth of evocative words. You can ONLY use those words. But you can put them in any order and shape you like. Make something magical, ambiguously but powerfully meaningful, potentially hummable. Then send that jam our way.

#creative writing #literature #writing prompts #music #poems

It's here. The last O Yes It's October Festival of Fearful Story Starters for the 2013 Halloween season. Remember--the point of these is to amuse...to inspire...to drive you positively mad with powerful, possibly (but not necessarily) perverse inspiration...so that you finish a masterpiece...and submit it to our magazine: Today's starter: Actually, it's quiet at Surrounded Central this morning. Too quiet. You see, two of our three Managing Editors, Katie and Ellen, did not show today. Only Emma showed. Dressed--we do Halloween early around here--as a night table. Complete with lamp (Emma's head is the bulb) and opening storage doors. Inside the doors, there's yesterday's newspaper. And some Hershey bars. And...in two gilt-edged little frames...photographs of Katie and Ellen. In shadow. Looking...not happy...downright scared... Has Emma staged a coup, and spirited her colleagues (once her close friends) off to the Dark Land Under Night Tables? Or has a Dark Night Table Spirit seized Emma and driven her to it? Or is something else going on? You tell us. In writing. Via submission. Or we just might send our night tables your way...

#halloween #writing #2spoopy #oooOOOOOooooo

Two starters

left in the O Yes It's October Festival of Fearful Story Starters (and just under two months left to submit to Surrounded Magazine, which, you know, is kind of the point of these). So get inspired. Get writing. Get sending. We eagerly await your work. Now then: Remember the Apollo missions? Heard, perhaps about those dark minutes, when the spacecrafts passed around back of the moon and out of earshot of Earth for a long, silent while? I'm afraid we've had a related occurrence... Today is our school's first day back from assorted environmental trips. The 10th grade went up in the mountains. The 11th went to Moab. But there's one teacher...let's call her Ms. Gaffer...she was a chaperone on the 10th grade trip. And in the woods, on a night walk, she and two students got separated from the group. They were gone, by themselves, in the silent dark, for over an hour. They came back. Or at least...something did... The thing is...they haven't really spoken since. They've nodded at people. Shambled to the bus, and back home. But mostly, today, they're sitting at desks...and they're staring...and... Go to town, Surrounded writers. Wow us, move us, freak us out. Or else we're sending Ms. Gaffer--or the thing that was Ms. Gaffer--your way...

#writing prompts #creative writing #literature #october #Halloween #apollo

The October Festival of Fearful Story Starters

today centers on one of our staff members. We're very, very fond of this staff member. But here's the thing: after three years together, we're still not sure whether to be scared OF or FOR Ellen. Here's what we know: She plays Lorde. Like, all the time. Like, she sings it the way some people pray. Lorde is her queen. She has a Pungsan. It apparently can and will hurt you. It used to be her brother's. None of us have ever met her brother. We don't know what happened to him. She got sad during Calculus today. Even she doesn't know why. This happens to Ellen sometimes. She can't find the glue. Your starter for today: Is Ellen good? Is Ellen okay? Is Ellen going to hurt us one day? Which day? Send submissions via our webpage. Or we're sending Ellen. And her dog.

#writing prompts #literature #creative writing #inspiration #october

The O Yes, it's October Festival of Fearful Story Starters

hits its mid-month stride with this terrifying tantalizer for your exploration and expansion: It's Spirit Week around the Surrounded offices. At your school, that might mean cheerleaders, embarrassing and unnecessary field games in which at least one faculty member makes an utter moron of his or her self attempting to hurtle the inflatable climbing wall, and cold burgers at the end of a long line at lunch. But here, on the campus of Surrounded, Homecoming means...Twins Day. And this year--as every year--there's one set of twins that appears right before the first bell. A father and daughter. We think. Red shirts. Backwards baseball hats. Oddly...rubbery skin. Not masklike, just...too loose. And poxed. Did we mention the pockmarks? And here's the thing, with these two: we don't know them. We don't think. They don't go here, we don't think. They just...show up. On Twins Day. And...wander. What are they doing here? What do they want? And what if, this year...they're murmuring... Write it up, Make us whimper. SEND US SUBMISSIONS. Prettyplease?

#writing prompts #creative writing #inspiration #october #Halloween

The O Yes,

it's October Festival of Fearful Story Starters kicks into high gear, as we reach back into the wild, chaotic days before SURROUNDED, before the best and boldest high school writers had a best and boldest outlet for their b&b stories and poems. In those lawless, lonesome days, writers toiled in obscurity. In solitude. It got lonely. It got tumbleweed. y. O my god, this got computer won't let me type tumbleweedy without a dash without correcting me. There, it did. Anyway. In those anarchic days, the following too often happened: There your character is. Doing what they do, in the familiar, comforting anonymity and solitude of their everydays. When, one quiet, everyday afternoon, something that shouldn't be talking--a blade of grass? an eraser? a left shoe? a vanilla Tootsie Roll (okay, no, those should NEVER speak)?--starts talking. What does it say? Who listens? What happens next? Your job is to listen. Report back. Submit your reports to us at www.surroundedmagazine.us. Save us all.

#writing prompts #creative writing #inspiration #halloween #october

The O Yes,

It's October Festival of Fearful Story Starters continues here at Surrounded headquarters. Today, once again, we hew close to the bone of reality to offer you the following tasty, terrifying possibility: You and your besties (which Autocorrect just tried to make be sties, whatever those are) arrive right on time at your last block class (this is taken from actual events, except that in real life, the Surrounded staff thought they were on time but were in fact nowhere close), to find the classroom door open, the room empty. So you do what any self-respecting student staff member would do: you head to the Student Store for Wild Poppy Peach Vanilla Juice from the vending machine (which doesn't actually sell WPPV, but work with me, here). It's only on your way back that it occurs to you that you haven't seen ANYONE on campus. In fact, you suddenly can't remember when it was that you last saw anyone. So you walk out to the street in front of campus. No cars. No sounds. Not even birds. What next? Well, that's where you come in. And hey, world? It's submission time. We have a few submissions. We need a lot more. Don't make us go all Wild Poppy Peach on your...

#writing prompts #creative writing #inspiration #literature #october

O, yes, it's October.

And you know what that means at Surrounded headquarters. You don't? You mean you WEREN'T following us or sending us submissions last year? Well, you're here now, and we're delighted about that, and all is forgiven. And it's thirty days and counting down until Halloween. And that means it's day one of the Surrounded Fall Festival of Spectral Prompts. Here comes #1: This prompt is a sort of Surrounded valentine to our fellow readers, writers, font dorks. We so love you. Because you're so us. Today's challenge: No matter what your character types, when they sit down at their computer or phone to work, or chat, or tweet, or whatever, no matter what font they THINK they're using --Helvtica, Baskerville, Braggadocio, you name it--what appears on the screen is...Arial. (I know, I know, almost too scary, but it's October, so go with it). Then the words start becoming different words than the ones being typed. And the message they're communicating... Well. That's where you come in. Tell us what message your haunted character is receiving. In those awful letters. And what happens next. Remember: submit. We want your stuff, world, by January 15th 2014. Get to it.

#writing prompts #writing #creative writing #literature #high school

Hirshberg, Faculty Supervisor here.

It pains me to report a mugging. Not 20 minutes ago, the Surrounded staff (or, to be more precise, the members of the Surrounded staff that didn't slip off campus for ill-gotten food gain, and didn't even bring me any) ganged up with my Creative Writing Club, assigned me a group of (admittedly talented) green young Freshmen members, stole my 9th grade son for his skills, and handed my first defeat--in my entire life--at Taboo. I am bitter, I am blue, and I face the prospect of listening to my child crow in my face about this all weekend. To cheer me up, please respond to the following prompt. Do it up proud. Send it to us so we can consider publishing it and doing YOU up proud. Make me feel (cue violins) like a winner again. Ready: Give us your best, funniest, or most brutal board game story. No limit on choice of game or participants. Dice, cards, knives, family members the choice is yours. Just write something great. And give it to us. Olivia Nathan, you are not allowed to Like this post. Unless you like it. I guess.

#creative writing #inspiration #high school writers #writing prompts #board games

So today,

at Surrounded headquarters, we had a surprise visitor. Emily. Really, Emily should be one of us. She even brought grey Chex Mix in a bag, and she gave us some, and she wasn't carrying her computer, which means she was running on charge, and we always worry about Emily disconnected from her computer. She did assure me she had her phone. Continuing our theme of the week--using everyone weknow for character prompts, because really, what else is everyone we know for--here's your starter for today: We're going to tell you five things about Emily. Then you're going to imagine a Friday night that transforms Emily's life. Ready: 1. Yesterday, she watched four hours of "She-ra." This is not unusual for Emily. 2. She's a Brentwood/Santa Monica elitist, even though she fully understands the irony of the "We are the 1%" sign that appears one day a year in Brentwood. 3. She has had satirical fan fiction written about her. It involved Crocs. 4. She once stole her sister's birthday cake. All of it. And she goes by King Emily. 5. She's a Wiccan. It was an accident, but it stuck. Ready? It's Friday night in Emilytopia. And Emily's life is about to change...

#writing prompts #literature #inspiration #high school writers #panpuru

This morning,

Katie–a key member of our mighty staff of 3 (+ 1 hobbit-sized adult)–is late. Again. Last time she was late, she apparently decided she was already late, so she might as well make herself a snazzy breakfast. Apparently, it was a breakfast worth Snapchatting. Our starter to you for this morning is…where is Katie now? We’re thinking most of what you need to know about Katie as a character is contained in the above anecdote. But if you need additional information, here’s a bit more:

Katie’s hand gestures. They’re like tai chi on benzedrine. Flowy, but fast.

She has never once shown up to class without snacks. None of the snacks have been good for us.

She writes about sad and scary trees.

She likes K-pop. And “Space Jam.”

So again, your starter for today: where is Katie? Send us your most inventive, your most surprising concept. Let that concept take you where it will. Send us the results.

#writing prompts #creative writing #literature #high school writers #literary magazine

So, on our campus this morning,

there's been an exploding pipe (which means there's a constant parade of chaperoned elementary students across campus to the one building with working bathrooms), and also one confirmed sighting of a dog-sized--as in, DOG-sized--raccoon. What to do with such material? Why, make writing with it, obviously. Give us something with teeth. Make us flush. Send results to us at surroundedmagazine.us.

#writing prompts #writing #literature #pipes #dogs #yup #:)

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