Flashback....

I have decided to go back to my childhood for this literary magazine assignment. Let me tell you why: my sister is a junior in high school, she is also an extremely talented writer. Over the last year she has been hankering for an editor and a publisher (if you haven't guessed, her dream is to be a writer). Being the fabulous big sister I am, I have been searching out places she can submit her work. During this search, I stumbled upon a magazine that I used to subscribe to and was quite fond of when I was her age. That magazine is Cicada.

Cicada Magazine is a literary magazine geared toward young adults. They publish work by authors and artists ages 14-23, as well as the occasional piece by a deceased but well know author. Cicada is a small magazine, roughly the size of The Laurentian Magazine (which you should all read when it arrives on campus in a few weeks), and usually has some kind of theme for an issue. The March/April 2010 issue (the magazine is published bimonthly) follows the theme of change and decision making. A regular WWYD (what would you do) collection. The stories and poetry all reflect a moment of 'self' and choosing a path that may end up defining who you will ultimately become. At the end of the issue, Cicada provides information for submissions as well as a contest related to the 'theme' that particular issue may have been following. For March/April, Cicada has worded its theme as "fork in the road," but I thought that was a little boring.
As I was reminiscing about this magazine, it occurred to me how pleasant it is to revisit something that played such a large role in my younger years. I never submitted work to Cicada, though I considered it, but it was inspiring to me as a pseudo-aspiring writer. Each story, essay, poem, or work of art has a mini-blurb about the author. Some have been published before, some have grand dreams, some are in high school, some are in grad school, but all have been published in one magazine, which is fairly encouraging. I believe Cicada has a good thing going. Their age limit opens a market for young writers that is not as intimidating as arriving in your college level writing class and being told you must submit to a journal.
Cicada is a publication that follows you from early childhood through your teens only it is called something else. The young child's version of Cicada is Lady Bug, and the tween's version is Cricket. As a child, I had a subscription to all three, although I must say I don't recall Lady Bug very well. Cricket was more of a magazine and came in an 8x10 (assuming my guestimated measurements are correct) format, however, it also contained artwork and stories by young writers.
If there is anything I would suggest Cicada do differently, it is advertise. As much as I enjoyed the magazine as a teen and as much as I have enjoyed perusing it again, I have only ever heard of it in my own house. Maybe I am just oblivious, but something as wonderful and empowering for young writers should be more well known. Granted, literary magazines are not always well known outside of the literary sphere, but it seems to me this is something school libraries could subscribe to like they do National Geographic and Newsweek.