| Shady Side Academy's literary magazine, established 1928

It has been a very surprising, unexpected year. Not only has the Egerian received an abundance of art and literary works from its members, but it also has received a lot of work and support from the whole school. With help from the student English department associates, we were able to start monthly writing competitions with prizes, attracting a large variety of student submissions. Regardless of the source, these works have all been an absolute joy and pleasure for Audrey and I to view. As always, the school year was fairly busy, making time short for us to write as much as we perhaps would have liked, yet our writers fully maximized the limited timeframe they had before submission deadlines, cultivating engaging and detailed tales with fewer words than most authors can fit in a single chapter. Reading these has taught me many new things, such as, new methods for improving my own creative writing that I greatly cherish; most notably, however, it has revealed to me the pleasures of discovering something new. Perhaps you might not like poetry, but perhaps also you are fearful of discovering the beauty within its lines. I hope you allow your courage to take its course, and even if poetry still does not appeal to you, maybe the flash fiction horror stories will be more your style. Either way, I strongly encourage you to read the literary works that have made this year such a special one for the Egerian.

Lastly, we would like to thank everyone who has helped us publish this year’s end of the year and midyear issues. Specifically, Audrey and I sincerely thank Mr. Miller and the student English department associates, Sarah, Elliot, and Rocco, for judging and assisting us with the monthly writing competitions. Thank you to all the members who showed up each week and helped us compile so many amazing literary and art works. Also, we want to especially thank Mr. Hogan for his continued support and assistance, and I, personally, would like to thank Audrey Jiang, as well, for her sincere advice and constant efforts. Without them, this issue of the Egerian would be impossible.

— Nina Onest ’25

Short Stories:

“Friend” – Abril Linares-Mendoza ’24

“White Padded Room (Portfolio)” – Caden Green ’24

“Buried Body (Portfolio)” – Jinny Guo ’24

“Mirrors” – Alexa Karet ’24

“My Mother’s Paintings” – Sophia Gombos ’25

“Image” – Özge Ada Uzman ’27

Poems:

“Hero’s Epigraph” – Kyle Delisma ’26

“To Be Weak is to Be Strong” – Anonymous ’26

“Year Regret” – Anonymous ’26