“The ‘earth’ without ‘art’ is just ‘eh.’”

This is one slogan Calliope uses to attract South writers and readers.

“Calliope is a literary magazine, and yet it’s more an art magazine because we do not only publish poetry and short fiction, but we do photography and art,” Calliope co-advisor Cheryl Hope said. “[Unfortunately], we’re limited by color and to what we can do with art because we can’t afford too many colored pages.”

According to Calliope’s co-advisor Sonja Meyer, the magazine publishes about twice a year: a Halloween edition and a springtime edition. Each issue has around 25 to 35 pages of student work.

Calliope is a student-run club and magazine that has been at South for more than 20 years.

“Calliope has changed a lot over the years,” Hope said. “It used to be a group that met at lunch, and they would produce a magazine, not as glossy and nice as [the one we publish today]. It was [similar to] an underground magazine for a while, and then they realized that wasn’t what they wanted. What it is now is truly a traditional literary [and] art magazine.”

According to Meyer, Calliope allows students to express themselves through their writing, photography and illustrations.

“I don’t think there is any other publication here at GBS that really looks in as obvious a way for student creativity because we take anything that [students] have written, [drawn or photographed],” Meyer said. “It’s a place for students to just show what they like doing or are good at doing that maybe people at school don’t even know about.”

Meyer is not the only one who thinks Calliope is different from other publications.

Senior Bobi Kukov enjoys reading Calliope, particularly because it is a student publication.

“I think Calliope offers a great variety of written works from a wide variety of students and that allows me to read things that someone my age wrote, which I think is pretty cool,” Kukov said.

Senior co-editor Leah Perri explained the staff’s passion for writing.

“Our staff members this year are dedicated, hardworking and passionate about writing and reading, which is exactly what we were hoping for [when senior Caroline Chalk and I decided to be the editors],” Perri said.

According to Hope, the club always has fun working together.

“We always have food, and we talk at the beginning of the meeting; [we also] spent a lot of time designing the t-shirt,” Hope said.

Perri has similar thoughts about the overall aura of the magazine.

“The mood of an average Calliope meeting is laid back, yet task-driven,” Perri said. “My co-editor and I have specific goals to accomplish each meeting, but we also allow time to talk and relax with our staff as friends.”

Chalk and the rest of Calliope outlined several objectives for the group to execute throughout the year.

“Our [main] goal this year has been to make students more aware of Calliope, especially since there are so many [talented] writers at this school,” Chalk said.