“Writing on the Wall has always been shaped by student initiative and excitement about writing, and this year’s new directions are totally in keeping with that spirit […] By placing student work around the building through their web presence, and now through this new outlet, the Writing on the Wall organizers help spotlight some of the wonderful, creative work Stuy students do.” –Emily Moore, English teacher and Caliper faculty advisor.
Focus Sentence: Writing on the Wall is publishing their first ever journal to promote the Stuyvesant writing community.

pick up your bottle of
gin,
throw back the bag
of bones and bread,
life and limbs,
and leave.
silently.
without warning.

Sound familiar? This is an excerpt from Writing on the Wall’s June Piece of the Month, “Wanderlust Bones,” a poem by freshman Eda Tse.
Writing on the Wall (WotW), the group that posts one student-written poem or prose piece around the school each month, is publishing a black-and-white journal with both featured pieces and other submissions. Through this journal, the group’s heads, juniors David Kurkovskiy and Rachel Heineman, hope to draw more attention to WotW.
“We’re the first year in a while to have a piece up every month,” Heineman said. “Submission has been great this year. We’ve gotten around 10 submissions every month, and we’re nearing 80 total submissions.”
In addition to posting pieces around the school, WotW posts pieces deemed “honorable mention” on its Web site, writeonstuy.com.
“Basically, [Heineman and I] discuss the piece. We see which ones we like. We also put into consideration what grades we’ve featured before, or what kind of writing we’ve featured before. We try to show variety in writing, and how people have very good abilities, albeit in different forms,” Kurkovskiy said.
Unfortunately, due to the limited number of students who can be featured, WotW cannot publish all submissions.
“The Writing on the Wall journal really came out of a desire to advertise, and also to be able to showcase a lot of the pieces we haven’t been able to feature. We also want to raise awareness of Stuy writing in the general student body, and really create a powerful testament to Writing on the Wall, and create a relic that will keep us memorable,” Kurkovskiy said in an e-mail interview.
The journal is also a means of advertisement for Caliper. Next year, sophomores Elena Milin and Shannon Daniels will oversee WotW, while Heineman, Kurkovskiy, and junior Jacob Soiffer will be editors of Caliper.
Heineman and Kurkovskiy spoke to WotW faculty advisor and English teacher Holly Schechter, Caliper editors, and Caliper faculty advisor and English teacher Emily Moore to get the new journal approved. Some were worried that the journal would interfere with the Caliper publication, but “since ours is basically a teaser and an archive and free, we’re not too worried,” Kurkovskiy said.
“Writing on the Wall has always been shaped by student initiative and excitement about writing, and this year’s new directions are totally in keeping with that spirit,” Moore said. “By placing student work around the building, through their web presence, and now through this new outlet, the Writing on the Wall organizers help spotlight some of the wonderful, creative work Stuy students do.”
Kurkovskiy and Heineman had hoped to distribute the journals, which feature 15 pieces, on Friday, June 1 at the last Open Mic of the year. However, due to a delay in shipment, the journals arrived on Monday, June 4. As a result, the journals will be distributed to English classes known for their interests in creative writing by the week of Monday, June 11. WotW also plans to hand out journals to freshman English classes, and keep copies available in the English office for whomever is interested.