A Work of Art

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By Henry Hawking, Reporter

“A Work of Art” hits the digital shelves on Friday Feb. 10. The collection is made up of poems, short stories and photos taken by youth from around the nation, as well as from Canada, India and Australia. Cleveland student and Clarion reporter Ashley Lytle collected all the entries and designed the final product.

The collection is composed of 13 stories, 12 photographs and one piece of artwork. Lytle, a junior, received submissions from across the country, as well as from Canada, India and Australia. She reported being surprised at the international interest in the collection. Submissions for the book came through Facebook and WritersCafe.org. She received 50 to 60 different pieces submitted in total. After that number had been narrowed to the final 13, Ashley contacted the authors, and began the layout process.

A few of the photographs included throughout were taken by Lytle, who also designed the cover and is self-publishing the book through CreateSpace, an Amazon-backed website that allows authors to self-publish their work.

Three Cleveland students contributed to the collection. Junior Amanda Kimball wrote a poem titledThe Mist,” Poppy Gorman contributed the collection’s only drawing as well as a short story titled “Sight of Thousands.” Casey Fristoe submitted a poem titled “Seen.”

This will not be Lytle’s first publication. She wrote her first book in kindergarten, and  a trilogy she wrote in middle school was published seven times in different formats.

“I fell in love with writing when I was super young,” Lytle said. “I had found a motivation within myself to publish my work and I wanted to offer this same opportunity to others.”