Our Mission

Our mission for our journal is to unite the youth through the arts. We find that for high schoolers writing is often a solitary project, and we aim to bring writers together through our publication. In the past, the Battering Ram has held LitCon, where we congregate to read from our journal and the journals of other high schools.

We are interested in all kinds of creative writing; fiction, poetry, and non-fiction are all accepted. We love experimental writers and hybrid artists. We also welcome sketches, drawings, screenplays, recipes, song lyrics, photography and anything we can publish. We strongly encourage any middle/high school students from anywhere in the world (not just Woodstock Day School students) with an interest in writing or the arts to submit their work.

We ask teachers at local middle/high schools to encourage every one of their students to submit, particularly those with a talent and a passion for writing or the arts. We have found that this type of journal builds awareness of community and that the submission process teaches vital life skills. We have published student work from a number of local schools, national schools, and international schools. All of our submissions are read blind and voted on democratically, though we do give some preferential treatment to Woodstock Day School students. Finally, we desire to keep the journal free to all and raise all the funds needed to publish on our own by selling bagels and other events such as performing a Story Journey through our school’s woods.