As the sun rises, Coppell High School senior Ryan Elmer eagerly types away at her keyboard after arriving at school early to work on the new issue of the CLAM, or Coppell Literary & Art Magazine.
Discovering a love for writing as an adolescent, Elmer took English teacher Matthew Bowden’s Creative Writing course for the 2023-24 school year, later becoming one of the CLAM’s editors-in-chief in early 2024.
“Since I’ve been in elementary school, I would write my own chapter books. I took creative writing my sophomore year with Mr. Bowden, and it was awesome to have my own creative outlook,” Elmer said.
In previous years, students from across all creative writing class periods would collaborate to produce a print magazine containing media such as poetry, digital art, photography and short stories.
Students across grade levels began to take notice of her efforts after noticing her posters across the school. Contributors submitted content, with each piece having a different meaning behind it.
“My uncle is an artist, he does a lot of photography, he gifted me a camera a few years back which is my favorite and I love using it,” sophomore Mia Salazar said.
In recent years, the CLAM faced content challenges due to only two creative writing class periods for production time in school. It also experienced less contributions of work for publication.
Consequently, the 2024-25 edition of the CLAM was published digitally.
“It was 18 years ago when I took over creative writing. The CLAM was still a special thing because social media hadn’t exploded yet. Nowadays, it’s like pulling teeth to get kids to submit their work,” Bowden said. “If they’re an artist, they already have so many other ways to get content out there, it’s just not as special a thing as it used to be to see your work in a magazine.”
Ultimately, the CLAM was nearly canceled for the 2025-26 school year. When Elmer learned of this, she took matters into her own hands and recreated the magazine as a way of honoring its legacy.
“It’s going to be my senior project, I made it my mission to have one last publication before I graduate this year,” Elmer said.
The CLAM goes on sale Monday and can be purchased through May 3.
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