The Avant magazine has gone to print and is getting ready to make its debut April 11, everyone is very eager to read the first edition.

“I am the Literary Editor of the Avant,“ senior Grace Cooper said. “Jade Slavin is the Arts Editor, which means that we’re sort of in charge of those respective areas. We each have apprentices, mine is Riley Fletcher for literature and Jade’s is Natalie Beiter for art.”

The Avant will be comprised of art and literary work by Baldwin High School students. Every piece of work in the magazine is original and made by BHS students. We have a wide variety of genres and mediums that will be included.

“I think it’s an amazing idea,” junior Riley Fletcher said. “It’s something that I’ve always wanted at the school. It’s an incredible opportunity for writers and artists at BHS.”

The magazines will each cost $5. People can place an order for the magazine starting on April 2 by going to English teacher Bonnie Butell-Huntoon or Art teacher Becky Weaver and getting an order form.

“To choose what will be featured in the Avant, we organized an art committee and a literary committee,” Cooper said. “Each committee got a rubric which they used to score each piece of work completely anonymously. From that scoring, we included as many pieces of work in the magazine as possible. Most genres of writing and mediums of art were an option for people to submit, and again, we have a wide variety in what pieces will be published.”

BH and Weaver received a grant from the Baldwin Education Foundation to make the magazine, so as faculty advisers for the magazine, they chose the first literary editor and the first art editor.

“I worked on a literary magazine in collage and so I think I’ve always kind of wanted to have an opportunity for students to publish their work,” Butell-Huntoon said. “I thought it was an awesome experience being part of the editing team.”

The staff expects the Avant to be printed out by Friday, March 30, from Allen Press in Lawrence.

“Since everything has gone to so much technology, I really thought it’d be fun to have something tangible and in print for students to see,” Butell-Huntoon said. “The best part was when I went to talk to Becky Weaver and she was excited about it. She’d also worked on a literary magazine or an art magazine so she’d also had experience with it.”

Everyone in the community has the opportunity to purchase the Avant. The students featured in the magazine will get the first opportunity to purchase the magazine, and then purchase orders will be open to the general public on April 2.

“I am very excited to have it in my hands and see the physical publication,” Weaver said. “I’m very excited for the students that have been published in it to see their work.”