The school’s literary magazine will return for its seventh installment this June, marking the second year into a comeback from a two year hiatus.

The Highland Piper is an annual collection of essays, poetry, song lyrics, rants, musings, poetry and digital artwork. Stories are accompanied by student-generated graphics, usually art or pictures that pertain to the content of the writing.

“The magazine was created in 2007 to give PHS writers an outlet to display their work other than in the classroom,” advisor Susan Stutzman said.

In 2012 and 2013, the editorial board and Stutzman decided not to publish because of the amount of work involved, Stutzman said. At the time, Stutzman was receiving her National Board Certification, which conflicted with her ability to advise the magazine.

When creating the Highland Piper, Stutzman believed that all students needed a way to show their passion, because writers previously had not had that opportunity.

“Sports players have a time to shine, artists have a time to shine, and musicians have a time to shine,” Stutzman said. “But if you are a writer, then there was no real way to show your work.”

Stutzman and the editors, seniors Robbie Diaz and Kathy Caldwell, reach out to students to form the basis of the content.

“I got involved in the literary magazine because Ms. Stutzman wanted to start a writing circle with writers,” Diaz said. “We started originally as a creative writing group, and then in our second year, she proposed starting the literary magazine up again because she showed us the old literary magazines from years past and that’s when we moved from being just writers to being the editors. We have a small group, so we all do a similar amount of editing on the magazine. Now, we have the circles going on for another year.”

The last writing circle was held on Tuesday Feb. 3, at which six students attended and shared various artistic pieces. At the December meeting, 15 students met. The meetings are intended to inspire students to share their creations, Diaz said.

“We had done a similar thing last year and we got maybe six people, but this year we got more people which is good,” Diaz said. “I think some people we reached out to were interested in the editing as well.”

Diaz also said that it is tough to create a smooth flow in the magazine and fit the various types of submissions in.

“While it is difficult to put the magazine together, it is completely worth it and I really like seeing the variation and skill of all of the writers’ works,” Diaz said.

Although it is a commitment, the editors and Stutzman have no intention of discontinuing the magazine after this issue.

“We do it so that writers can have a place or a forum, somewhere to go, something to do, because as writers, it’s often very hard to have that sense of community because writing is such a solo art that I feel that unless we have things like that, it’s hard for writers to come together and talk about work and share,” Diaz said.