SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Students at Spanish Fort High School were busy all year studying for exams and writing papers. But students in Angela Crawford's creative writing and senior English classes got to enjoy working on a little something extra.

The high school is proud to debut its very own literary magazine, Guernica. The publication features poetry from the student job at large, with the majority of the 95 pages coming from the creative writing class. Included in the issue are senior honors poetry, haikus, Holocaust poetry, slam poetry, ecphrasis poetry, mythical poetry and a poetry showcase.

The name Guernica comes from a painting by Pablo Picasso from 1937. The painting reveals a lot of symbolism of what happened during the Spanish Civil War and the results thereafter, Crawford said.

When the students were debating on a title for their new fine arts review they knew they wanted something with Spanish overtones relating back to Spanish Fort.

The full-color glossy cover image was designed by Tori Spriggs, a graduating senior. Spriggs will be attending Savannah College of Art and Design, where she received a $70,000 scholarship.

Seth Waldon's poem “Guernica, Apparently” will be featured at the beginning of each volume and was written for the publication. Evan Tomlinson received a second place award from The Gulf Coast Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education for his poem “Familiar Faces,” which is published in Guernica. The poem was written in remembrance of the Holocaust.

Kevan Pledger will be a senior when school begins in the fall and looks forward to contributing to Guernica during his senior year.

“It has always been a dream of mine to go somewhere with my writing,” Pledger said. “I can't wait to work on Guernica next year.”

Pledger contributed the poems “Shape” and “Heavens” to the publication and used free time in his creative writing class to help with the revising and editorial work.

The publication was pre-sold beginning in February for $5. The presale helped pay for the printing costs, which were printed with great quality by the University of South Alabama.

Guernica is a great way for students to be published and have something to carry with them for the rest of their lives, Crawford said. Crawford hopes to continue sponsoring the publication and put out a new volume each year.