Faced with the task of pulling together a high quality, in-depth literary magazine from home, the Menagerie editors have been hard at work preparing for this year’s design, which was released online today.

“We [were] nervous but excited,” art adviser Mary Rohlicek said. “I’m so very impressed with this group. The pages look amazing and [the editors] were able to make a beautiful magazine in such a strange and difficult situation.”

The staff has been releasing online versions for years now, so the main challenge they faced was collaborating remotely, and without a full staff, Rohlicek said. Advisers made the decision to divide work up between four editors rather than the previous staff of 30, who had the job of completing pages independently and making sure the finished product still came together well.

“At first I think that we were a little skeptical,” co-art editor Erin McGovern ‘21 said. “It is definitely not the same as working with the entire staff—we all looked forward to being together after school every day and hearing everyone’s ideas—so that was difficult to let go of. But ultimately the book had to get done, so narrowing it down to only working with the editors became our best option.”

The team of editors, consisting of co-editors-in-chief Juliette Lopez ‘21 and Eleanor Keelan ‘20 and co-art editors McGovern and Paige Haworth ‘21, were provided with a free version of Adobe In-Design to continue work at home, Rohlicek said. To keep communication flowing, they also held Zoom meetings to look at pages and give feedback.

“I think [the magazine] is a little different than what we wanted it to look like just because we [couldn’t] be face to face making edits,” Lopez said. “[However], we weren’t even sure if we were going to be able to make a magazine, so the fact that my team has pulled through is awesome.”

Following in the footsteps of last year’s award-winning magazine made the designing task especially nerve racking, McGovern said. Despite this, the editors have been able to put together an effective design that demonstrates the wide range of literary and artistic talent within the student body.

“I really think Juliette and Eleanor did a good job picking out the theme and figuring out how they wanted the book to look,” McGovern said. “Even though we didn’t get as much input as we would have from the whole art staff I think that it came together well. Something that is important to remember is that regardless of awards, the magazine is made to highlight the artists and writers at LT, and I think that the content we have this year is amazing.”

Once the editors and advisers were satisfied, the In-Design pages were converted into PDF format and released to the LT Menagerie webpage on May 21. Depending on whether or not school will be open in the fall, the staff plans to distribute hard copies to juniors once conditions allow. Seniors, however, will receive their copies when they visit the building to clear out their lockers in June.

“This year has been quite a challenge and really demonstrated what these students are capable of,” Rohlicek said. “I hope everyone will appreciate their dedication to this awesome magazine.”