Student Accomplishments

We’re thrilled to celebrate three incredible Writers' House authors--Nora Schobel, Isabella Cusack, and Ella Gammel--who recently had poems and prose accepted by Shout Mouse Press for inclusion in their anthology, The Light Looks Like Me, scheduled to publish Spring of 2025. Each of these talented writers brings a unique perspective to their work, embodying the spirit of creativity and resilience that we cherish at Writers' House and that Shout Mouse Press champions.

Below, we've spotlighted each author who will share insights into their publishing journey and poetry process. Shout Mouse Press—a nonprofit dedicated to elevating underrepresented voices—has provided them an amazing platform, and we’re excited to explore their inspirations, the themes they address, and the lessons they've learned during the submission process. Their diverse experiences and creative growth will offer valuable insights into the writing process and the impact of being part of a supportive literary community.

As we delve into the unique challenges they faced, the feedback they received, and the excitement around their upcoming anthology, we’ll be celebrating not just their individual accomplishments but also the strength of our community in amplifying diverse voices.

How did you first become involved with Shout Mouse Press, and what drew you to submit your short story to their anthology?
Ross actually sent out an email to Writers' House members announcing this publication opportunity! Writers' House Weekly and the English major newsletter also have a lot of good opportunities for creative writing scholarships, awards, and publication opportunities. I've gotten some acceptances through those too, and I recommend scanning those sections of both newsletters! As for the story I chose to submit, it was one of those pieces where as soon as I wrote it, I knew I had something good. The publication announcement called for a story celebrating love and platforming queer voices, which is the message at the heart of my piece. It felt like a great match to me immediately!

Can you describe your experience with the submission process? Were there any challenges you faced, or was it relatively straightforward?
I found the submission process incredibly straightforward. Shout Mouse Press had a Google Form to fill out, which I did. They contacted me about my acceptance a little while later!

What inspired the short story that was accepted for the anthology? Are there particular themes or messages you hoped to convey?
This story is an ode to love between women! Romantic, platonic, and otherwise. I have so much reverence and affection for the women in my life, and I think media doesn't explore the expansiveness of female relationships often enough. My story is about Medusa, and it was inspired by the absolute tragedy of her myth. Everyone treats her terribly! So my work is written from the perspective of a character who loves her. This side of Medusa's character represents a reclamation of female suffering that is very core to a lot of my writing.

Can you share a bit about your short story writing process? Do you have any specific routines you follow when creating new work?
I try to really get a voice worked out for a piece before I write it! If I don't do this, I often get stuck. Before I write, I sometimes read pieces I find really inspiring–some particularly important works to me have been Madeline Miller's Song of Achilles and the video game Disco Elysium. I used to perform in theater, so getting in "character" as whoever the narrator is really helps me write faster! Some people heavily outline their pieces before they write, but for the most part I just get in the headspace and then go.

How did you approach feedback on your poems, both before submission and after acceptance?
As a part of the submission process, I conferenced with one of Shout Mouse's editors. I generally consider myself very open to feedback, so it was funny to discover how resistant I was to the editor's suggestions at first! I'd gotten pretty attached to the story over the course of editing it for its initial submission, so it took a lot of work on my end to open back up to incorporating feedback again. I've found that the best way for me to incorporate feedback is to just go ahead and change it, let the document sit for a few days, and then read it again and see if I like it. If I don't, I change it back!

What are your thoughts or feelings as you anticipate the anthology's release? Is there anything you’re particularly excited about?
I'm just really excited to have a book with my story in it! That's so cool! Big thanks to Ross for sending out that announcement from Shout Mouse... What their organization is doing is so wonderful for new writers like me.

Shout Mouse Press focuses on amplifying underrepresented voices. How do you see your work fitting into this mission?
Female suffering, especially queer female suffering, is so often co-opted by writers as artistic. I want queer women to see themselves represented joyfully! I want the incredible love I feel for the women in my life represented in writing. I think a lot of other people feel the same way, and I hope that my piece empowers them to love fully and joyfully.

What advice would you give to emerging writers who aspire to have their work published in anthologies?
Write what excites you, write often, and submit to everything! I was feeling bad about a recent rejection when I received the Shout Mouse acceptance. Rejections happen to everyone constantly, and they should be celebrated! It means you put your work out there.

Are there any upcoming projects or works you’re currently working on that you’d like to share? I'm currently working on my first novel! Yay! It's a middle grade story about a young potionsmaker whose potion accidentally explodes and turns his best friend into a cat.

How has being part of this anthology impacted your journey as a writer?
It's been very validating! I said earlier that rejections are great – and that's true – but acceptances are also cool. It was also really lovely meeting the other writers being published alongside me! Most of them were in high school, and it was incredible to meet and speak with people so ambitious and talented at such a young age!

How did you first become involved with Shout Mouse Press, and what drew you to submit your poetry and short story to their anthology? Ross met a few Shout Mouse representatives at a conference and spent the day forming a connection with them. He (as he does) talked up all of his students, and Shout Mouse asked him to send out the information about the anthology. The email advertised a writing competition for LGBTQ+ youth; "they are curious about what it looks like to have queer love in any relationship." I center queerness in my writing as much as I can, and to be able to share that was important to me.

Can you describe your experience with the submission process? Were there any challenges you faced, or was it relatively straightforward?
I didn't put much thought into submitting. I immediately knew I wanted to do it, especially because there was no submission fee. I had to put a lot of thought into what I wanted to submit. I sent two poems and a short story, and only the short story had been workshopped, so I hadn't really expected the poems to be accepted. When all three pieces were, I was surprised and ecstatic. I was so grateful that the editors found some connection to my work.

What inspired the short story and poems that were accepted for the anthology? Are there particular themes or messages you hoped to convey?
The theme of the anthology is queer love, so the poems I wrote were influenced by my relationship with my girlfriend. I had written both for her, and asked her permission to share them with Shout Mouse, because I had never intended for anyone else to see them. They bare my soul, in a way, but the goal of this anthology is to bring representation and show queer youth all the world's possibilities, so to have pieces that show unconditional love feels really important. I am grateful that my love is something that might inspire others. The short story is something I wrote for a JPWH workshop and spent a lot of time on. I really loved that I could submit something that my peers helped me improve.

Can you share a bit about your writing process? Do you have any specific routines you follow when creating new work?
The only consistent thing I do before I write is go on Pinterest. I like to look at all the pictures and get inspiration for the vibe or what I'm going to be writing. Sometimes I pull up a picture and write as much as I can about it to see if it will lead me to anything interesting.

How did you approach feedback on your poems and short story, both before submission and after acceptance?
I love workshops, but I only workshopped my short story. My entire Writer's House class had seen it in its original form, and helped me get it to a stage that I was comfortable publishing. Only my girlfriend and I had read the poems, and I didn't show them to anyone else before submission. Once they were accepted, the editors at Shout Mouse had so much to say about them. It was unexpectedly jarring to have other people discussing these poems as an art rather than fun little love letters. It was also interesting to think about the reception of my work. Since the anthology is aimed at young adults, particularly students in high school, we had to edit some things, like alcohol mentions or exaggerations of intensity that might negatively influence a young person.

What are your thoughts or feelings as you anticipate the anthology's release? Is there anything you’re particularly excited about?
I am so excited for this anthology to be released. Aside from pushing forward my career goals, I get to brag about being a published author! More importantly, my parents get to brag about their daughter, which they always love. Shout Mouse has programs that will allow young authors to speak at schools around the DC area about our work, so I am excited to possibly be an influence to another young author.

Shout Mouse Press focuses on amplifying underrepresented voices. How do you see your work fitting into this mission?
Shout Mouse amplifies underrepresented voices, and in the week long editing and discussion program, it helped me understand that I was more underrepresented than I realized. We talked a lot about the oversexualization of lesbians in media and how that impacted our visions of ourselves. I think my writing moves away from the male gaze and the unnecessary sexualization of young women, and that makes it incredibly powerful for the current work of Shout Mouse.

What advice would you give to emerging writers who aspire to have their work published in anthologies?
Truly, the only advice I can give is apply to everything. I have been rejected from anthologies and literary magazines more times than I can count, but that is true for every single author. When they say that rejection is the first step to success, you might roll your eyes, but it's true. Every time I have been rejected, it simply made me want to work harder.

How has being part of this anthology impacted your journey as a writer?
Working on this anthology has made me so much more comfortable sharing my work. To know that three of my pieces were chosen out of hundreds is a huge confidence boost. I am excited to see what doors this anthology opens for me.

How did you first become involved with Shout Mouse Press, and what drew you to submit your poetry to their anthology?
I knew about Shout Mouse through Writer’s House, and I have wanted to submit to them for a while now. I definitely try to submit to places that value diversity, and a Queer Love anthology was perfect because that’s what a lot of my poems are about.

Can you describe your experience with the submission process? Were there any challenges you faced, or was it relatively straightforward?
The submission process was fairly straightforward which was nice because that’s not always the case. There was no reading fee which is fantastic because I'm a broke college student and reading fees are a pretty significant barrier for me and others in my same position. I was able to submit it through a form that just asked a few questions and for the document containing my poem. It took less than ten minutes.

What inspired the poems that were accepted for the anthology? Are there particular themes or messages you hoped to convey?
I had one piece accepted called “Buds of Lavender.” The theme of the competition was “queer love”, and I definitely wanted to write about that without going the obvious route which would be my life in high school or college. As a child I had a best friend and we would do everything together, and it was so fun to pretend to be an adult with her. We obviously had no idea what we were doing but we saw our parents kiss and thought that was what adults do. It was just really innocent and fun with her before we knew anything real about sexuality or identity, and it just makes me really happy that at our core we knew we loved each other and had a great time, and that’s all that mattered.

Can you share a bit about your poetry writing process? Do you have any specific routines you follow when creating new work?
I usually write everything all at once. I will go weeks without writing anything and then suddenly I'll write a ton of poems in one day. That’s where “Buds of Lavender” came from, a really quick writing session, but I wasn’t sure what to do with it. When Shout Mouse ran the competition, I suddenly knew that it was the one to submit, so I put it through a few rounds of edits. Eventually you just have to hit the submit button and hope for the best. I’m really terrible at keeping routines so I don’t have a set one, but I usually write my rough drafts on paper every time. It’s a lot easier for me to scratch things out, and it’s also pretty satisfying to have a page covered in notes and ink.

How did you approach feedback on your poems, both before submission and after acceptance?
Call me a masochist but I love detailed feedback, even though it’s so anxiety inducing. I love sending work to my professors or friends and having them tell me what works and what doesn’t, and go from there. I trust myself to get a solid first draft down but after that I can be too biased towards the idea or work to truly give myself comprehensive edits so I really rely on my network of support to help me make my work the best it can be. After I submitted I got to work with a real editor for the first time which was very exciting and made me feel professional and they gave me great, detailed line edits on the poem.

What are your thoughts or feelings as you anticipate the anthology's release? Is there anything you’re particularly excited about?
I’m very excited for the anthology to be released. I have always wanted to be a published author ever since I was a kid, and now I am in an actual book which is amazing. I’m really excited to read everyone else’s work, and to have a professionally bound book on my shelf that I am actually in.

Shout Mouse Press focuses on amplifying underrepresented voices. How do you see your work fitting into this mission?
Queer voices are only just now being accepted in the mainstream media. My work focuses around me and my life, so whether I am writing about relationships or not, that identity still colors my work pretty significantly. I am excited to keep writing pieces that have that perspective, and to see the work that comes from others with different identities in the future.

What advice would you give to emerging poets who aspire to have their work published in anthologies?
Just hit submit. It doesn’t matter if you think your work isn’t good enough for the journal or people won’t like it: that’s not for you to decide. Every piece of art that has heart behind it is going to help or inspire someone out there. As long as you are creating you will continue to improve, and if you continue to improve then great things are going to happen.

Are there any upcoming projects or works you’re currently working on that you’d like to share?
I’m trying to get a poetry chapbook published, and I’m hoping to send it out this October which is really exciting. I’m also taking a scriptwriting class and writing a script for a pilot (shoutout Ross), as well as trying to get some more art-based projects like comics off the ground.

How has being part of this anthology impacted your journey as a poet?
It has given me a lot of confidence as a writer. It definitely helps me realize that people actually want to hear what I have to say, which is exciting, and has given me that fire to really pursue the projects that I have had in my head for years.