It was Fall of 2020. The Age of Distance Learning. With flu season on the rise, COVID-19 had just emerged from its summer hibernation and had begun to ravage school hallways again, forcing teachers and students alike to retreat to the new frontiers of cyberspace. For many students, long-distance made digital learning more difficult. It was an epidemic of loneliness. Isolation. And yet, during this time, many students still turned to creative writing as a cathartic outlet or, as one of my friends so aptly described it, “a void to scream into...”

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In the solitude of quarantine, I became a creature of habit—reading, writing, and editing. By then I’d been grading assignments as a teaching assistant for eight months at Polyphony Lit, a literary magazine for high school writers and editors. I thought I had it down to an art. Fifty-some students had already funneled through our virtual editorial training course, studying literary elements in poetry and prose, learning how to craft detailed constructive criticism. I had established a steady rhythm, filling out the gradebook rubric, writing feedback for students, and then giving the thumbs-up to our managing editor. This student is ready to work as a junior editor...