The Loom, a well-known student-run literary and art magazine that publishes student’s creative writing and visual art, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. The first ever edition was extremely thin, filled with a few prose submissions, and did not contain any art, whereas today, participation has sky-rocketed and its focus has shifted towards poetry.

The Loom not only gives Loomis Chafee students a creative outlet, but also allows future generations to see what was on the minds of teenagers living in the United States during a certain time period. Dora Lin ’23, who is doing her senior project on the history of the Loom, has read countless pieces from the magazine, and recollects one of the most moving pieces that she read.

“[There was] a fictional piece that mentions segregation. You don’t see writing like that anymore and I think it just reflects the time they were in.” Lin said.

Loomis students have been utilizing the Loom as a place to process their emotions and comprehend the world they live in for over a century, and they continue to do so in current times.

Loomis students have turned towards the Loom not only as a space to put their thoughts and feelings down on paper, but also as a place to make new friends and build a tight-knit, supportive community, which is one of Lin’s favorite parts of being involved with this organization.

“The community I have found through the Loom, whether it be through layouts or our meetings for selecting themes, has really been able to just connect with each other.” Lin said.

Lin also expressed how grateful she was to be able to learn from her peers, and she revealed that being able to teach incoming writers was what motivated her to step into her current role as Editor-in-Chief. Her hope of inspiring younger Loomis students, combined with her goals of creating a set schedule, building even stronger bonds between the writers, and raising the number of submissions, drove the decisions she made this year and ultimately led to two of the Loom’s most highly submitted-to editions yet.

Lin jokingly credited this year’s record number of submissions to a surplus of students, but she was genuinely excited to see that students were engaged within the visual and literary arts.Her hard work and dedication towards the betterment of the Loom will certainly leave a lasting impact, even as her time as one of the editors-in-chief comes to a close.

The Loom always has areas to grow and Lin hopes that, in the future, there will be more collaboration with Writing Initiatives. It’s not only a great resource for the student contributors to bounce ideas off of, but it is also an excellent way to further expand the Loom’s ever-growing community.

The most important aspect of the Loom, however, is its writers. And the beautiful thing about Loomis is that there will never be a shortage of creative minds waiting to put their work out into the world. Congratulations to the countless generations of writers who have made the Loom what it is today — who knows what another 100 years of writing will bring?