Historically, Lehmann’s Way has been Dublin School’s student literary magazine. Further digging turns up The Scavenger, the school’s original literary mag., which because there was no Advancement Office in 1948 doubled as the school magazine. In 1948, The Scavenger was celebrating its tenth year of publication; the least-old copy I can find is dated 1954 (how long did The Scavenger run for?). Best I can tell, The Compass brought in the new millennium as a more reportage heavy publication that also featured creative works. Further excavation reveals the strata of Paradox, which ran for at least one year when Sara Schultz ’10 was a student. No doubt there are others along the way.

And so but the point is Dublin students have been making sense of the world through extracurricular writing since the very beginning. I don’t know if it was COVID or what, but there’s been a lit. mag. lacuna for a few years now. Students have still been writing and submitting to the Scholastic Writing Contest through this time, but there’s been no school sponsored publication dedicated to showcasing their work. And also, writing for competitive stakes (Scholastic Awards, for instance) and writing for the love of creative expression are two different things, psychically.

This year, a group of students has taken it upon themselves to reboot the student literary magazine. Departing from Lehmann’s Way, they decided upon The Moxie Can for the title of their publication.

Thea O. ‘26 sits as editor-in-chief of The Moxie Can for this maiden publication cycle. She shared they have just completed the first round of submissions, which received an overwhelmingly positive response from the student body, bringing in a literary magazine’s worth of content ranging from poetry, short fiction, and also inclusive of the visual arts. 

“I was surprised by how much interest I got when I originally announced the idea. I immediately got so many submissions and it was heartwarming. It gave you some confidence like wow, people actually do care. It's inspiring. It makes me want to write more.”

Emily Giangiulio (English), who knows a thing or two about publishing creative writing, is onboard as faculty advisor to The Moxie Can, mentoring and supporting students through the writing / publication process.

Expect to see the first edition of The Moxie Can in early May. Pending a smooth printing process, copies should be available during Mayfair Weekend. If you won’t be on campus then and are interested in receiving a copy, reach out to us at the Quad and we’ll try to sort out a mailing list.