MB’s Literary Magazine Omnia Wins NCTE Award

MB’s Literary Magazine Omnia has been recognized by the National Council for the Teaching of English NCTE as a First Class literary magazine, the highest honor for their REALM program. Run and edited by students, the Omnia presents the writing, artwork, and photography composed and designed entirely by Upper School MB students.

The REALM, or Recognizing Excellence in Art and Literary Magazines, program publicly recognizes excellent literary magazines produced by students with the support of their teachers. REALM is designed to encourage all schools to develop literary magazines that celebrate the art and craft of writing. Schools in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, US territories, Canada, and American schools abroad are eligible to nominate magazines.

This year, schools in 42 states and five countries nominated 262 student magazines. Magazines from middle school, high school, and higher education were welcomed for the 2022 contest. Only 38 magazines were awarded the contest’s highest distinction, REALM First Class. This is the first time Moses Brown’s Omnia has been submitted for this award.

The co-curricular group is advised by US English Teacher Wilson Taylor, and the artwork for this edition was advised by former art teacher Kristin Street. In the introduction of the magazine, Miles Kaufman ’22 and Lourdes Nicolella ’22 expressed their gratitude.

“We would like to thank Wilson Taylor, Kristin Street, the editorial team, and all our contributors for working together to create a beautiful expression of community in the shape of this magazine.”

Wilson commented on this notable achievement. “Omnia’s national distinction is a true honor for Moses Brown and for our writers and artists, as well as for our committed editorial team. We were thrilled to receive such strong work, with impressive range and depth, from our students, and I hope each artist who contributed to Omnia feels celebrated. This recognition also honors the rich artistic and literary culture that flourishes at MB, and I hope that this accolade is felt widely through the school community and that we continue to appreciate and celebrate our strong commitment to and culture of the arts.”

“I am also excited to see how this recognition inspires even more student writers and artists to explore their imaginations and experiment with their crafts in order to further enrich Omnia and the broader school culture,” he continued. “This is an exciting day for Omnia and for the arts at Moses Brown!”

Click here to view a few selections from the recent winning edition of Omnia

Featured image by Gabe H. ’24