Nov. 6, 2026
By Alyssa Zelaya
Staff Writer
The Writer’s Room, LHS’ newest student group, meets on the second Tuesday of each month during lunch in the media center.
At the first meeting in September, the eight students in attendance introduced themselves and discussed the genres they hope to explore. The following month, membership jumped to 16 students as senior president Lila Pearce-Jaryno, who founded the group, taught a lesson on spooky short-story writing and gave students time to freewrite.
Pearce said she got the idea for the Writer’s Room after attending a precollege program last summer at Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia.
“Two college students who attend SCAD… started hosting this weekly thing called The Late Night Writers Room, and they were studying dramatic writing,” Pearce said. “I just found it really cool to be able to share stories like that and work on projects together.”
“The atmosphere creates a safe space where people can share their ideas with one another.”
She said she wanted to create a similarly laid-back environment for student writers at LHS.
“We don’t have much for literary arts outside of journalism and poetry slams, and those are more public, so I was interested in creating something more [private] so people could improve their writing and feel more comfortable sharing,” Pearce said.
Sophomores Eva Shrestha and Kapri Del Regno (bottom row) share their Halloween-themed short stories with junior Michael Quintero and sophomore Jade Burke (top row) at a Writer’s Room meeting in the media center on Oct. 13.
Group member junior Michael Quintero, who joined the group to express his creative ideas, said he enjoyed the assignment at last month’s meeting.
“I [wrote] about an infinite library with a creepy vibe and a monster in it,” Quintero said. “I’m really intrigued by the [psychological thriller movie] ‘Backrooms,’ so being able to write a short story that was also scary was really nice.”
Quintero said he enjoys attending the Writer’s Room because of the group members’ uplifting personalities.
“They throw around ideas about what kind of stories they… want to write,” Quintero said. “The atmosphere creates a safe space where people can share their ideas with one another.”
Supervisor of Humanities Ms. Klein, who advises the group, said she believes it is great for students to do extra writing outside of school assignments.
“I just think that anybody writing creatively is wonderful. I think it also will inspire people to write poetry and participate in LHS’ poetry slams,” Klein said.
As a creative writer herself, Klein said she was excited when Pearce asked her to oversee the Writer’s Room.
“I was thrilled to take on this role. I have led poetry writing lessons before, and I’m excited to write with students in different genres,” said Klein.
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