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Cutty Sark Magazine
Surprisingly, not much to do with ships.
ABOUT CUTTY SARK
Cutty Sark is a place for new and inventive forms of writing to flourish. We believe that tact, intention, and execution are just as important as emotion in one’s writing. For a piece to run like a swift clipper ship, its writer must be mindful of how they are writing, what they are writing, and why they chose to write. We like works that are fresh and imaginative, with lots to chew on. At the same time, we also deeply appreciate mundanity. Just because your writing isn’t set on Mars or featuring a murder doesn’t mean it isn’t worth the read. After all, it’s as John Updike said: “Give the mundane its beautiful due.”
WHAT IS A CUTTY SARK?
The famed 19th century British clipper ship Cutty Sark was used in the tea trade between England and China, and the wool trade with Australia. She concluded her reign on the seas as a teaching ship, and was one of the last wooden clippers before steamships took over. She can be seen in all her glory today at the Royal Museum in Greenwich, London.
Though originally chosen because we liked the sound of it, Cutty Sark incidentally became a good metaphor for what this magazine aspires to represent: efficiency, monumentality, and 19th century sailing aesthetics.
Sources: Encyclopedia Brittannica, Royal Museums Greenwich
Image credit: Allan C. Green – This image is available from the Our Collections of the State Library of Victoria under the Accession Number:, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15656203
THE CREW
Ellison Peace
FICTION EDITOR
Ellison Peace, a junior focusing on Creative Writing at The Governor’s School for Arts and Humanities, has spent two years as a reader for the Fine Arts Center affiliated literary magazine, Crashtest, where he has also served as a designer for three issues. Ellison has won several silver keys on the regional level of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, in addition to multiple honorable mentions. He has had short stories published in the ARMES anthology on two separate occasions. His work attempts to convey human emotion through interactions in the natural world with varying levels of success. As such, Ellison enjoys spending time outside in any capacity, whether it be through fishing, hiking, or working. This being said, so long as a piece of fiction is interesting, whether as a result of its syntax, characters, plot, weirdness or otherwise, it will be a prime candidate for publication.
Lillie Markel
NONFICTION EDITOR
Lillie Markel is a Senior at the Fine Arts Center studying Creative Writing. She currently serves as Fiction Editor and a reader for the affiliated magazine Crashtest. Her work has been awarded both Regional Silver Keys and Honorable Mentions in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards as well as an honorable mention from the Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Contest run out of Princeton University, and an honorable mention from the Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest run out of Hollins University. She sees her writing as a way to explore her interests in a more intimate way. Outside of the writing world, she enjoys hiking and exploring her local area. She likes to pretend she’s on a quest even when she certainly is not. She loves reading about other people’s lives and is very excited to see the nonfiction work submitted.
Sun Clark
POETRY EDITOR
Sun Clark is a junior at the South Carolina Governor’s School for Arts and Humanities. They were formerly the Poetry Editor at Crashtest Magazine, an online LitMag run by students of their prior school, the Fine Arts Center. They have received multiple Regional Scholastic Silver Keys and Honorable Mentions throughout the years, as well as a Gold Key the year of which they can’t quite remember and are unwilling to sleuth up. They are also a 2024 YoungArts Winner with Distinction in Spoken Word Poetry, and have been published in the 2024 YoungArts Anthology. Make sure to catch their poetry in the forthcoming issue of Fleeting Daze Magazine, and keep your eyes open for more to come. As far as their position here, they request potential submitees to really focus on creating a finished and polished piece of standalone work. The poem is a cruel mistress–treat her well and treat her often. Your work should occupy a moment of time all its own. Your poem should be glad to take up space.
Patricia K. B. Manley
DESIGN EDITOR, SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
Patricia “Tricia” K. B. Manley is a freshman at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, studying English Education. She is the former design editor for Crashtest Magazine, (crashtestmag.com) an online literary magazine run by creative writing students of the Fine Arts Center in Greenville, SC. She received a Silver Key from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for her essay in 2022, and another Silver Key for her fiction portfolio in 2024. Her poem, “Face Down Wisdom” was part of the June 14, 2024 Ekphrastic Challenge by the Ekphrastic Review. In addition to writing, in her free time, Tricia enjoys going to hockey games with her father, diving into historical research rabbit holes, collecting old family photographs, complimenting your shoes (they really are very nice shoes), sewing historical clothing, building her library, and baking. She will make a great senior citizen one day.
Allison Kim
INTERVIEW CONDUCTOR
Allison Kim is a senior at the Fine Arts Center in Greenville, SC, and serves as a reader for its affiliated literary magazine, Crashtest. Her work has received regional gold and silver keys from Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and an honorable mention from the Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Contest. She has also been published in The Interlochen Review and Cargoes. Creative writing, to her, is the process of reteaching yourself how to see. It has its body in the words, but its core in curious observations. Coincidentally, this enables her to spend her free time reading, watching random video essays, and failing to identify the birds in her backyard, as much as she spends it writing.
Cutty Sark Magazine 