When it comes to quality literary content, The Flame burns bright at Jim Thorpe.

Jim Thorpe Area High School’s student-helmed magazine recently earned two distinctions from the American Scholastic Press Association.

The magazine garnered First Place with Merit and Most Outstanding High School Literary-Art Magazine, along with a recommendation for highest honor from the National Council of Teachers of English.

Printed annually, The Flame features a selection of student-created content including personal essays, creative writing and original art and photography.

“We start during the winter, getting all of the stories together. Then, we assign people with the stories, if they can draw a picture or take a photograph that can go along with it. Once they are received, we start laying it out on InDesign. All of our stories are broken up by sections — college essays, fiction, personal narratives,” layout editor Jackie Condly said.

Trudy Miller, who serves as a sort of editor-in-chief, allows the students the free range they need to put the publication together, though she does play an integral part in curating the content.

“I’m just the guide by the side. I help organize their meetings, and I pick the writing that goes in. Most of it comes from my creative writing course, which we’re so lucky to have, because we’re getting such high-level writing,” she said.

“I pick what I call ‘benchmark essays,’ and those are the pieces that I felt were the best, and they are earmarked for The Flame. Think about that book that you couldn’t put down, that you couldn’t stop reading, that you read again because you enjoy it so much.”

Once the written content is ready, the art staff goes to work finding the perfect visual element to elevate the printed word.

“It’s fun, seeing what you can come up with, and applying your own kind of style to it. Putting your own 2 cents in,” student Julienne Pheiffer said.

Student Kyra Popovitz said that finding the right visual accompaniment was sometimes challenging, especially with a busy schedule.

“It was very time-management based. Not only having school, but having a job after school, I never had time to sit down outside of art class. It took me two to three days to even do one painting,” she said.

Condly is always on task with elements of layout, which can be tricky on occasion when she has to wait on an element of the story.

“When you’re laying it out, it’s hard when you don’t have all the artwork at first, but you don’t have the stories. When I’m putting artwork in here, I have to kind of figure where I want to place it first so I can see how much text is going to fit on the page,” she said.

Thanks to the dedication of the staff, the magazine has routinely performed well, though the recent recognition makes Miller especially proud of her little team.

“To be a part of this, it’s like giving birth to a child,” Miller said.

“It is a child of mine, they are children of mine. The writing that they do is incredible,” she said.

“I have to look again and see that these are teenagers, not professional writers. To put something like this together, it’s truly amazing that they do this. It’s all them.”

Condly and the staff already have their eyes set on next year’s competitions, and they are looking to not only meet, but exceed their past performance.

“We were all really proud to place so high,” Condly said.

“In the past, we have received other awards, but this is the first time we’ve been recommended for the highest award. This year, we’re looking to repeat that, and possibly win.”