Cometh now before ye, thine humble servant and olde man of The Echo, I John Eric Vona, beseech...:coughcough:... yikes, sorry, had an Old English frog in my throat. Let me try that again.

Listen up, nerds! As the proud advisor of The Echo, I'm going to kick off the new year with a look back at last year's best. I am constantly gushing over how amazing this group of young editors is. Last year's class also knocked my socks off, and it feels like we've really hit our stride as an organization. A huge thanks to Mattingly Alexander Gerasimovich, who stepped down after two terms as board president. His unique and unwavering style of leadership brought us from a simple high school club all the way to an international literati. If there's an advisor picks category for favorite person, it goes to him, but I also want to shout out the entire staff from Volume XIV and their editor, Mother Isaac, who made the exceptional look easy. The culture they fostered endures in this year's staff.

Without further ado, in case you missed them and want to read something awesome, here are my personal fav's from 2025.

Fav Staff Blog

One of this year's editors, Alexis Barr, is kind, hardworking, has a great eye for good writing, and is quick to praise and hard to bother. Her blogs are always among my favorites. She's hilarious and weird and thus her writing is hilarious and weird. This one had me rolling.

How to Crush Your Hero (With a Piano. Violently.)
Slapstick comedy has many uses, especially when it comes to traumatizing your character.
The Echo Teen Art & Lit MagAlexis Barr

Fav Fiction

If danger is a key ingredient for a good story and I'm pretty sure it is, Eunsoo Lee had a heavy hand when measuring. Not only are both the characters in horrific danger, this is a story that feels dangerous to read and for that reason the staff couldn't resist publishing it.

Hunger
A man shares a meal with a boy; the world is eat or be eaten.
The Echo Teen Art & Lit MagEunsoo Lee

Fav Poem

McGregor's short poem does everything a poem should. It packs in so much emotion with such an economy of language. In two stanzas, we navigate the complexity of a relationship that can't be mapped. We published a lot of great poetry this last year, so to say this is my favorite really means something.

Poem From a History Notebook
The notebook in my heart bears your name and reads of beautiful places and past times, destroyed.
The Echo Teen Art & Lit MagSophia McGregor

Fav Art

We were on the hunt, almost desperate, for a cover that could represent the high quality of work contained within Volume XIV. Then Luna Corbett dropped this gem in our inbox. This is everything every Echo cover should be and one of my favorite pieces of art not just of 2025, but of the first fourteen years of our publication. Just... just look at it!

The Complete Volume XIV is Out Now!!!
In a land far, far away a magazine revealed three themes: Folklore and Fairytales, Murphy’s Law, and Bittersweet. In this issue, The Echo has compiled the fantastical, the tragic, and the complicated into a single magazine. Do not fret! Our magazine does not summon portals into your nightmares, daydreams,
The Echo Teen Art & Lit MagEcho Submissions