FERRUM, VA (November 25, 2025) – “Chrysalis Literary and Arts Magazine” hosted its fall publication reveal on November 20, in the Blue Ridge Mountain Room at Ferrum College. Editor-in-chief Scout Lynch announced the prizes for writing, art, and photography, then called on contributors to present their work published in the fall 2025 issue.
“Chrysalis” is both a club and a practicum course for students who submit their own work and earn course credit for compiling, editing, and laying out the magazine each semester. They sponsor coffee houses several times a year for the college community, as well as their public end-of-semester celebration. They encourage students, faculty, and staff to submit original work each semester and to read from their work and discuss visual artwork at the end-of-semester reveal.
Scout Lynch, who graduated as a Boone honors scholar with an English major and minors in history and political science, in the fall commencement ceremony on the day after the Reveal, was editor for the past three years. At the spring 2025 Academic Awards Ceremony, she received the James T. Catlin Citizenship Award from the faculty for the student who has best demonstrated qualities of citizenship and general leadership ability. Lynch said, “It has been an absolute honor to be the editor-in-chief of ‘Chrysalis.’ I am sad that my time is coming to an end, but I am excited about what ‘Chrysalis’ is going to do next.” For her next step, Lynch is applying to graduate school in creative writing.
The prizes for outstanding work in poetry, prose, art, and photography are listed below. All submissions are judged anonymously by professionals who are not current faculty or staff, so the same student can win more than one prize, if they are in different categories.
The presentations started off with exclamations of delight from the recipient and the audience as senior Gabriel Alvarez from Venezuela, who has submitted many contributions to the magazine throughout his seven semesters at the College, won first place for photography. He said, “It was very shocking. It was very surprising. But I am pleased because I have submitted something every semester and I finally won.” Suzie Maines ’21, a teacher in Madrid who majored in Spanish and International Studies at Ferrum, judged the photography. During her college years, a photo she took in Seville was chosen for the cover of the fall 2020 issue of “Chrysalis.”
The cover art, titled Arizona Vibrance, is a colorful painting by Boone Honors scholar Taylor Claassen, who also won second prize in art for another piece titled Vanity. The art judge, Vic Martinez, is a visual artist based in Somerville, Massachusetts, who works with digital collaging, photography, and zines.
Ekaterina Semenova, Семенова Екатерина in Russian, judged the poetry. She is an EdTech English Teacher from Pskov, Russia who had a poem published in “Chrysalis” in both Russian and English when she studied at Ferrum as an exchange student in 2017. She completed her Master’s Degree in Budapest, Hungary, at Eötvös Loránd University.
The prose was judged by Grace Zhu, an MFA candidate in fiction at Emerson College who has editorial experience with several publications.
Professor of English Katherine Grimes reflected on the growth of the magazine, which began in 1970 and was an annual publication before she became the advisor in 2012. Some years earlier it began publishing art as well as writing. She told “The Iron Blade” this semester, “I think that it has some terrific art. I think it has some really good writing. People have worked very hard on it, and we are getting so much material that the magazine has grown over the years from about 20-something pages to 70-something pages. So I’m very pleased with people’s interest in it.”
First Place Prose: Scout Lynch for “What He Was Used To”
First Place Poetry: Mattie Green for “The Lark’s Ballad”
First Place Art: Mattie Green for Mountain Money
First Place Photography: Gabriel Alvarez for Cayo Franciski
Second Place Prose: Mattie Green for “Witch Hazel”
Second Place Poetry: Elizabeth Coleman for “In Loving Memory”
Second Place Art: Taylor Claassen for Vanity
Second Place Photography: Elizabeth Coleman for Soaring over Campus
About the photograph: Students, faculty and staff at the reveal who contributed to the new issue of “Chrysalis,” with editor Scout Lynch in the center in a long dress.
Click here to enjoy digital issues of “Chrysalis.”
Click here for more photos from the fall 2025 Reveal.
Click here for more about Boone Honors scholar Scout Lynch ‘25.
