What is elementia?
elementia is Johnson County Library's award-winning annual literary arts magazine, edited and designed for teens, by teens. Free copies are available at all 14 branches across Johnson County. Anyone from ages 12 to 19 can submit creative works for consideration.
How to Get Published and Key Dates
elementia editors are currently accepting poetry, fiction, nonfiction, graphic stories, photography and illustrations. All submissions are due January 1, 2026.
In Spring of 2026, the elementia committee will meet to select works and begin designing the publication. Print and digital versions of issue xxiii will be available Summer 2026.
Issue xxiii's Theme, Legacy
It is what connects all parts of time: the past into the present and onward, extending through the future. It is an essential component of what we remember from the past, and of what continues to shape the events of history long after we are gone.
Concerning the past, how have lasting traditions impacted you? What ideas have been passed down through the ages, and how will these influences continue to persist into the time ahead? The concept of the future also arrives hand in hand with impermanence. What will remain of us? Will our actions leave a lasting impact on the world?
However, most of all, legacy is a mark of the individual, YOU, who can choose how you want your legacy to be, as legacy is also the bringer of choice and change. Instead of defining what legacy is, it matters more what it can be, what it has the potential to grow into, and that is a power that remains with you, our powerful teen voices.
Selected elementia Works
- Taking My Sunshine Piece by Piece by Emily Weldon
- Ladoos by Anonymous
- A Poem Dedicated to the Rituals of Women by Isabella Ahearn
- I Sit Here and Scroll by Gavin Graham
- Legacy by Chloe Schoenfeld
- Suffocating Relief by Lila Ahitov
- Mona Lisa of a Mistake by Zoie Tran
Inspiration
Books we love that connect to the elementia teen literary magazine theme of Legacy - what we remember from the past, what continues to shape history after we are gone, and what each individual can choose for their own legacy. Teen writers, if these books inspire, you are invited to submit your original writing and art that connects to Legacy at jocolibrary.org/elementia by January 1, 2026.
This promotional material is also available as a Flipbook and in PDF form.