The Ellipsis is an online magazine founded in 2015 by Writopia Lab. We publish thought-provoking, daring, and provocative works from Writopia Lab writers ages 12-19. Along with works recently completed and polished in Writopia Lab workshops, we publish teens’ works recently recognized by the Scholastic Writing Awards. We seek to celebrate the next generation of writers through this interactive platform. Since we are a magazine dedicated to teen writing and we do not censor, there may be mature content.
Check out writopialab.org/snow for snow-poetry, snow-stories, snow-horror, and snow-snark for all ages, all written on January 4th, 2018 during the “Bomb Cyclone” that hit the Eastern Seaboard! Congratulations to the writers, ages 3-20, who spent their day developing these especially reflective, poetic, and sometimes quite dramatic and hysterical wintry pieces. Please note that we do not censor content; instead we mention on top of each piece if we feel there is violent or mature scenes or language.
—Writopia Lab
A Breakfast Call
"“Oh, I got it, sweety,” he says and takes it from her small hand. He tries to grab mine but I quickly clench my fist around it. His eyes meet mine and they are…
Read more
Taxi!
"The faint rumbling in the distance brings my hope up for a second, when I realize it is the R. The one positive thing about missing the train to the biggest job interview of…
Read more
The Temple of the Lost
"Members would be challenged to bring this imbecile of a man on an important journey. Rumor has it that multiple career-making discoveries had been foiled by the sheer stupidity of this man. Francis, however,…
Read more
Why Couldn't They Just Watch Shrek?
"'What are you watching? Are you watching Shrek?' I asked. 'No. We’re watching this thing about zombies,' Nat said. 'What’s zombies?' I asked. 'It’s like when somebody dies, but then they come back to…
Read more
Loose Brick
"Your electric toothbrush vanished from Mom’s medicine cabinet. My kitsch cast was claustrophobic with sharpie. The maple trees out my window turned red. How did the Continental soldiers survive six months of wind whipped…
Read more
Uncomfortable Situations
"When I started playing with kids who actually cared about the sport, I found that having a life outside of activities might be moderately important. That’s saying a lot. I even had to force…
Read more
The Land of Cards
"What makes it special is that when the cards are put in the correct order, it opens a door to a world of unimaginable magic. A world where you can do whatever you want…
Read more
The Better Side
"Today is the first day of high school and I am COMPLETELY TERRIFIED. Not only because I am scared about high school, because I am sure most people are, but I am scared that…
Read more
5,000 Miles 10,000 Words
"It seemed as if everyone in her class at college knew what they wanted to do in the future, and she just felt stuck. Stuck in a routine, stuck in her tiny house, stuck…
Read more
A Teenager Living Through the COVID-19 Pandemic
"Many people around the world are working collectively as a whole to find a vaccine to this terrible virus."
Read more
Thoughts and Conceptions: COVID 19
"My community is located about an hour’s train ride from New York City, the current epicenter of the nation's panic."
Read more
How COVID-19 Has Affected My Life: A Reflection on How It's Going
"Tests are on the computer. Work is on the computer. Everything, it seems, is on the computer."
Read more
Light in the Darkness
"There is an opportunity before us, and we can use this time to change."
Read more
Letter to a Future Generation
"2020 was supposed to be our year - how could it have gotten so bad so soon?"
Read more
What I Hope I Sound Like Through a Gramophone
"we shared an ice cream, by the shore and then i found that i much preferred your presence only in pictures"
Read more
Beautiful Fragility
"Science will pull through, vaccines and hydroxychloroquine and whatnot. Still, our vulnerability began to frighten me; who is really in charge?"
Read more
Silver Linings
"Spending this past month with my sisters has made me realize how lucky I am to have them."
Read more
Pandemics and Poker
"Separation becomes isolation The few feet of space now a void of unknown"
Read more
Waiting for a Bounce
"You wonder if a small part of someone dies when they lose a loved one."
Read more
The Small Branches on the Oak Tree
"Uncertainty aside, we all know what we want to happen. Undeniably, we all want life to go back to what it was before."
Read more
Silver Linings of Self Quarantine
"The situation provides a chance for more challenge, creativity, and strength for more targeted interests."
Read more
A Collection of My Quarantine Feelings
"I broke up with my girlfriend over the phone. I cried for the first time since my basketball season ended."
Read more
And So The Sun
"The world is just like a sun That will not set When will the world Ever rest?"
Read more
COVID-19 Through the Eyes of a Teen
"To kids in New York, it begins with the outdoors. To venture outdoors is sometimes a risk not worth taking."
Read more
The Future
"And we’ll think, Why didn’t we do something? Why didn’t we stop when we knew we should’ve?"
Read more
A New Normal
"After the first few days, the excitement wears off and it's just pure boredom. No highs or lows, just a long, long straight line."
Read more
Carrying On in the Dark and Lonely Hour
"It was an emotional relief whenever I cried, but at the same time a giant tree breaking from the impact of this storm was at the brink of crushing me."
Read more
The Diaries of Privilege
"I've got to switch out my pillows soon though; they're giving me neck pain. I wonder how the homeless are doing."
Read more
A Covid-19 Personal Essay
"Governors and the President both had daily briefings about the virus and how they were working to fight it."
Read more
We're Stronger Together, A Poem
"The more people who work to defeat this, Then the stronger we will be"
Read more
Canceled
"'In times like this, we will abide by our motto to function in disaster and finish in style.'"
Read more
A Message
"This is going to blow over in a month, I thought, just like the flu comes around every winter."
Read more
Carousel Never Stops Turning
"I'm now fully experiencing the meaning of the expression, 'the grass is always greener.'"
Read more
Anti Gravity
"Ariel Phelan is a 13 year old writer and artist living in New York City. She loves to write historical fiction and realistic fiction short stories. When she is not writing, she loves drawing…
Read more
Twenty-20 Come Again
"I was only 3 when the virus hit so I don’t remember much from before everything changed. I don’t remember the virus too well either. The human brain doesn’t start making memories until you’re…
Read more
The Smile of an Idol: Another Story
"H-huh? What? Has my hearing gone bad or something? I glanced to my side, only to see Karin’s eyes filled with hope and determination. Her eyes were the complete opposite of mine, filled with…
Read more
Dear America
"Racism strikes again. Another unarmed black man, we all know as George Floyd, died because of a police officer’s racism. A good man minding his own business wiped from the earth from the say…
Read more
A Loving Banishment
"The man had seen many different worlds in his time, and knew a song from all of them. He walked across the mountain peaks singing one of them. He plucked the banjo with the…
Read more
Smile and Nod
"Two days after Georgie and his mother arrived was the day of the funeral. They had been the first ones there, and the bright sun and cloudless sky were starkly different to the midnight…
Read more
A Prisoner to War
"There was a prisoner lying on the wet ground, covered in mud from the battlefield so that their uniform was indistinguishable from the surroundings. Standing there in my own uniform, spattered with mud myself…
Read more