The Payton Art and Literature Magazine is the official art and literature publication of Walter Payton College Preparatory High School. Founded by high school students in Chicago, Illinois, PALM has been bringing the work of student artists and writers to life for over a decade.

Any Payton student can submit artworks or literature to PALM’s zines and final magazines here. Staff applications open every fall.

PALM maintains a staff of 25-30 student editors and produces several themed digital zines and a final printed magazine annually.

Emily Cheng

Cyriana Lara

Zofia Poczatek

Kallie Wang

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

SHE • HER / Senior
Emily takes way too many photos of anything and everything (which becomes a real nuisance when the time comes to sort through all of them). She loves long airplane rides but absolutely hates olives. She is known for her weird habit of running for fun and is constantly trying to convince her friends to join cross country and track.
SHE • HER / Senior
Cyriana (a.k.a. Cyri) enjoys trying new things and exploring new places, fan of all that is aesthetically pleasing. Her fascination with art, running and dance is only matched by her love of animals, architecture and engineering.
SHE • HER / Senior
Zofia has been expressing herself through art her entire life, often drawing inspiration from the media she consumes. She enjoys watching films (especially period dramas), thrift shopping, and reading. You also might find her listening to classical music in her room or obsessing over her love for the autumn season. Lastly, she cannot seem to make it through the day without a nice cup of coffee!
SHE • HER / Senior
Kallie has been accumulating sketchbooks of her drawings ever since she was little. She loves to experiment with various mediums, but nowadays, she creates most of her art digitally. Outside of art, she also loves mathematics, STEM, listening to music, and badminton!

Editors-in-Training

Sophia Borgula

SHE • HER
Sophia cannot go anywhere without stopping to take a photo. She loves photography, all things vintage, plants and swimming in lakes- all with a note of good music always playing in the background.
Camille Kejo

SHE • HER
Camille is a junior who has always loved to draw and create portraits of others. She usually works in pencil and paint, but really wants to expand her range through new materials! Outside of visual art, she loves listening to music, singing, crime TV, math, and scrolling through Pinterest!

Senior Staff

Cilia Conley

SHE • HER
Cilia is an all-around creative, with a love for 2D/3D art, music, fashion and literature. You might catch her ranting about her favorite ghibli movies, volleyball, or how badly she wants to learn the drums (it’s not gonna happen anytime soon).
Miles Jung

HE • HIM
miles is a senior at payton and these are his favorite horse jokes
a horse walks into a bar. the bartender asks, "why the long face?"
the pony with a sore throat asked for a glass of water. it was a little horse
the horse next door is my neigh bor
Ivan Outkine

HE • HIM
Ivan Outkine is a senior who occasionally makes 3D art. In middle school, he spent a lot of time making various animations and still renders, but unfortunatley upon entering high school, his art drive became less strong due to other priorties. Now with senioritis on the horizon, he hopes to regain his drive in creating 3D art and contributing it to PALM.
Cherry Ng

SHE • HER
Cherry loves drawing and creating pieces of art. Her favorite forms of art are music, photography, and film.
Lesly Martinez

THEY • THEM
Lesly is currently a senior at Payton who enjoys creating both digital and traditional art, usually inspired by whichever piece of media they're currently interested in. Their one true wish is to eventually become a house cat that does nothing but look outside the window.
Morgan Montoya

SHE • HER
Morgan is a poet who writes about family, feminism, and love. Outside of poetry, she likes to play soccer, read philosophy, and take pictures of the sky.
Rohan Sonn

HE • HIM
Rohan has always been fascinated with stories, especially in books, film, television, and comics. He particularly enjoys stories that explore the human condition. Recently, he has begun writing short stories and screenplays. In his free time, you can also find him listening to music, working out, dog walking, and biking on the lakefront.
Mikey Oquendo

HE • HIM
Mikey is a senior at WPCP, and enjoys drawing and painting for PALM's magazines. He likes to spend his free time bleach painting, playing guitar, doing martial arts, or sometimes all three. Here is a joke for you: What does it take to make an octopus laugh? Ten tickles.

Junior Staff

Camila Alvarado

SHE • HER
Camila is a junior and Payton and she loves anything creative and artsy! She paints and draws and works with all mediums, she also enjoyed writing poetry and reading
Palmer Norman

SHE • HER
Palmer loves webcomics, and is a big fan of music: enjoying classical, pop, hip-hop, and R n B. She loves drawing, and painting! And recently she has become very interested in photography.
Naomi Morelos

SHE • HER
Naomi can often be found watching sunsets, listening to all kinds of music, and playing Chopin on the piano. In her free time, she loves to swim, bake, and write poetry about the people and experiences she loves.
Frances Dinh

SHE • HER
Frances is a junior at Payton and she loves crafting and creating art whenever she can! She works with all mediums but right now her favorites are paper mache and block carving! Outside of art she enjoys taking walks, hanging out with friends, and playing with her pets!

Sophomore Staff

Anna Buckley

SHE • HER
Anna loves drawing using bright pencils, markers, and the occasional acrylic piece. She also enjoys writing poetry and frequents Payton’s Bombic Sans poetry team. Her favorite color is the sunset and she is an avid soup enjoyer.
Sabrina Del Angel

SHE • THEY
sabrina is an artist who focuses on writing poems that aim to remind the reader of the magical in the world that is often forgotten. she likes to collect good luck charms, research white-tailed deer, and make playlists.
Kay Koehlinger-Branch

ANY PRONOUNS
Kay works in both digital and traditional art, favoring the latter. Kay's favorite music artists are Joost Klein and Ski Aggu who are really interesting people you should check out if you have time 🤔🤔.
Jocelyn Lin

SHE • HER
Jocelyn is a sophomore who plays the violin, badminton, and likes fish. Her favorite fish are manta rays.
Jeremias Ocampo

HE • HIM
Jeremias has always crafted stories in his mind. As of recently, he's written them down, and fleshed out those stories. He tries to write stories with meaning that anyone can relate to. Jeremias wants his stories to be memorable.
Ruby Pfetcher

SHE • HER
ruby's been making art since before she could spell her own name. she enjoys making portraits of the human figure, as well as objects from nature. through art, her ultimate goal is to learn more about herself and the world around her.
Louisa Womac

SHE • HER
louisa is an... ingenious creative with a passion for photography and drawing ! louisa takes up her free time by collecting plushies , listening to banger music , eating apples + ice cream , and fawning over the girl group twice :33
Lana Zoraja

SHE • HER
Lana loves listening to music and playing the drums. She has a short attention span but still watches hour long video essays. Lana values sleep over anything so she’ll often procrastinate to nap. She is very proud of her extensive CD and comic book collection.
AnnaBelle Burleson

SHE • HER
AnnaBelle is a 14 year old poet, author and songwriter who loves everything that is art, music and creation! She often participates in poetry competitions, including LTAB, and is currently working on publishing her first book. In her spare time, AnnaBelle likes to visit museums, listen to jazz, and learn languages. Fun fact: She can speak English, French, Russian, Georgian and is currently learning Mandarin!
Camilo Alatorre

HE • HIM
Camilo has been passionate about photography ever since his Dad allowed him to borrow his camera. His favorite thing about art is the ability to express oneself in beautiful forms that others can interpret differently depending on their life experiences.
Lio Friedman

HE • HIM
Lio is an author and musician. He enjoys writing poems and songs that reflect his feelings and experiences. In his free time, Lio likes to watch sports, hang out with friends, listen to music, and spend time with his nephew.

Freshmen Staff

Michelle Yang

SHE • HER
Michelle is a freshman who works with traditional art mediums and is currently learning how to work with paint. She likes kpop, manhuas/webcomics, her cat, and hopes to learn a lot from the other staff :)
Olivia Lee

SHE • HER
Olivia loves drawing, listening to music, decorating everything that she own with stickers, and sleeping. Her favorite movie is howl's moving castle and her favorite band is aespa!