First year teacher Jane Hawley is San Luis Obispo High School’s newest member to the English Department. Along with teaching Advanced Placement Language and Composition to SLOHS students, Hawley is also an active author.

“As a writer, you’re always thinking of how everything around you could end up being a story, and you just take a little piece of it and turn it into a bigger thing,” said Hawley.

Hawley first published while studying creative writing in graduate school. She has written short stories and graphic novels online. Currently, she is working on a novel and a young adult novel to publish in the future.

Much of Hawley’s writing inspiration comes from her love of reading, favorite authors, new works of writing, history, and the news. Hawley’s short story “The Suitcases of San León” is based on the drug war in Mexico, and its beginnings was sparked by an article from The Washington Post. The article reported that people on buses went missing due to cartel hijackers and only the suitcases of victims remained. Inspired by the article, Hawley’s story imagines the workers at the bus stations trying to hold and hide the suitcases in attempts to return them to family members.

Hawley encourages aspiring publishers at SLOHS to think of writing as a place where you show what you care about and know that storytelling isn’t just for entertaining, but it’s about making a difference.

“I would say for students to follow what they’re passionate about and be persistent because writing is a really hard field; there are a lot of people who do it and compete at it, but it’s important that people keep going,” said Hawley.

Students with a heart for writing can come to Hawley’s creative writing club that meets on Tuesdays at lunch in room 207.