The Altamont School’s reputation for its writing curriculum has produced numerous published authors—including Pulitzer Prize winner Diane McWhorter. Many of these writers began their careers in our school literary journals, now affectionately called The Dragon. Though it has undergone many transformations, The Dragon remains one of Altamont’s oldest literary traditions. A few years after the merger of Birmingham University School and The Brooke Hill School in 1975, students rebranded The Quill and Scroll and created The Dragon’s Tooth in 1978. The 1978 edition represented students from the upper school and featured thirty-three entries of poetry and fictional short stories. Many of the authors in that inaugural edition went on to pursue careers in creative writing, including Altamont alum Katherine Clark, author of My Exaggerated Life and The Headmaster’s Darlings. Concurrently, in homage to a lower school publication called The Praddle, The Dragon’s Toe was created to include middle school literature, and for over two decades both The Dragon’s Tooth and The Dragon’s Toe celebrated a broad range of student creativity from a variety of mediums. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity to combine both student-based publications into one, creating a unanimous volume of student works. The Dragon now includes an assortment of poetry, narratives, visual art, photography, sculpture, and more. Please explore the extensive collection of creative works that Altamont students have created and join us in celebrating the next generation of artists!
Below, you can find each year's publication, starting with the most recent. Simply click a year to see its contents.