What’s in a Landscape?

Wayne Wild

Since the spring of 2017, I have been developing a Liberal Arts course that I call, “Interior and Exterior Landscapes: Identity and Expression.” I added the “Identity and Expression” at the urging of my students, who thoroughly enjoyed the discoveries…

A Comic’s Relief

Chloe Southern

“Do you have any idea how much weed I smoke with your mom?”
The room breaks into laughter. Will basks in his punchline, soaking up the spotlight. He saunters across the stage smiling, his eyes down, as if his next…

Student Short Story Contest Winners

History Of My Heart: Opening and Closing Passages

Robert Pinsky

One Christmastime Fats Waller in a fur coat
Rolled beaming from a taxicab with two pretty girls
Each at an arm as he led them in a thick downy snowfall ...

Promise Me You’ll Hide a Part of Yourself

Darcy Reeder

When we kissed, her face was unimaginably soft. She had slate gray eyes, like some sort of magical creature. She’d slide her hand slowly up my skirt, while I taught her to cook, to bake, to trust. She showed me…

Seeking Thought Itself

Bryce Perry

What do we mean when we say, “Humans were gifted the ability to think.”? Thinking- the active occupation of the conscious mind, is supposedly the catalytic quality which separated man from animal millions of years ago. When Homo-sapiens began…

Sri Aurobindo & Me

Casey Williams

Most philosophers study and focus on concepts that revolve around the mind without the body, and stress the importance of strengthening it as much as you can to become one with yourself and your surroundings. Sri Aurobindo thinks a bit…

First Prize: “Stateless”

Mina Alali

“June 20, 2016,” Alborz recites aloud as he scribbles on the clipboard. “Gloria’s results were negative; cancer treatment is going well. Keep taking nine micrograms of Denileukin Diftitox daily.”

Second Prize: “Jolene”

Rebecca Wright

I still remember the smile on Baby’s face when I gave her my granddaddy’s guitar. Gap-toothed, too wide, and brighter than a pail full of sunshine. Mama clucked at me when I came home empty-handed. “Delly, you’re a sweet thing,”...

Joint Third Prize: “The Mask Maker”

Cole Andrade

There lived a great spider that made the finest masks in the world. Inside the spider’s cave were hundreds of masks on hundreds of shelves. Each mask was a masterpiece, decorated to perfection with paints, ribbons, jewels and gems. ...