The Last Birds
The birds are gone, Elliot thought idly, watching the gray deadness above. He couldn’t recall when, exactly, he’d stopped seeing them, only that they must’ve disappeared like the rest of the world: fading into the depths of consciousness until they became mere dreams. If he closed his eyes now he could escape to where the…
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The Contributors
This is a story about Wendell. Wendell is a businessman located on the corner of the West End’s drive-through Starbucks. His hours are 7am to 6pm almost every day. Since establishing his small enterprise in March 2020, he has become beloved by locals who pass him in his folding chair with his backpack full of…
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It Begins with the Idea
by Abigail Forsythe, Poetry Staff Since I made the decision to major in film, I’ve been reading up on the best strategies for getting my foot into the door of the industry. Of course, I also had to pick one of the most difficult career paths to be successful in: screenwriting. Now, if you Google…
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Warm Revisits
by Lilly Zheng, Layout Staff I thought I knew Beijing well. The hot weather. The constant scent of car exhaust. The short breaths. The clogged lungs. I used to walk the familiar paths around my grandparents’ apartment complex, looking down along the river bank at the trash floating in the water. Sometimes, I’d even see…
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Don’t Tell Anyone You Read This
by Lauren Maresca, Poetry Staff On an episode of Book Riot (a great podcast all about book news, highly recommend), one of the co-hosts, Rebecca Joines Schinsky, presented the challenge to read a book and not tell anyone about it. To read a book and keep it a secret. She clarified not only to not…
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Eric Ponce’s Top 25 Albums of 2020
by Eric Ponce, Prose Staff Oh boy another top 25 end-of-year list and another person using self-deprecation to introduce their pretentious aesthetic preferences in listicle form. Reviews are so last millennium but music is the only good thing that happens anymore so here are some records that moved me this year. Just to save some…
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An Estimation of a Young Man
by James Blair, Prose Staff It’s odd to see yourself expressed through someone else’s eyes. So rarely do we scrutinize ourselves in our entireties: we are so often focused on a singular aspect—an outsized nose, unruly eyebrows—that when somebody reconstructs us for our own subjective viewing, we are jarred to see what they emphasize and…
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Playlists to Read to
by Thanvi Dola, Prose Staff Everyone reads differently. Maybe you’re the type to work through a book for weeks, chewing on each word and turn of phrase ad nauseum. Or perhaps you like to inhale your reads, turning pages until the sun rises over their edges. Maybe you prefer reading Stephen King on a stormy…
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4 Love Stories, Summer 2020
by Eric Ponce, Prose Staff, Class of 2022 Rapture David Estrella. Mexican-Jewish, really wonderful cultural intersection, with the different attitudes of both peoples—mix of confused infatuation with and crippling fear of death, a veiny, gimcrack pride, a litany of complexes, not all of them detrimental to his well-being and general success, a demonstratively suppressed sexuality—and…
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The Broadest Possible Book Recommendation List!
By Grace Billman, Layout Editor Here it is: Books you read as a kid! As “adults,” we’re constantly recommended books to further our learning and personal growth and to expand our understanding of some hot button issue – which is great! Except when it’s exhausting. Sometimes, you don’t want your reading to feel like more…
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