Thank you for choosing to read our publication and engage with the literary works that form this year's theme, “The Robotic Hand.” It has been a blessing to work with my colleagues to create a publication of talented student writers and artists. Missing from the family photo album is a photo of the photo taken in the lace of that cool night, in evidence like my stained hands beside me, gilded and red from wringing out pigeons that didn't deserve it.
SIMPLON PASS OF THE ALPS Justin.. Barisich
POEM WRITTEN WHILE BILLY COLLINS LECTURES
DOUGH
THE SMALLEST PERSON IN THE WORLD
AA 24153 Travis Cohen
After Dad convinced Mom to let me sit in the front seat of the car, we drove west. So I had wondered why Bobby, who always came to school smelling like the mulch in Mom's rose bushes outside, wasn't the coolest kid in town.
OLD SMOKE James Akers
At the end of the food chain, I saw Bobby take a rusty spoon to the face of the smallest person in the world. I looked from the fluted orange glass of the bottle, to the largest spoon, back to the bottle.
RADIO FLYER Jake Skinner
MONDAYS WITH JASMINE Catherine Gans
TONG AND CULL
BEAK AND WING Nicole Burdakin
ACACIA PERSPECTIVE Annie Olson
The smell of the swamp was bad and Addie pulled the collar of her cardigan over her nose. His face reminded Addie of the topographical maps that covered most of their base camp.
SPRING, 2010 Yeon-Sil Yi
Addie realized that it wasn't the swamp, but the puffy wings of all the insects that were shining as they hovered above the surface. Addie and Tom no longer had to worry about walking in the morning - now the local council had to be involved and it would be their job.
SLEEP
RED PEPPERS Lauren Jopling
ACCIDENTAL ASSUMPTIONS Anjali Sood
IN MEMORY OF MY GRANDFATHER,
MANUEL WEINSTOCK Adam Bieber
D. OCTOBER 2011)
LAKE SISSABAGAMA Murphy Byrne
Now Sabbath still has her gaiety and her tasty soup, for presence is not dependent on a body: you are remembered in the Hebrew rivers of melodies with an oar; you speak out. Soon many deadly thoughts began their way into the turbulent salts of my daily life, into questions of ambitious time. But the fact that I know cannot be found in the waves of beliefs that lie deep underground, beneath the slabs of our crystal doors.
ENERGY
IN THE NIGHT Lily Bienstock
As Tee took one last slow drag on his cigarette, his eyes never left Will's face. Take it easy, we're on our way to Molotov now.” Tee slammed the phone shut and put it back in his pocket. Good God,” she said, “where the hell have you two been?” She jumped off the porch like a dry lynx.
Wrapping her arms around her, she put her lips to Will's ear and said, "You'll tell me about it later." She smelled of gin and vanilla. Well,' said Willa, 'it looks like we're not wanted here.'
SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY Travis Cohen
We are completely self-sufficient, thank you.” She gave Willa's hand a wet kiss, keeping her eyes on Tee. So you ordered us drinks?” He put his hand on Meena's waist just as Tee had put his hand on Willa's. Let's go trick-or-treating, shall we?” She pulled Geoff's hand and stood up.
Want to climb one of those crappy hikes on the 5th?” He touched his knee to hers. Many girls have eyes like the ocean", he said, "but only your eyes are like mirrors".
THE PANCAKE ROCKS Kyle Broach
He just kissed the corner of her mouth, right on the tip of her lips and her cheek. It would be so easy to lace her fingers in his hair, to bring his mouth to hers. Tee,” Willa said, “I don't think you want me.” Her words were more form than sound.
She ran across the roof, not on the tips of her toes, but on the flats of her feet.
LIVING ALONE Robert Williams
MAN IN CITY Andri Alexandrou
BIRD GUN
Andrew thought about this and started working on lead BBs that they shared and kept under James' bed. So were we,” he said, but his brother continued walking, showing no sign of having heard. He looked down at his feet and took long steps into the gaps where the snow was already pressed against the tread of his brother's sneakers.
His brother was fat and small and he knew then, as he had always known, that it was his job to protect him. James looked back to where they had come from, but he could no longer see the goose.
IF TAYLOR WERE A BUTTERFLY Ashley Oswald
He had taught them to break it in half to see if it was wet or dry in the middle and if it was good for catching fire. He removed a handful of snow from the log, put the snow in the bag and twisted it and tied it. He bent down, picked up a pile of snow between his legs and put the snow in his bag.
Neither of them would ever forget that moment as long as they lived - there, sitting side by side in the quiet forest, they each felt completely alone. They sat there like that and the shadows of the trees made the white snow look gray where it didn't sparkle in the sunlight.
A HISTORIC LAUGH Katherine Wehlage
Andrew took another cautious step forward: he heard the water rushing and the snow crunching under his feet, but the bird still wasn't startled. Andrew let out a cry of excitement as he ran forward and saw the thick, heavy blobs of crimson blood that trailed behind the bird and stained the clean white snow. Only later would he understand that the shot was a miracle; a BB would never have pierced the bird's chest.
He saw the inflamed hole in the bird's neck, no bigger than his pinky fingernail, and he saw the bloody snow below. Then he stood up, stepped on the bird's neck, pressed the barrel of the gun into the fleshy part of the head just below the open eye, and fired.
RAPPELLING Murphy Byrne
SOLDIER’S GHOST Alexandra Englis
THANKSGIVING PIES Catherine Gans
AFTER BERRYMAN
WAKEFULNESS Rachel Lundberg
ESCALATOR Lauren Jopling
The little creature, less than two inches long, rested easily in the palm of my hand. She is the artist in the family and the way she talks has always been funny to me. Dr. Giltner, I was wondering if you…” He trailed off as he noticed me staring blankly at the floor and the battered fetus draped over him.
Organs should be removed one block at a time, not en masse." He studied my face, searching for a sign of recognition. There were people in the room, just individual frames of movement at the edges of the scratchy projection I called my vision.
MARLBORO MENTHOLS Travis Cohen
NIGHT ON THE ROOF OF A BUILDING
NAGASAKI Lily Bienstock
SPRING, 2011 Yeon-Sil Yi
INTIMATE PROPERTY Anjali Sood
Dad was still staring in the direction of the kitchen when he threw his fist in the air, yelling, “To hell with your mother's pies. Her curls - curled by the heat of the oven - slipped from behind the door frame. I wanted her to feel the movement of my eyes as I drew a red letter on the bronze expanse of her chest.
Frank,' she said, 'your father loves you.' Then she walked up the stairs without looking back; her calves tensed with every step. Sometimes I turned up the volume to drown out the sound of Dad and Caitlin whispering on the living room couch.
OUT SOUTH
BEYOND THE FENCES Travis Cohen
DO YOU THINK T HAT DEATH COULD POSSIBLY BE A BOAT
THE ARCHITECT
But even God's Architect could not shape this genuflection, and even Güell's protection could not comfort him. Millions of people, religious or otherwise, flock to the Barcelona skyline, only to be willingly dwarfed by the grandeur of his vision.
BIRTH OF A SPIRITUALIST Thomas McLaughlin
STAR IN THE SAND Kyle Broach
GIRL WITH A SCARF Lauren Jopling
THE SUN RISEN Alexandra Rigl
LA VIE EN ROSE Liz Furlow
PAPER BAGS Lexsa Campbell
Like pigs looking for truffles in the mud, Jimmy hunts whores in New Orleans. Jimmy laughs and continues to do so, aiming one punch around his kidneys and the other into the boy's face. Then he kicks his boot back and places another, right into the boy's groin.
We hear a door slam and a large woman comes running out of her house, her loose breasts bouncing under her mother, her arms waving in the air, screaming at us. I was getting worried about you.” She is leaning on one of the garden chairs with a plastic carnival cup in one hand and a book in the other.
WESTERN SUNSET Kyle Broach
He steps outside onto the sidewalk and he jumps into the front seat and slams the door. We wait while the traffic rushes by us and then I ask him what is the matter. He has a thick nose and the tiniest hint of a second chin, but there they are together, smiling.
In the car, Jimmy tells me about the research he has been doing for the past two weeks. He has seen the saxophone, shining gold in the sunlight, and the man's cheeks blowing air into the lungs of the pipe, his fingers pressing the buttons, squeezing the sounds.
A PACKAGE ARRIVED IN THE MAIL
ANTS
The body in its last solitude lies in a furious repose, tangled in dust and sky, the currents of the rivers tossing it to and fro. In his younger years, the body danced away from its counterpart—the impossibility of death illuminating his face and hands like a streetlight creates a halo over embracing strangers. Before the flood, the water lifted the limbs and carried them from both the beginning and the end, suspended alike between birth and the lover of the body – the temptress of time pressed closer, arms outstretched as a plea to be reborn.
The body surrenders to such power, offers the grace of its dance and the radiance of its face - a bargain for many years of extraordinary use. The currency of the last days of life is silence, that furious rest that paralyzes the legs, stitches the eyes and binds the body to memories that have been glorified and then forgotten.
TO BE IN LONDON TOWN James Akers
BROTHERHOOD Annie Olson
CREATION Jeremy Stevens
Andri Alexandrou is currently a senior in the College of Arts &
James Akers is a freshman from Memphis, TN studying Human and Organizational Development and Economics
Justin Barisich is a rising son of New Orleans, the half-Croatian middle child of a commercial fisherman, a super-senior, an educa-
Adam Bieber was born and raised in Long Island, New York
Lily Bienstock is a Creative Writing major and Psychology mi- nor. Her favorite authors are William Faulkner and Neil Gaiman
Travis Cohen as an artist and as a person I am simply interested in exploring and expressing the real, in all its beauty and all its tragedy.
Travis Cohen as an artist and as a human being, I’m simply interested in exploring the real, in all its beauty and all its tragedy, and expressing that
Catherine Gans is a sophomore from New York Ciy majoring in French and Political Science. She loves poetry and yoga
Elizabeth King is a first year student hoping to major in neuroscience
Elise Lasko is a junior English major from Memphis, TN, concentrating in the art of poetry. She has an affinity for publishing and the visual arts and fulfills these passions as an intern for Nashville Arts Magazine and as managing editor of the Vanderbilt Review.
Rachel Lundberg lives on an elk and deer farm in Paducah, KY
Nate Marshall is the star of the award winning full-length documentary “Louder Than A Bomb” and has been featured on
I am very happy to be selected for this because recently I have been working on the road to stay in the art industry.
Annie Olson is a sophomore student and Public Policy Studies major
Ashley Oswald is a South Floridian who plays soccer and loves sushi
Allyson Patterson is a freshman from Memphis, TN and has no idea what she is doing with her life but strives to always allow her ardent love
Jeremy Stevens is a sophomore English major in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is still coming to terms with the thought that Jesus is a
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Chris Carroll, Matt Radford, Paige Clancy, and Matt Breaux, for making yourselves available, answering questions, and offering
Catherine Gans, my layout editor, for your continued dedication to the publication, your enthusiasm about layout design, and your
Elise Lasko, my managing editor, for your commitment, your attention to detail, your timeliness in completing tasks, and your
General Staff, for carefully selecting dynamic pieces for this year’s publication
Professor Justin Quarry and Carrie Causey, for selecting this year’s winners of the Fiction Award and the “Guy Goffe Means”
