Written by Alex Taylor There are some books that are better read standing up—others that are best digested lying in bed. There are few books, however, that are best enjoyed in front of a mirror at 3 o’clock in the morning. For anyone who has read Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves, this image might…
Read More
Written by Alyssa Jingling “I’m surprised you’re not analyzing Daddy,” my poetry professor, Dr. D’Arcy Randall, said as we discussed my Sylvia Plath research project. “So much of your poetry is based around your family struggles.” It was more than halfway through the semester, yet this moment was the first time I realized that she…
Read More
Written by Anna Dolliver Perhaps the magic stems from the lyrical cadence of her words, the lattice of lines easily read in shifting orders and voices. Perhaps the intrigue emanates from the eccentric clothing she wore, a trash-to-treasure wardrobe filled with knickknacks crafted into composite art. Whatever the source, Mina Loy designs an ethereal, brazen…
Read More
Written by Christie Basson Global warming. Women losing all reproductive rights. Technology encroaching on every aspect of our lives. A growing distaste for freedom of speech. Dystopia has never seemed more realistic. So, what do we do when our day-to-day lives read like the prologue of a dystopian novel? If the popularity of The Handmaid’s…
Read More
Written by Alex Taylor The other day, as I was walking through a bookstore looking for a copy Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves — this great horror book that all my peers had told me I absolutely needed to read — I found myself lost. As highly raved about as this book was, I couldn’t find…
Read More
Written by Sydney Stewart When someone mentions video games, you probably think immediately of games like Fortnite, Super Mario Bros., or Call of Duty – not exactly games with stories that would fit seamlessly in the pages of a book. However, I would say that it’s time to start considering video games as legitimate mediums…
Read More
Written by Kevin LaTorre Conventional views of literature value the immersive effect of a story, so much so that most writers would accept “believable world building” as a high compliment. But what happens when novelists choose to remind the reader that the pages are fiction, consciously devised by someone real? In that instance, the form…
Read More
Written by JoJo Phillips Today, I am sitting on a stool in a long, grey hallway, looking at the portraits on the walls. The one in front of me is of a sad, old man named Borges. He is on the wall, like a fish, and looks down at me, also Borges. All around us,…
Read More
Written by Kevin LaTorre “Do you know what Ireland is? asked Stephen with cold violence. Ireland is the old sow that eats her farrow.” Stephen Dedalus—protagonist of James Joyce’s coming-of-age novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man—is blunt in his accusatory view of Ireland. Stephen often seems to act as Joyce’s fictional…
Read More
Written by Sydney Stewart One glance at any reputable news source, and the grim reality of climate change and environmental destruction is clear: the earth changes day after day largely as a result of human actions, and soon the environment won’t be hospitable, or even recognizable. Obviously, this is a problem. Massive amounts of literature acknowledges the beauty…
Read More