So help us, we spread her remains in a minnow bucket. It shouldn’t have come to that, but there was a law against scattering ashes in the lake, and we had to be clandestine out in the boat, the rope tossed casually over the side, the sooty remainder of her trickling out through the sieve holes. We played her favorite music: Sinatra, Bennett—old-timey, feel-good stuff—and sipped G&Ts as we plowed through the chop. No one said much, although Daughter-in-law Judith read a prayer. To throw off a … [Read more...] about In Our Defense
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The Wormhole
Dear Janice Gibbs, Here is my submission to El Giraffe. “Gruesome Horrors to Whisper in the Dusk” is a series of soul-chilling tales containing beneficial lessons for students such as ourselves. I know that you have high expectations and exacting standards: after all, El Giraffe used to be two pages bound with staples, and now that you are Editor-In-Chief, it is fifteen pages bound with string. This year I bet people might start to like it, or even read it, especially if it has tales that glue … [Read more...] about The Wormhole
The Janitor in Space
The janitor makes her way through the hallway with purpose, suctioning space dust and human debris from crevices of the space station. She is good at her job. She can push off from the walls in a steady trajectory without even looking; her eyes are always on the windows and the impossibly bright stars beyond. The astronauts are good but unclean, thinks the space janitor. Like the astronaut who left liquid salt floating in little globs all over the kitchen today. Like the lady astronauts who … [Read more...] about The Janitor in Space
Heirloom
Vermin everywhere, the old man said, and so he could not eat, didn’t matter if it was bread pudding, or his MumMum’s corn meal mush, or Tastykake butterscotch krimpets. Didn’t matter how toothsome, the old man couldn’t stomach it, not with all the mice. Too often he’d pick them up and toss them into the compost bin. And on top of that, the mice weren’t mice, but cat toys stitched of felt, feather, knotted yarn. “Catch o’ the day,” he said to his daughter and the gentleman whose name he no … [Read more...] about Heirloom
Creative Writing Instructor
Evaluation Form
1. The instructor is organized.
□ Strongly Agree
□ Agree
□ Undecided
□ Disagree
□ Strongly Disagree
2. The instructor seems generally knowledgeable, at least about the subject she teaches.
□ Strongly Agree
□ Agree
□ Undecided
□ Disagree
□ Strongly Disagree
3. The instructor is for the most part coherent and sober during her lectures.
□ Strongly Agree
□ Hard to tell; she often has a “cold” and tells us not to approach her desk
□ Coherent and sober … [Read more...] about Creative Writing Instructor
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Online Fiction: Interview with Hannah Pass
This month, we're bringing you a story about an astrological forecaster whose television ratings are falling. Hannah Pass's "Nova" is a world of glitz, glitter, fiber-optic star charts and unsavory old men, a place where networks air shows on adolescent bartending and on hypnotherapy for insomniacs. But at its heart, "Nova" is a story about a mother who wants to do right, set a good example for her thirteen-year-old daughter. We asked Hannah some questions about the story and her writing. (And … [Read more...] about Online Fiction: Interview with Hannah Pass