Brandon Chan - Adelphi University

It’s been nearly ten years, and I can’t help but notice that the booth I’m sitting in is exactly the same as it was the last time, inside a modified metal trailer that some long-dead designer from the 1930s managed to turn into an eating establishment named Tony’s Diner.

Emily Alvarado - University of the Incarnate Word

For a long time, I thought that love was some abstract thing that came to you suddenly. I thought that it was something you had to wait for, and then it’d hit you like a truck. That way is way more romantic sounding, sans the truck, and way less work than other methods.

Jacqueline Hyatt - Arizona State University

It was 9:57 when I first saw you. You had a bright red umbrella under your arm. A knitted beanie was tugged snuggly over your ears, and your blonde bangs coiled around your face.

Rafael Saavedra - University of the Incarnate Word

I, Sofía, do hereby proclaim that the spleen of a fully grown man tastes of freshly sliced guayaba, that the gallbladder bursts in your mouth like tunas rojas, that the gastric juice dribbles down your chin like pulque when you sink your teeth on the tender sugary cocoon of the stomach.

Hayden Wesley - University of Virginia

A pounding on the front door wakes me up. Sunlight fills the room and burns my eyes. I have a headache, and I wish the pounding would stop but it won't, so I answer the door.

Josie Eanes - University of Arkansas at Little Rock

The pair of wine glasses were nothing out of the ordinary at first glance. Customers fell for their illusion of normalcy, picking them up, admiring them, and then after further observation, setting them back where they had been for years, between a green glass olive tray and a particularly eye-catching vase, shaped like a clown-doll.

Anna Starkey - Illinois State University

Everyday we go into the field. We run around and chase each other like the dogs chase the rabbits. Sometimes we wrestle and sometimes we nap. Man tells us to hunt and we do. We sharpen sticks or rocks and stab thick insects and juicy fish.

Brian Reich - Adelphi University

The school is empty, silence blaring through the loudspeakers: the absence, its own morning announcement for the day ahead. The disruptive stillness blasts through hollowed-out halls, knocking on each classroom door, searching in each tiny crevice for a sign of life.

Burk Farley - University of Nebraska-Omaha

A young boy plays in his yard. Wooden rocking horses, shiny plastic six-shooters, wooden bows strewn across the grass. Occasionally, a car passes on the road, the driver honking or giving a wave if they know the boy and his mother.

Sadie Kuhnle - Case Western Reserve University

It was a summer funeral. That’s something I’m sure of even though my eyes felt numb, even though I felt vaguely butchered. Crisp black suits, black dresses melting to tar in the heat, poured onto rows of folding chairs. I remember thinking it was a beautiful day to be at our parent’s farm.

Violet Foster - St. Lawrence University

My father’s Carhartt coat was blooming with blood, but it wasn’t from the hanging steer before him. 

Lily Tatara - The Ohio State University

He was the type of guy who pushed you too hard in the interest of ‘good fun’. He came from money but loved to use the term ‘self-built.’ He was ten years older than his wife. He hung the head of a stag that he had shot on his den wall, even though he spent the weekend hunt huddled up in a deer stand, luring them close for the kill with some sweet-smelling gas.

Claudia Koch – College of Charleston

Dozens of little girls’ dresses line the closet in my attic.

In truth, the attic isn’t quite an attic, nor is the closet quite a closet.

Ella Charette - College of Charleston

My sister's lipstick was tacky, specifically on her. A dark, maroon color, packed up into a cheap plastic tube.  It didn't fit my sister, Mary, at all.