Illustrating Our Imaginations

by Gracie Bialecki

If someone had seen the movie before reading the book, how could they imagine anything else? Lee’s world is the definition of Middle Earth for millions of fans. Will future generations grow up with its realms and characters conveniently preconceived?

Future Fictions

by Michael Barron

Fiction has always been a laboratory to study the human condition but with the advancements of technology and science becoming more commonplace, fiction has become a simulation runner to experiment on the plausible consequences of these achievements.

Cuckolded by Modernity

by Gracie Bialecki

Futuristic sexual encounters aside, we’re constantly betraying our partners and friends with technology. In any interaction, a phone is liable to appear with or without explanation—shifting a dual-sided conversation into a regrettable love triangle.

Call and Response

by Hawa Allan

As a card-carrying member of the horde, I have never had the privilege of having only one voice echoing in my head. I have always had multiple voices singing in mine. The call, and the response.

The Literature of Others

by Michael Barron

What would happen if all works in all languages were universally readable? New forms of thinking, new colors for the literary palette, and ultimately, the possibility of atypical influences. To put an old trope on its head, everything has been invented, but not every invention has been discovered.

The Fifth Reason

by Yoojin Na

Levy, who cries on escalators, doesn’t hate her children. She doesn’t hate her soon-to-be-ex-husband. Rather, she hates that a woman must extend herself to assume a domestic role and become a stranger to the person she once was.

Nothing More French

by Gracie Bialecki

The more the French view me as part of their country, the more I see myself as belonging here with them. With my blonde hair and daily scarves, I look the part. It’s easier to accept superficial validation such as compliments on my accent and cultural ease from the French than it is to reconcile my fading American patriotism.