College Edition 2017 Authors

Victoria Agee

Breathless is a poignant story of a young woman facing the sometimes overwhelming reality of adulthood. It was written with a seamless series of vivid images by Victoria Agee, who is attending Morehead State University 

Victoria Agee is from London, KY and is receiving a BFA in Creative Writing from Morehead State University. Her poetry has been published in The Kentucky State Poetry Society’s journal, Pegasus. Victoria would like to thank all of the people who helped her get this far. She couldn’t have done it without you. In the words of Michael Scott, ‘It’s simply beyond words. It’s incalculable.’ Return

The Night Stealer is a marvelous fantasy in prose and verse. It tells the story of a young man’s encounter with The Night Stealer. The story is by Jacques Denault, who is attending Merrimack College.  

Jacques holds a BA in English from Merrimack College, where he worked as the head editor for “The Merrimack Review,” and is currently an MFA candidate at Emerson College.” Return

Beautiful Things is a wonderful treatise on human emotions and our relationship with parents. A young woman sits in a train station and is approached by a homeless person who seems to represent a danger to the worried heroine. It was written by Kelly Doyle of Emory University. 

Kelly Doyle is originally from Rose Valley, Pennsylvania where she grew up reading books and writing stories. She is now a student studying Creative Writing and Psychology at Emory University. Throughout her life, Kelly has been repeatedly changed by great fiction. Knowing she would not be the person she is today without names like Steinbeck, Morrison, Brontë and McEwan, she feels it is her responsibility to contribute what she can to the world they have shaped. She strives to write emotionally driven, problematic characters who force readers to consider values like empathy and compassion in ways they have not before. Her fiction has appeared in Firewords Quarterly as well as on campus publications and she is an editorial intern for Cleaver Magazine. She intends to pursue a career in writing, unable to image a life where an inspiration notebook is considered less essential than a wallet, or reading less essential than sleeping or breathing. She has her parents to thank for enabling this dream with their unending support and encouragement. Return

Declan Falls

Samara is a moving memoir of the death of a beloved friend at an early age. Written from the point of view of a child, the author creates a tender remembrance of the confusing and overwhelming emotion of loss. It was written by Declan Falls, who is attending Carleton College. 

Declan Falls is from Evanston, Illinois and is currently a student at Carleton College. He is a Political Science major who hopes to one day work on campaigns as a speechwriter. Return

Shutout is an excellent portrayal of the ever-changing relationship of a sister and her younger brother. The love-hate bond that evolves between siblings as they age is brilliantly described. It was written by Sophia Jenkins, who is attending Carleton College.

Sophia Jenkins was born and raised in New York City, and is currently a junior psychology major at Carleton College in Minnesota. Sophia loves writing because it gives her the opportunity to delve into other people’s perspectives and explore the nuances and complexities of human experiences. In her free time she likes to read, play sports, and go on walks with her pet pig. This story is dedicated to her younger brother who has been her coconspirator since he was born. She developed this story during a workshop with the author Jane Hamilton. Return

Kyandreia Jones

At Home is a contemporary story about a man–a soldier, husband, and son–back from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan who is struggling with civilian life. You will feel the strong emotion the author was striving for 
as his mother tries to understand why her son dreams to serve a country that fails to protect him.  It was written by Kyandreia Jones, who is attending Hamilton College. 

Kyandreia Jones is a Posse Miami Scholar and a Creative Writing major at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. She was born and raised in South Florida to a Haitian mother and an African American father. Raised by her paternal grandparents, she often writes about people of color and their distinctive family dynamics. In these writings, she highlights the societal pressures placed on black and brown bodies in America and how these pressures affect citizens across the country. She has come a long way since writing her first short story in the fourth grade about twin sisters, based on actresses Tia and Tamera Mowry, who have lightning induced superpowers (but still maintains her obsession with Sister Sister and all things regarding the Mowry twins). Now, she tackles larger issues in her writing as Posse and Hamilton invite her to think about her place in the world and how she would like to shape it. Her support system/ biggest fans include: her family, friends, Professors Jane Springer and Tina Hall and her posse (Betsy, Ram, Robbyn, Pascal, Edsel, Maria, Dairys, Annalie, Wilhelgyne, and her Posse mentor Katheryn Doran). Jones values reading, writing, laughing, and promoting universal kindness. Return

In Order For Me To Get Down, I Gotta Get In ‘D, if you are a James Brown aficionado you will recognize the title. This is a great story, well-paced, well written, with logical characters who are clearly defined. One of those stories that makes the reader want to ask, “Did this really happen?” It was written by Alexander Kenny, who is attending George Mason University. 

When bartending and table-dancing lost its shine, Alexander Kenny returned to George Mason to finish his B.F.A. in Creative Writing. He currently works for Fairfax County Public Libraries where he pushes Margaret Atwood, Carl Sagan, and Douglas Adams on patrons. His fiction is featured on furiousowls.com and more memoirs are located on mydatingexperience.net. Return

Jillian Kovach

Obligation has unique characters, a cross dressing friend bored with life and twin brothers who are about as different as can be. It is a story of family, loyalty and growth.  It was written by Jillian Kovach, who is attending the University of New Mexico.

Currently finishing an astounding, cheese-filled year abroad in the Netherlands, Jillian is an English major from the University of New Mexico. Her work has been featured in two university publications, Conceptions Southwest and Best Student Essays, and she has been published as part of the Exposition Review’s Flash 405 writing competition. She worked on previous editions of Conceptions Southwest, as well as the award-winning Scribendi magazine. Upon graduating, Jillian will pursue a Masters in creative writing or publishing and carry on toward a career in editing. She is also an ordained minister through the Universal Life Church and intends to perform weddings “on the side” so she can eat. When it comes to writing, Jillian pulls influence primarily from her hobbies and experiences. These range from volunteering with miniature horses in her hometown of Rio Rancho to making Mel Brooks references while visiting Caesars Palace and the Château de Versailles. She will shamelessly admit that most of her writing concerns sardonic scene kids, the prevalence of Faustian figures in mid-2000s anime, and frustrations that are not her own. When not hammering out stories in the early morning, Jillian can be found preparing for her senior honors thesis or thrashing to heavy metal in her pajamas. Return

Greg Lozano

Anything for my Children has a hint of Edgar Allen Poe stirring about in the plot. A father’s devotion to his children knows no bounds when it comes to indulging them. Well-crafted, leaving the ending in suspense, and then a revelation at that. It was written by Greg Lozano, who is attending Sonoma State University 

Spending most of his formative years in the Greater Los Angeles area, Greg Lozano decided to leave the familiarity of his hometown and move to Rohnert Park in Northern California to pursue a dream that had been delayed for many years due to extreme lowincome conditions: obtaining his Bachelor of Arts degree in the field of Creative Writing. After securing a solid foundation, he first enrolled into College of the Canyons, where he found a love for English Literature. His love for literature and passion for writing were shaped into a successful acceptance into Sonoma State University. Greg’s writing is heavily influenced by authors such as Franz Kafka, Edgar Allan Poe, and Junji Ito, where he hopes to iterate a new style within the Gothic Literature genre. When not fully submerged in books at SSU, Greg is busy mixing drinks at Hard Rock Café in San Francisco as a bartender, rock climbing, or competing in mud-runs. His passion for writing led him to create his blog: www.anenglishwritersmind.com, that contains a small collection of his short stories and poetry, including the poem “Keep Me Haunted” that found its way into publication with Zaum Magazine. It is thanks to his brothers Angel and Marco, the Rubio family, his peers Kelly McLennon, Deborah Lightcap, Brian Peoples, Kait Ralston, Ally Hall, and Brian Funes, and professors like Ruth Rassool, Stefan Kiesbye, Noelle Oxenhandler, Anthony Rizzuto, and Emily Clark that Greg continues to write, and share his stories. Return

Possible, Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde plays an important part in this very interesting story of a woman with a troubled personality. You might also detect a bit of Hitchcock’s Psycho with the heroine channeling the troubled Norman Bates. It was written by Emily Morgan, who is attending California Lutheran University   

Emily Morgan is currently pursuing degrees in English and Communications at California Lutheran University. She has previously written for Seattle Pacific University’s chapter of Odyssey Online and California Lutheran University’s newspaper The Echo. With a motto of ‘write too honestly and feel too much,’ her goal is to produce writing that gives readers some sort of emotional experience. What that experience is may vary depending on the work: shock, excitement, or with her more personal pieces, simply the knowledge that someone out there understands and relates to what they may be feeling. A firm believer that everyone has thoughts, emotions, and a story (or multiple) to tell, she works to share her own through different mediums like prose poetry, essays, and pieces like Possible, which is her first short story publication. Return

CONTRAILS is a marvelous and entertaining road trip to Durango, Colorado with a man and his photographer girlfriend. Some echoes of Jack Kerouac in the imagery and even the setting. It was written by Zakery R. Munoz, who is attending The University of New Mexico.   

Zakery was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is entering graduate school at the University of New Mexico to study Rhetoric and Writing. Zakery believes every child should have the opportunity to learn how to read and write, and he has volunteered as a Reading Partner to help struggling students. His fiction has been published in the Leonardo literary magazine. You can find him beneath his Honda, asleep at the duck pond, or at the library, buried in books. Return

Nick Reid

The American Dream should be read as a play with the characters as stereotypes who develop hilarious personalities of their own.  It is a comedy with a slightly demented definition of the American Dream.  It was written by Nick Reid who is attending George Mason University. 

Nick Reid lives in Northern Virginia where he is currently enrolled at George Mason University and works part-time at Target as a Cart Attendant. Although he originally applied for a major in Communications with a concentration in Media Production and Criticism, he switched to a Creative Fiction Writing major after his first semester. From a young age, he knew that he wanted to be a writer, but he didn’t realize this was an obtainable dream until he took a creative writing class in high school. In this class, Nick discovered he had a knack for writing quick, witty dialogue. Nick’s knack for writing dialogue, combined with his love of television, created a desire to pursue a career in screenwriting. There is no particular genre that he limits himself to as long as he can include some comedy in the story. When he writes, he usually devises the title, theme, and one scene he wants to see in the story and lets the rest write itself. The story usually ends up far from what he was expecting and this usually isn’t bad. Most of his best ideas are the result of a boredom. He believes that if he can entertain himself with these ideas then he can probably entertain others. Return

Flight of the Blue Heron is an excellent portrayal of adolescent anguish in a difficult home setting where the heroine finds solace in nature and specifically a beautiful Blue Heron. It was written by Gabrielle Tourtellotte, who is attending George Mason University  

Gabrielle Tourtellotte is a rising senior in the BFA program at George Mason University. She studies creative writing with a concentration in fiction as well as viola performance. In addition to writing she is also an avid rock climber, having been a member of the 2016 women’s University National Team, where she competed in World University Championships in Shanghai, China. Her spare time is spent reading, and writing, enjoying the hiking trails of Northern Virginia and all the activities that Washington, D.C. has to offer. Flight of the Blue Heron is her first professionally published piece. Photo by: James Cookson Return

Pretending for Annie runs the gamut of emotions from pleasure to sorrow in a well-crafted journey through the human emotions of personal loss and how to deal with it. There is a surprise ending. It was written by Jamie Sharon Wright, who is attending Colorado State University. 

Jamie Sharon Wright is a full-time student at Colorado State University double majoring in English, with a concentration in Creative Writing, and History. She decided to pursue her passion of writing at the professional level after spending her high school years writing FanFiction. Born in a tiny town in Wyoming, she learned how to drive a tractor before a car. She also learned how to go hunting at a very young age and currently uses hunting to spend time with her family and fill her refrigerator, as well as her home town soup kitchen. Currently, Jamie lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with her two fur babies: cats Salem Anne and Kaysee Lou. In 2017, she won first place for her fiction in the Celebrating Undergraduate Research and Creativity competition at Colorado State University. You can follow Jamie on Tumblr @jwrightswrites and on her personal website . Return