Fiction Commons^™

Volume 79, Issue 1: Full Issue

Manuscripts

Full issue of the March 2014 issue of Manuscripts. Includes work by: Bob Barrick, Tommy O'Rourke, Earl Townsend, Cassidy Olson, Wesley Sexton, Ritz Davison, Ella Paul, Maggie Carey, Jillian Wanbaugh, Donald Bradley, and Katie Johnson.

Thumbnails, Katie Johnson

Manuscripts

The test group was comprised of thirty children chosen in infancy: all unwanted pregnancies that would have been wasted in public institutions far inferior to ours, without the extensive opportunities for education, for progress. The children required no mothers in our program. Had they ever wished to know their origins, they might have perused the metal file cabinet in which all of their files were kept, right down to the looping signatures of the women who had signed their lives to us. They never did; they were taught better, instructed that origins were of little consequence when compared with the …

Reaching Lilly, Jillian Wanbaugh

Manuscripts

The trees were bare, twisting around themselves in a lifeless way. Some leaned, almost sagging with agony, while the rest remained erect, giving only the illusion of vigor. There were six of them; six black, dead trees forming a circle around her grave. Each wailed as the wind thrashed at their degenerate forms. Winter had eradicated autumn, mercilessly ravishing the land of all viability.

Carmelia, Tommy O'Rourke

Manuscripts

Carmelia constantly confused the little hairs on her knuckles for tiny fuses leading to the bottle rocket of her soul. She burnt her fingers bald and even singed some skin into rust blotches with the extra-large matchsticks she used to light her Lucky Strikes. Her fingers were always fiddling with the rosary dangling around her neck, which she constructed in the 7th grade using nothing but speaker wire and cigarette butts, both stolen from her father, like her grey-violet eyes. As she danced, her pupils dilated. The booming music. The record player pushed its needle into to vinyl to make …

Volume 4, Issue 2: Full Issue

Manuscripts

Full issue of the January 1937 issue of Manuscripts. Includes work by Wayne Hill, Margaret Pierson, Elizabeth Messick, Margaret Kendall, Mary Burrin, Grace Ferguson, Betty Richart, Charles Aufderheide, Dorothy Steinmeier, Mars B. Ferrell, Cathryn Smith, Ruth Marie Hamill, Phillipa Schreiber, Robert Ayers, Marguerite Ellis, Wilbur Elliot, Margaret Parrish, William Steinmetz, Glenn White, Jack Howard, Richard Joyce, Anne Horne, Dave Craycraft, Charles Hostetter, Ralph W. Morgan, Louise Ryman, Norman Bicking, Dorothy Schilling, Mildred Barnhill, and Marion Swann.

Mistake By Noah, Louise Ryman

Manuscripts

It might have changed history -- but it didn't.

Noah was happy. A home-loving body was Noah, content with his lot. He had his wife, and he had his pigs. He had his garden an a house full of in-laws.

Apples And Glass (A Comment On Picasso's "Pomme Et Verre"), Charles Hostetter

Manuscripts

"No, Junior, the picture is not hung upside down."

"How does Mother know? They don't hang pictures upside down."

"The picture is called "Apple and Glass."

Shapes In The Night, Dave Craycraft

Manuscripts

People are shapes, and things are shadows; places a blur, and faces a blank. All people sleep sometime, but cities never -- and never all people at once. The city's roar is a decrescendo from midnight on, but it never dies down to silence. Most windows are dark; most lights are out, but never all.

Prologue To Autobiography, Anne Horne

Manuscripts

The guests had arrived for the christening. A steady stream of admiring relatives and close friends filed past the ruffled bassinet wherein lay the object of all eyes -- the baby. Last in that long line came the eighty year old great-grandmother, whose still clear eyes told of that indomitable spirit contained in her tiny form. With bated breath the rest of the family watched her stoop over the baby, catch her breath, and straighten up with an inscrutable smile on her rather thin lips.

I Hit My Mark, William Steinmetz

Manuscripts

The hunt was ready to start, but only after a hunting ground was secured. Since I was one of a polite party of hunters, as hunters go, I left the car to ask a farmer's permission to hunt on his property.

Tangible Evidence, Wilbur Elliott

Manuscripts

Young Kipling Wiley silently inserted the key, and turned the knob with the greatest of caution. As he closed the door behind him, it gave only the merest hint of a squeak. Kipling mentally congratulated himself on the mouse-like quiet of his entrance, and then started across the floor on tip-toe.

Soft Answer, Marguerite Ellis

Manuscripts

Mr. Hughes was downcast. In fact, Mr. Hughes was pessimistic. It was not the fact that it was Sunday -- Mr. Hughes was not a church-going man -- but simply that the view from the big front window of his newspaper office was neither scenically inspiring nor financially hopeful.

Uncle George, Ruth Marie Hamill

Manuscripts

Every evening when Uncle George walks into the house, before he greets any member of the family, he yells, "O-oh, Pepper! O-oh, Ginger!" and if Pepper and her puppy aren't already scampering down the stairs, or from the living room, they come now. Pepper stands on her hind legs and leans her forepaws on him while she nuzzles in his pockets for peanuts. Ginger dances around him, making funny noises which sometimes terminate in a short bark. He picks the little dog up and feeds both him and Pepper a few peanuts or bites of candy that he has brought …

High Pressure, Cathryn Smith

Manuscripts

Pauline regarded John fretfully. She thought: "He's so sensible. I don't believe he ever did or said anything crazy in his li fe. He's absolutely stodgy!"

They rode along in silence for a while. John never drove fast, but there was enough wind to whip color into their faces, and Pauline's hair blew wildly.

The Hunt, Mars B. Ferrell

Manuscripts

The youth descended briskly the steep side of the gully. His two dogs, already at the bottom, trotted through the light snow. Their high noses and quickening steps were read by the young trapper as definite signs that a catch was to be expected. The trap he had set a day ago at a den on the side of the small tributary gully ahead probably held a victim. In any event, the "set" had looked good -- several fresh skunk tracks.

Return, Dorothy Steinmeier

Manuscripts

Martha smiled the way she always smiled when someone said something nice to her. Someone was always saying something nice to her, it seemed.

Denouement, Betty Richart

Manuscripts

Mrs. Bridgford was fidgeting. The prospect of the long evening before her filled her with nervous panic. Her husband sat solidly established behind his newspaper; she knew that no prospect of adventure could lure him from it. They sat in their intimate sphere of lamp-light without exchanging a word; the daily commonplace, had been duly gone through at dinner. Now there was nothing.

Grandma Brown, Mary Burrin

Manuscripts

"Sit down, Grandma. There's no need for you to help. I can finish the Turkey myself," said Effie Brown to her mother-in-law.

Hmm! Sitting down was all she'd done since she'd been here. As for finishing the turkey, Effie always cooked the meat too brown and dry, so hard you couldn't eat it, thought Grandma Brown.

Suspense, Structure, And Point Of View: Building Surprise In Fiction, Lydia R. Klismith

Departmental Honors Projects

Suspense, Structure, and Point of View: Building Surprise in Fiction is focused on what elements authors can use to create surprise. Surprise relies primarily on suspense in order to function. Broadly, structure and point of view are the two categories of tools an author will rely on to create suspense and build surprise. Examining various texts, this paper outlines many possible routs an author can take to support the surprise of his or her text. In my creative component I rely on the alternating point of view chapters in order to create suspense and eventually surprise. Malachi and Eve observe …

The Trickster Heart And Other Tales, Julia Manolukas

Honors Projects

A collection of five fairy tales, original and retold, dealing with issues of trauma, violence and coming-of-age. Features new and creative versions of "Rapunzel," "Snow White," "Rumpelstiltskin," and "Pinocchio."

The Glass Spider, Joe Baumann

The Lindenwood Review: a journal of literary prose

No abstract provided.

The Cold Surrender Of Midnight's Passing, Dana Marie Roach

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Two Lawyers: A Story For The Times, Henry Clay Morrison

Heritage Material

No abstract provided.

Sampaguita, Alexandria Delcourt Mfa

All Student Scholarship

This thesis contains the first 115 pages of a novel that takes place in the Philippines between 1908 and 1944. The main character , Sampaguita, is a young girl who is growing up in a house with her wealthy father, a prominent lawyer in their town, his wife, their children, as well as her mother who is a concubine and dances waltzes with American soldiers in the local cantina for 10 cents per song, and the rest of her siblings.

The Yellow House, Chris Dielschnieder

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Grimm Fairy Tales Rewritten With Feminist Perspectives, Kylie Hammell

Honors College Theses

Three Grimm Fairy Tales - The Little Mermaid, The Seven Ravens, and Little Red Riding Hood, - rewritten with eco-feminist, radical feminist, and liberal feminist perspectives.

From The Pulpit To Perdition, Henry Clay Morrison

Heritage Material

No abstract provided.

Little Rituals, Bruce Johnson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The following stories represent what I have accomplished in my three-and-a-half years in the Master of Fine Arts-Fiction program at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. They are all realist stories, most of them with a minimalist leaning. Together for the first time, they are more than a mere sum of the writing I've done in my time in the MFA program. They are the stories that, when I read them now, still occasionally delight me. Most of the stories that I wrote as an MFA candidate do not pass this test, and thus are not included here. If there is …

The Molloy Student Literary Magazine Volume 10, Damian Hey Ph.D., Stefanie Melling, Joseph Ostapiuk, Kaitlin Duignan, Amanda Ammirati, Sarah Bipath, Kenneth Bornholdt, John Bruno, Shenequa Bucknor, Kristin Cardino, Ashley Geyer, Ugoma Konkwo, Ryan Roberts, Marilena Rocco, Roger Smith, Lauren Spotkov, Alexa Sussman, Caitlin Breen, Katie Killman, Lauren Trogele, Kristy Petrizzo

The Molloy Student Literary Magazine

The Molloy Student Literary Magazine, sponsored by Molloy College’s Office of Student Affairs, is devoted to publishing the best previously unpublished works of prose, poetry, drama, literary review, criticism, and other literary genres, that the Molloy student community has to offer. The journal welcomes submissions, for possible publication, from currently enrolled Molloy students at all levels. All submitted work will undergo a review process initiated by the Managing Editor prior to a decision being made regarding publication of said work. Given sufficient content, The Molloy Student Literary Magazine is published twice annually in Spring and Fall. Interested contributors from the …

Mountain Men, James O. Lincoln

Student Publications

This is a piece of fiction about love, drugs, death, and giants in no particular order. Todd and Heather, a young couple a year or two out of college, are camping in the woods and smoking a good deal of weed when the mountain they've pitched their tent on stands up and begins laying waste to the countryside. While the stoners are trapped on the body of the colossus and forced to work through some relationship issues and possible head trauma, an elderly widower and his dog on the forest floor have their home remodeled by a giant's foot.