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2026 Persimmon Creek - Full Journal, Beth Keefauver, Wayne C. Robbins

Persimmon Creek

Dear Readers: Literary journals are a common component of colleges and universities spanning across many continents. As many students experience the drastic transition from childhood to independence, emotions can feel overwhelming, and life can quickly become flooded with anxiety. Writing is an outlet for many; a place humanity turns to as a form of secure therapy.

In William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost, Berowne muses, “Never durst poet touch a pen to write until his ink were temper’d with Love’s sighs” (Act 4, Scene 3).

Without emotion, writing has no depth. The words on the page might seem eloquent, but the …

Meet Phoenix, Feng Jiang

Persimmon Creek

One act play

Roadkill, Kristi S. Miller

Persimmon Creek

Dear Beth Keefauver,

Thank you for considering my short story “Roadkill,” a 3371-word short story, for inclusion in Persimmon Creek. Below is my biography:

“Could you kill someone?” is Kristi Miller’s favorite question. It divides the keepers from the bores, and she can’t tolerate boredom. After growing tired of being a molecular biologist, she moved to Western North Carolina to teach kayaking and live in a van down by the river. Now she’s a professor of nursing. Her husband supports her need for drama – when their biological daughter was almost two, they adopted a sibling group of three. If …

Moths In The Closet, Brandi E. Shuler

Persimmon Creek

a Work of Flash Fiction
This is a personal reflection about clothing and what makes something important. Why do people hold onto things in a world where replacing them would be so easy?

Built To Last, Jack Andrew Hines

Persimmon Creek

A young man embarks on a career as a carpenter in South Carolina's Lowcountry. He falls under the tutelage of a heavy drinking master carpenter and, together, they strive to master their craft while holding onto their pride in an environment where their culture is being degraded and appropriated.

Cellphone, Kasey Waters

Persimmon Creek

this work describes the toxic relationships that many of us have with our phones and technology.  i wrote this post hurricane helene.

Palace, Kelis D. Rodgers

Persimmon Creek

A poem written about a fallen empire.

Amnesia, Kasey Waters

Persimmon Creek

this poem describes what i call religious trauma, declined mental health, and death to produce when combined.  i wrote this to kind of recount the experience of being brought into purgatory, or the afterlife, to be.  you kind of question everything, unsure what to think as you don't know what will happen next.  death makes even the confident quake in fear.

Happy New Year, Delaney Brown

Persimmon Creek

"Happy New Year," following the poetic style of writers like Kaveh Akbar and Richard Siken, uses freestyle form and interpretive spacing to convey its narrative. The work explores the emotional recoil of a badly ended relationship and the self-doubt that often lingers when one questions their own actions and decisions.

Gravity Squared, Delaney Brown

Persimmon Creek

"Gravity Squared" explores cyclical themes of growth and spirituality. Inspired by Victoria Chang's The Trees Witness Everything, this poem loosely follows the tanka style of alternating 5 and 7-syllable lines.

The Echoes Of Anguish, Karis Del Toro

Persimmon Creek

This is a poem written about the self-inflicted, internal anguish that we feel and carry from pass regrets.

482 Days, Catherine R. Downey

Persimmon Creek

A Valentine's Day present to my partner to let him know how appreciated and cared for he is.

Fiesta Of Flowers, Blanca L. Ortega Moreno

Persimmon Creek

Celebrating the Latino & Hispanic community by creating a piece reflecting traditional woven shirts from Oaxaca & the Mexican culture. This piece is handmade to reflect the vibrant colors found in Mexican culture.

This piece was included in an art show that ran from October 12th to November 4th representing Hispanic Heritage Month. It was displayed at the City of Greer Center for the Arts.

A Collostructional Approach To The Concealed Passive Construction In English, Rok Sim, Jungsoo Kim

Faculty Publications

This study investigates the English concealed passive construction (CPC), as in the car needs washing, using authentic corpus data. While previous research has explored certain aspects of the CPC, little attention has been given to strongly associated matrix verbs (or verb types) and interactions between matrix verbs (or verb types) and other elements of the construction. To address these issues, we apply three types of collostructional analysis, and our findings indicate that no single, straightforward pattern emerges with respect to real-life grammatical properties of the CPC. We then show that the well-known distinction between raising and control constructions, formalized …

2025 Persimmon Creek - Full Journal, Beth Keefauver, Wayne C. Robbins

Persimmon Creek

Persimmon Creek runs through the Susan B. Jacobs Arboretum, an oasis of nature in the center of our dynamic and thriving campus community at the University of South Carolina Upstate. My colleague Wayne Robbins and I were recently tasked with bringing back the student-edited literary journal formerly known as Writer’s Inc. Dr. Marilyn Knight stood at the helm of Writer’s Inc. for nearly twenty years, and when she retired, the journal left with her. We thought it would be an opportune time to pay homage to the legacy of Writer’s Inc. by renaming and reimagining our home department’s literary journal. …

When The Siren Sounds, Madelynn H. Morgan

Persimmon Creek

Growing up being the daughter of a fire fighter was not easy. I had a very absent father growing up, and this was due to his work in the fire service. Through this reflective essay, I discuss what growing up as a first-response family was like, and how it has shaped me into the adult I am becoming.

The Madonna - Whore Complex, Rhiya S. Ashman

Persimmon Creek

In this work, I wanted to explore the literature/media trope of the Madonna/Whore complex, specifically when it comes to Black women in media. The Madonna Whore complexes illustrate how women are often written into one of two extremes - they are either extremely pure, innocent, and childlike (The Madonna), or they are sexual, rebellious, and seductive (The Whore). The piece is full of symbolism, including the materials used to make it. I wanted to illustrate these extreme yet two dimensional ways these women were portrayed by creating them in flat paper, with no faces, to show how they are still …

Wulver In Appalachia, Wylan Blair

Persimmon Creek

A poem about a mysterious figure who comes to the aid of a mountain community.

Glimpses Of Myself In The Underground, Madelynn H. Morgan

Persimmon Creek

Through poetry, a older teenager reflects on a place that has made her who she is. She sees ghosts of her past self in every wall of this place, and it makes her feel oddly sentimental. She realizes how far she has come and how much has changed, and begins to understand how ever fleeting any given moment in time is.

Dodo, Lyxia C. Vue

Persimmon Creek

A short poem about the extinct animal known as the Dodo Bird.

The Stereo Skips, Maryssa H. Mckinney

Persimmon Creek

"The Stereo Skips" is a reflective poem that captures the chaotic and emotional experiences of a child navigating family struggles and religious expectations on a typical Sunday morning growing up in their household. Through the recurring image of a skipping stereo, the poem emphasizes the dissonance between external appearances and internal turmoil, as the child reflects on their relationship with God, the absence of their father, and the contradictions in their family life. The stereo's skips serve as a metaphor for the interruptions and unresolved emotions in the speaker's world.

Tsenacommacah, Wylan Blair

Persimmon Creek

This poem is about the area that was once called Tsenacommacah, the Powhatan people, and the horrors of the centuries that followed 1607.

Ode To A Carolina Cotton Mill, Joshua S. Lanier

Persimmon Creek

Ode to a Carolina Cotton Mill is a poem about the lives of generations of textile workers who left the farm in search of a better life for their families. THe poem is somewhat autobiographical, as my family had worked in the cotton mill for many generations.

Whiplash, Jillian M. Canady

Persimmon Creek

Whiplash is an abstract poem that emphasizes emotion and imagery over narrative clarity. Through the juxtaposition of a moth and a neon sign, it delves into themes of struggle and transience, blending surreal elements—sickly slouching figures, flickering candles, and woven snakes—to create a landscape of sorrow and light. With fragmented language and rhythmic shifts, the poem invites deep engagement and personal interpretation, culminating in a sensation of rapid motion and transformation, challenging readers to find meaning within its evocative chaos.

The Man In The Frame, Joshua Holt

Persimmon Creek

The Man in the Frame - Poetry by Joshua Holt

Clicky Pen, Allison E. Potter

Persimmon Creek

This is a poem about a clicky pen, an inanimate object that I gave life to. It is an original work that I submitted as homework for my Poetry Class.

Kabul, A Memory Bittersweet, Medina Z. Mayar

Persimmon Creek

A free verse poem.

Girls Are Coming Out Of The Woods (Title Taken From Tishani Doshi), Jillian Canady

Persimmon Creek

This evocative haiku, inspired by Tishani Doshi’s poem, Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods, beautifully captures the essence of resilience and emergence. It portrays women as powerful forces, symbolized by roaring fires and vibrant sunsets, evoking warmth and intensity. The detail of "pink painted toes" adds a playful yet bold touch, blending femininity with strength. This concise piece invites readers to reflect on the dynamic spirit of women stepping into their own, embodying both elegance and fierce determination.

Theodore B. Taverner, Joshua Holt

Persimmon Creek

A war veteran with PTSD wakes on abandoned train tracks, a gun in hand, blood on his clothes, and a body by his feet. Disoriented and haunted by fragmented memories, he struggles to piece together the truth as sirens close in.

Warmth, Brandi E. Shuler

Persimmon Creek

The short story Warmth is about an unnamed character who encounters a violent fire elemental. It is an experimental piece about what it feels like to experience a traumatic burn and what the character went through afterward.