The anguish in the room is
suffocating. We press our
faces to the cold glass
windows, looking one last time
at our friends and families.
- Clarissa Janssen, "Good-bye Nizhni"
About the Authors
Jessica Babcock
Jessica is currently in Belize studying tropical ecosystems and sustainable community development. She is also doing a fair bit of reading of Annie Dillard. She is a senior Writing & Rhetoric and Environmental Science major and hopes to somehow integrate these two loves in her future career.
Daniel Berntson
Daniel is a junior English and Philosophy major who enjoys juggling knives, reading Garrison Keillor, and playing the organ. He is the fourth generation to have lived on his family’s farm and sees writing as a way of caring for the stories of his rural place.
Benjamin Brownson
Ben is a Theatre and Writing & Rhetoric major whose poem “Burning Time” won first place in last year’s Spectrum. His original play Blue Laces was produced last year as well. In the future he hopes to continue in theatre, writing, and telling stories, most likely by pursuing graduate school in playwriting.
Solomon Davis
Solomon is a senior Theatre/Speech major whose gusto for writing started with the songs he sang and stories he made up as a little boy. Whether through painting, poetry, photography, or conversation, Solomon tends to be story oriented. After graduating, he wants to scrape a living as a storyteller/actor/etc.
Clarissa Jensen
Clarissa is a history major who plans to pursue a career in the museum field. She is passionate about Victorian and Mormon hymnody, and she would eventually like to travel the world and learn several languages fluently.
Kayli King
Kayli is an English major who loves reading “classic” literature, envies the poetry of Jane Kenyon, and juggles on the weekends. She enjoys writing because of the magical element involved in creating three-dimensional people and places with two-dimensional words on a page.
Sarah Mullin
Sarah is a Psychology major and Writing & Rhetoric and Music double minor. She has loved creative writing from a young age. She plans to attain her Masters Degree in child development one day and hopes to travel the world.
Ryan Pendell
Ryan is a sophomore Philosophy and Writing & Rhetoric double major from Elkhorn, Nebraska. He is currently involved in the student newspaper, Spectrum, the International Justice Mission chapter, and the Northwestern Chess Society. This year he has thrown a giant pumpkin off a three-story balcony, assisted in burgling the Stegenga Hall lounge furniture and perpetrated violent works of performance art.
Natalie Rieck
Natalie is a freshman Writing & Rhetoric major and English teaching minor from a tiny town in eastern Iowa. Other than writing, she loves reading, web design, photography, travel, and just taking care of people. Her ultimate dream is to own a bookstore, be a foster parent, and write in her spare time.
Erica Romkema
Erica is an English major with a wide variety of interests, although not all of them have been developed yet. She writes because it’s instinct, telling stories even before she actually knew how to put letters on a page. She very much values the way that reading and writing allow us to explore various places, times, and experiences of life.
Aleisa Schat
Aliesa began spending much of her time this year doing what she would have considered crazy just a year ago: reading and writing poetry. She began writing poetry when she was young, but influenced by Anne of Green Gables, her poems were really flowery. Now she has come to love contemporary poetry.
Tracy Scott
Tracy is a senior Mathmatics major who is originally from Chowchilla, California. Her piece is inspired by her experience studying abroad in London, England.
Allison Simmons
Allison is a senior History and Writing & Rhetoric major. She enjoys creating characters out of words or fabric in her free time. After graduation, she hopes to work in a museum where she can bring the stories of the past to life for the public.
Akane Yokoo
Akane, originally from Japan, is a Humanities major with English and Art emphasizes. She likes to paint and sees writing, especially poetry, reading and painting as being related. Often when she reads or writes she feels like painting because it often gives her images she wants to paint. When she paints, she can almost write a poem about it.