Murphy Writing of Stockton University Presents This entry is part of Getaway Reads, an e-mail series that features the writing of the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway faculty. . When You Are the Brownest White Girl by Emari DiGiorgio Someone will call you spic. And you won’t know what to say because you’re a Ferrucci-DiGiorgio from the region of Molise where olives become oil, and there are slurs for your kind, too: Guinea, WOP, grease ball, so maybe, the sting is being slapped with another’s epithet. When you’re the brownest white ... Read More...
Getaway Reads 2020: Two Poems by Luray Gross
Murphy Writing of Stockton University Presents This entry is part of Getaway Reads, an e-mail series that features the writing of the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway faculty. . The Shape of Usefulness by Luray Gross “I try to fit language into the shape of usefulness.” - Claudia Rankine The shape of a salt crystal, for example, or a needle, a wedge, a bolt. I try to fit language into the curve of a chalice or cupped hand, or the flat dry rock just big enough to step on before you leap to the far bank. Fit language into the waterwheel’s ... Read More...
Getaway Reads 2020: A piece by Paul Lisicky
Murphy Writing of Stockton University Presents This entry is part of Getaway Reads, an e-mail series that features the writing of the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway faculty. . The Ways We Tried To Erase Each Other by Paul Lisicky My husband, my home, our dog, my best friend, my mother — who was left to lose? It had all taken place in 16 months, and I suppose it’s better to get it all over with than to have it happen over time, sanding you down little by little. I picked the building because its ornate surface reminded me of ... Read More...
Getaway Reads 2020: Two poems by Yusef Komunyakaa
Murphy Writing of Stockton University Presents This entry is part of Getaway Reads, an e-mail series that features the writing of the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway faculty. . Facing It by Yusef Komunyakaa My black face fades, hiding inside the black granite. I said I wouldn't dammit: No tears. I'm stone. I'm flesh. My clouded reflection eyes me like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning. I turn this way—the stone lets me go. I turn that way—I'm inside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial again, depending on ... Read More...
Getaway Reads 2020: A short story by Joe Costal
Murphy Writing of Stockton University Presents This entry is part of Getaway Reads, an e-mail series that features the writing of the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway faculty. . The First Thanksgiving by Joe Costal You call him Uncle Bobby. The whole family calls him Uncle Bobby, but he‘s a second-cousin. On your father’s side. Uncle Bobby has Dracula hair, 70s Dracula, high and poofy in the middle, but peaked and gray-streaked up front. He loves old country music and older rock ‘n’ roll. He is a United States veteran. ... Read More...
Getaway Reads 2020: Two poems by Denise Duhamel
Murphy Writing of Stockton University Presents This entry is part of Getaway Reads, an e-mail series that features the writing of the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway faculty. . Kinky by Denise Duhamel They decide to exchange heads. Barbie squeezes the small opening under her chin over Ken's bulging neck socket. His wide jaw line jostles atop his girlfriend's body, loosely, like one of those novelty dogs destined to gaze from the back windows of cars. The two dolls chase each other around the orange Country Camper unsure what they'll do ... Read More...
Getaway Reads: Excerpt from Devil on My Heels by Joyce McDonald
Murphy Writing of Stockton University Presents This entry is part of Getaway Reads, an e-mail series curated by Marissa Luca that features the writing of the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway faculty. 1 from Devil on My Heels by Joyce McDonald Lately I have taken to reading poems to dead boys in the Benevolence Baptist Cemetery. They don't walk away before I have finished the first sentence, like most of the live boys I know. When I read to them, their eyes don't wander to something, or someone, more interesting. I can pretend these ... Read More...
Getaway Reads: The Night My Sister Went Missing by Carol Plum-Ucci
Murphy Writing of Stockton University Presents This entry is part of Getaway Reads, an e-mail series curated by Marissa Luca that features the writing of the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway faculty. from The Night My Sister Went Missing by Carol Plum-Ucci The night my sister went missing, I sat in a back corridor of the police station, staring at a tinted glass window to an inner room. The lights were off in there, and so the window looked like a black screen. I remember how my insides felt as blank as that window. It’s a good thing, that ... Read More...
Getaway Reads: Excerpt from Chapter 1, Pasture of Heaven by Judith Lindbergh
Murphy Writing of Stockton University Presents This entry is part of Getaway Reads, an e-mail series curated by Kendal Nicole Lambert that features the writing of the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway faculty. Excerpt from Chapter 1, Pasture of Heaven by Judith Lindbergh The Kara Kam told my mother I would be important. I was five winters old and had just begun to learn the skill of sewing felt. I sat beside our fire working at two small patches with a thin wool thread when my mother stepped inside our winter hut, kneeling low to warm her ... Read More...
Getaway Reads: Extract from Chapter 4, Spring of Hope by Michelle Cameron
Murphy Writing of Stockton University Presents This entry is part of Getaway Reads, an e-mail series curated by Kendal Lambert that features the writing of the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway faculty. Extract from Chapter 4, Spring of Hope by Michelle Cameron April 28, 1796. Piedmont The company was marched into the cobbler’s shop and the cobbler ordered, at musket point, to fashion them all new footwear. Every soldier in Daniel’s company knew General Bonaparte’s motto, “the war must feed the war.” The general moved his men too quickly ... Read More...