Literary Magazine

Puhhk! Puhkk! As college students in the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music briskly walked through the expansive halls, their dress shoes clapped against the porcelain tiles, producing an echoing thunder. Despite bearing towering instrument cases on their meager bodies, they glided through the building with a grace comparable to nature’s songbirds. Watching them as a tiny six-year-old, I could not help but hang my mouth ajar and tilt my head with burning curiosity. Outside the

Budhh– Budhh–Budh! Blood surged into my head from all over my body, leaving a tingling sensation in my arms and legs. I blinked away the moisture that had built up on my eyelashes. In the darkness of the night, cars sped through the streets, weaving through the sea of Metro buses and stopped taxi cabs. People who crowded on the littered concrete walked briskly, navigating the corners and edges of the city. My brother and I stood in the middle of it all like red oak trees in a

“THERE IS ENCHANTMENT in a uniform.” In these words, convicted felon and fraudster Frank. W. Abagnale. Jr. presents the idea that a facade gives a person influence. He discovers such an idea as a nineteen-year-old in the latter half of the twentieth century while impersonating an airline pilot. Living four centuries before Abagnale, Shakespeare expresses a strikingly similar idea in The Tragedy of Macbeth . In his tragedy, Macbeth, a Scottish noble, murders King Duncan of Sco

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” In these words, Oscar Wilde, the esteemed Irish author and poet, expresses that many people in society live in conformity. He expresses an idea that forms a significant component in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake . In Lahiri’s novel, Gogol navigates adolescence and adulthood as a second-generation Bengali immigrant in America along with his family. Lahi

Growing up feels like being wrenched from a dream. One might hold onto the vanishing visions, but reality urges to push you ahead. Childhood, seemingly blissful and filled with wonder, unravels so that rules engulf imagination and certainty replaces curiosity. No one can avoid this transformation, as it will inevitably happen. In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland  and Through the Looking Glass , Lewis Carroll captures this shift, crafting a land where nonsense rules and author

Under the shining moonlight in a dark green forest, the sparking embers of a warm fire pierce through the darkness, casting flickering shadows on the faces of those gathered around. The air hums with the low murmur of conversation, the soft clinking of bottles, and the crackling of fire while the scent of roasting meat fills the night. Horses snort softly in the background, their silhouettes blending with the thick forest as if drawn to the moment’s warmth. In the center of t

When the clock reads midnight, pixie dust's glowing colors flutter into the deep, inky sky. Their traces are abruptly gone until the light spreads its wings again, reaching across the stars and staining them with a boom of dyes that are soon left to fall to their demise. Noises of all kinds, the sounds of lips meeting others, kids screaming into the icy air, and adult chatter explode in my ears. I am disconnected from the chaos, liveliness, and energy that surrounds me. Inste

I sway harshly In the cold winter day, Snow showering down violently, Frosted grass silent and frozen Waiting for spring, I hang tight Stretching into nowhere, Longing for light Standing lively and tall, My colors brightening  Against blazing heat like a wall, I’m awaken by the summer air Into the night, Surviving the day, Remaining still Leaves swirling, I lay

Danville, Illinois, is not just another small town in Illinois; it's a place where memories are made, from taking your first steps to...

Rain pounded the glass windows of the speeding train. The soaking landscape outside blurred by as we moved along the tracks. Green fields...

The sky was blue as far as my eye could see, and there was not a smidge of white to tarnish it. It was the kind of day that you would see...

Poems are a way that people can connect with each other. Poems can be used to prove a point or tell a story. However, many poems have...

It was a late night in Berlin in 1923; the factory hadn't been doing well because of the extreme hyperinflation. The factory hasn’t even...

I’ve been chasing you for so long. My heavy footsteps cast destruction to the earth. The air holds in a breath as my lethal cancer...

There are places on Earth where time seems to stretch, bending like the curves of the hills that roll away into the horizon. Italy is one...

Some crave me Others strive to fill me Big or small infinities pass by Filled with uncertainties They hold their face in their hands, the...

You must be identical ‘Picture perfect’ Like cookies cut out from the same cookie cutter Stamped to all be the same  Perfection is key...

The American dream has been seen to have love, success, and happiness inside of it. Nevertheless, Janie Crawford and Jay Gatsby chase...

For centuries, women were spoken for, spoken over, and spoken about but were rarely allowed to speak. That silence is shattered by Toni...

Many people wonder what would happen if they met the world's smartest man What would they say? What would be asked? I have met him and I...